The Story Behind Heath Ledger ‘s Joker and The Actor’s Death
The Real Story Of Heath Ledger’s Death Will Give You
Heath Ledger died due to depression after playing Joker in
Heath Ledger's death: The real story? ~ Patrick Wanis
Heath Ledger - Joker, Movies & Death - Biography
Did the Joker Kill Heath Ledger? | Submitted For Your Perusal
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heath ledger joker death story
heath ledger joker death story - win
I thought this was worthy of a Joker Update. Lakers GM told a story of how he got Kobe Bryant wanted to meet Heath Ledger after watching Dark Knight, and he arranged their meeting, months after Heath's death btw
Well last week's celebrity gossip got dark, so to lighten things up a little bit I thought we could do another round of vintage gossip? Previous Vintage Gossip: 1990s
Just a reminder that if you want to discuss the royals go to royalsgossip
SomeMusic Gossip Britney Spears
Eight days into 2001 we have the INFAMOUS denim. (link)
In January 2001, Spears preformed with Aerosmith and NSYNC at the SuperBowl.
In September 2001, the iconic snake dancing during "I'm a Slave 4 U" at the MTV Music Video Awards occurred (which was wrangled by Bhagavan Antle from Tiger King fame).
In 2002, Spears starred in Crossroads with Zoe Saldana, Kim Cattrall, and Dan Aykroyd, which was written by Shonda Rhimes. She also attempted to open a restaurant called Nyla in NYC but exited the project after 3 months.
Spears and Justin Timberlake broke up and in December 2002 he release "Cry Me a River." As a response, Spears release "Everytime"
In 2003, Spears and Christina Aguilera preformed "Like a Virgin" at the MTV Video Music Awards and then both kissed madonna.
In January 2004, Spears married childhood friend Jason Allen Alexander at A Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada. The marriage was annulled 55 hours later, following a petition to the court that stated that Spears "lacked understanding of her actions".
In July 2004, Spears became engaged to American dancer Kevin Federline, whom she had met three months before. The romance received intense attention from the media, since Federline had recently broken up with actress Shar Jackson, who was still pregnant with their second child at the time.
In February 2006, pictures surfaced of Spears driving with her son, Sean, on her lap instead of in a car seat.
She announced she no longer studied Kabbalah (which she was introduced too by Maddona) in May 2006, explaining, "my baby is my religion".
Spears shaved her head with electric clippers at a hair salon in Tarzana, Los Angeles.
In January 2008, Spears refused to relinquish custody of her sons to Federline's representatives. She was hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after police that had arrived at her house noted she appeared to be under the influence of an unidentified substance. The next day, Spears's visitation rights were suspended at an emergency court hearing, and Federline was given sole physical and legal custody of their children. She was committed to the psychiatric ward of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and put on 5150 involuntary psychiatric hold under California state law. The court placed her under a conservatorship led by her father, Jamie Spears, and attorney Andrew Wallet, giving them complete control of her assets.
In January 2009, Spears and her father obtained a restraining order against her former manager Sam Lutfi, ex-boyfriend Adnan Ghalib, and attorney Jon Eardley–all of whom had been claimed to conspire to gain control of Spears's affairs.
Justin Timberlake
During halftime of the 2004 Super Bowl, just as Timberlake belted out the lyrics ''I'm gonna have you naked by the end of this song,'' he pulled off part of Jackson's bustier, revealing her breast and a nipple shield that the entire nation saw for about a second.
I'm team Justice for Janet as I think she got wayyyy more hate than Justin did for this.
Men who need to be cancelled - You know, I thought the 2000s would be fun but it's got dark stuff too, so I've spoiler tagged this so you can skip it. If you're discussing this below, can you spoiler tag too? Michael Jackson - Died on June 25, 2009. There is a documentary on his sexual abuses and honestly it's horrifying and I'd rather not snark on it but it needs to be mentioned. R. Kelly - The 35 year old man was indicted then acquitted on child porn charges. There is a documentary on his sexual abuses and honestly it's horrifying and I'd rather not snark on it but it needs to be mentioned. Phil Spector - convicted of murdering Lana Clarkson and did a lot of other bad stuff including emotional, sexual, and physical abuse of musicians, children, and partners. Chris Brown - When the pop couple were a no-show at dress rehearsal for the Grammy Awards on February 8, reports quickly surfaced about an altercation between Chris Brown and Rhianna. Brown was charged with assault and making criminal threats, and at a hearing in LA on June 22, the singer pled guilty to felony assault. I hate that he's still popular and have mixed feelings about the two still making music together. Aaliyah Haughton
Died in an airplane crash in The Bahamas
TLC
Lisa Lopes (Left Eye) died on April 25, 2002 was killed in a car crash in La Ceiba, Honduras
Run DMC
Jason William Mizell (Jam Master Jay) was shot and killed in a Merrick Boulevard recording studio in Jamaica, Queens
Other Celebrity Musician deaths
James Brown, Johnny Chash, Ray Charles, George Harrison, and Les Paul
Madonna
If anyone would like a deep dive into Madonna's movie career, I suggest either this Youtube playist reviewing her movies (link) or this 23 minute video reviewing American Life (link).
