Why so serious: PhD on Horribleness.

Well, for starters this post is outdated. It was supposed to be published sometime last, instead I’m concluding it right now. The week before the last was quite a remarkable week, at least entertainment wise.

“Only have to sign your name, don’t even have to read it”

It’s hard for me to use “real world” references to set my views of the world, I read about them, I am concerned about them, but can’t really care for them. At the same time that I am glad that the US might actually be able to choose an intelligent leader to head their office this time around, I’m also weirdly giddy about how they’re freaking out about oil prices. Maybe it will finally actually contribute to some lacked level of environmental conscience. Our city office election race has finally really started, wished I cared more about it, since we’re forced to vote no matter what. But for such large city like Sao Paulo, it seems that it doesn’t matter who heads the office, for every real change, there’s like other dozen things that stays unaffected and are still as bad as before.

It must look like a blind man view, for using what’s mostly considered unnecessary world view to set my world references. Let’s not waste more time into this field.

It was a remarkable week, because we had the debut of the Whedon’s family creation “Dr. Horrible Sing-Along Blog” and it was the release of “The Dark Knight”, sequel for the renewed Batman movie franchise.

Was “The Dark Knight” really the most awaited movie of the year, as some reviews pointed? Really, I question that, in a year that we had a new Indiana Jones movie debuting after 20 years, it’s hard to see any movie more expected than Spielberg and Lucas new investment into that franchise.

“I’m just trying to change the world”

Believe me or not, I went in to watch “The Dark Knight”, with very low expectations. “Batman Begins” was a great movie, but where it gained on style, structure and storytelling, compared from other recent attempts from Burton or Schumacher , I felt it lacked heart. It was so dry in this aspect, that a little bit of heart, even from Schumachers campiness would’ve helped. Just compare it with another great entry from this year, which was “Iron Man”, created from a big fan for other fans, and I’m not even a fan of the character, at it was filled with a lot of heart.

I’m a huge fan of Memento, which might be considered Chris Nolan first major project, it’s even listed in my all time top 10 favorite movies, but his following projects left me all somewhat underwhelmed. I remember being kind of excited, when it was first announced that he would be taking over the Batman franchise, but after watching I wasn’t so excited by the ending result, of “Batman Begins”. I felt that it was a structurally perfect Batman movie, but it lacked in heart, that it sort of felt empty, I’ve watched it once, and that was it.

“Because the status is not quo”

Then I really went into The Dark Knight, with only average expectations, I was expecting to see a good movie, but never expected to be amazed by it.  The trailers were okay, but not so much to build excitement for myself. And Amazed by it I was, so much that I even went to see it multiple times already.

I was overjoyed by the how good this movie was, It had all the heart lacking from the previous installment, but never over pouring like what happened to “Superman Returns”. It had a great script, great acting, great direction, that maybe another genre movie might be able to break into the major awards.  Into the subject awards, the most talked possibility might be a posthumous award for Heath Ledger, who simply steals every scene he’s in as the Joker, and we’re in a movie filled with great acting everywhere.  He showed why The Joker is the perfect antagonist for Batman. I don’t know if he’ll be receive any awards, but I really believe that he deserved to get recognized, at least through nominations, for his oustanding work in this movie. Jack Nicholson, is an amazing actor, but I was never a big fan of his take on the Joker, I’d rather go with Mark Hammil’s take on the character, in some of the animated productions.

The movie at the end was as much about Batman’s role as the “hero” of Gotham City, and also about The Joker and how he’s a force to be reckoned with.

It was especially interesting to watch the movie, in light of Dr. Horrible Sing-Along Blog. Seriously, try watching the movie, after having watched at least the first two acts of the Dr. Horrible, but especially if you’ve seen the whole musical. I was even joking with my friends, during one of the viewings, about how important a laugh is to the villain from the moment that Joker clams his first “evil” laugh.

Even more than NBC’s cheap investments towards online content through those webisodes they’ve been producing.  Dr. Horrible’s success, even in a lower scale does really show us the possibilities of this media, if tradionalists, are willing to really invest in it, using the same high production values as the most common quality productions. In short 42 minutes, we were able to care so much about the characters and their journey, the tragic ending, was even so dark to the point of disgusting some people. Not only that but producing exclusive content for new media is completely a possibility.

Just like Maggie Gyllenhaal replaced Katie Holmed for the role of Rachel Dawes from the first Nolan Batman movie, to the second, I remembered reading an interview with Gary Oldman, about whether they’d be able to return to the character of Joker in later movies, since Ledger passed away, he thinks it would be very possible to replace the character with another actor playing the role.  And I agree. And just for tying up the ties I wanted to point through thsi post, I’d like to consider who could be in my opinion a good actor to take over the role.

I think the signs are pointing to an interesting direction, and Neil Patrick Harris, has been showing us in several places, how talented he is, and I believe he would be an amazing actor to take over the role of The Joker, if the need arises for another appearance of the character in another Batman movie.