She married Guy Ritichie at a Scottish castle in 2000 and started using a British accent
Kelly Clarkson
According to Wikipedia, Kelly made chunky highlights fashionable after her appearence on American Idol.
Glee & American Idol & Britain's Got Talent
A lot of music was driven in popularity by Glee and American Idol.
Remember the mania around some of the contestants? Like Susuan Boyl from 2009 Britain's Got Talent or Adam Lambert's very sexual performance during the American Music Awards? Lambert had appearances cancelled after that.
Taylor Swift
At the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, Kanye West infamously interrupted winner Taylor Swift's speech to praise Beyoncé.
SomeMovie & TV Gossip
The first Harry Potter book was released in 1999, but Potter-fever didn't hit until the 2000s. The last book was released in Jul 2007.
Big films of the decade include March of the Penguins, Super Size Me, Lord of the Rings, Passion of the Christ, X-Men, Batman, Spider-Man, Shrek, Watchmen, Da Vinci Code, The Matric, Star Wars II and II, and Avatar.
Heath Ledger died and posthumously won an Oscar for his performance as the Joker.
Doctor Who was reviewed with a new Doctor after being off the air since 1989.
Emmy winners for best drama in this decade were: The West Wing, The Sopranos, Lost, 24, and Mad Men
Hunter S. Thompson, writer of The Rum Diary sand Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, died in 2005 and Johnny Depp shot his ashes out of a cannon. This was accompanied by red, white, blue, and green fireworks—all to the tune of Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" and Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man". The cannon was placed atop a 153-foot (47 m) tower which had the shape of a double-thumbed fist clutching a peyote button. The funeral cost Depp over $3 million dollars.
Twilight mania became a thing in 2005 lasting through 2008.
Lots of drama on Gey's Anatomy, including Isaiah Washington being fired for being anti-gay (which honestly, good for ABC and Shonda Rhimes).
Christian Bale
In February 2009, a profanity-laced audio recording of Terminator star Christian Bale berating Shane Hurlbut, director of photography for the film, hit the web.
Winona Ryder
On Dec. 12, 2001, Ryder was arrested after shoplifting $5,560 worth of goods from the Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills. (Cameras caught the Heathers actress stuffing socks and accessories into a hat.) She was ultimately convicted on counts of felony grand theft and vandalism, sentenced to 480 hours of community service, and required to pay a fine and restitution.
BRADGELINA
In early 2005, after nearly five years of marriage, Aniston filed for divorce from Pitt. Brad Pitt met Jolie on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith and even though they denied it then, it's been confirmed he did cheat with Jolie then.
There's a lot to unpack here, like how the media treated each party differently and how awful Pitt and Jolie behaved (see the fake family magazine photos right after the divorce announcement). Also, we can view this different with a decade since (and Jolie and Pitt's subsequent divorce).
I'm counting this as TV gossip because right before the premiere of her reality show The Simple Life, Paris Hilton and Rick Salomon's sex tape was release in 2003.
Sandra Bullock
Miss Congeniality was released in 2000 and then in 2004 she was in 2004, which won the Oscar for Best Picture.
Bullock married motorcycle builder and Monster Garage host Jesse James on July 16, 2005. The divorced in 2010 after reports of his cheating came out.
Martha Stewart
Sent to prison over insider trading
Mel Gibson - He's since had a comeback! My parents loved Hawksaw Ridge. But in 2006, he was pulled over for drunk driving and said anti-Semitic and sexist remarks. Just a reminder to use spoiler tags for the not fun stuff to keep this a light hearted. Roman Polanski - was arrested for rape in Switzerland in 2009. Polanski was defended by many prominent individuals, including Hollywood celebrities and European artists and politicians, who called for his release even though the general public thought he should be in jail. In 2010, the Swiss released him and his movements are limited to France, Switzerland, and Poland. SomeSports Gossip
In the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Michael Phelps 8 medals. He currently has 14 gold medals and broken 37 world records in swimming. In 2009 he was caught smoking marijuana from a bong which was quite the scandal.
Usain Bolt broke 3 running records at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Lance Armstrong won all the Tour de France between 1999 and 2005, also an all-time record, but was later stripped of all his titles when evidence emerged of his use of performance-enhancing drugs.
David Beckham joined MLS Galaxy team in LA with a MASSIVE salary of $6.5 million per year for 3 years. There was rumor him and Posh Spice would get a reality tv show and were best friends with Tom Cruise. However, they returned to London as he was loaned to Milan during those 3 years.
Steroids also spread the sports world throughout the decade, mainly used in Major League Baseball. Players involved included Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Alex Rodriguez.
Tiger Woods caught cheating. There's a new HBO documentary on his fall from fame.
SomeModel and Fashion Gossip
Kate Moss photographed snorting cocaine
Blake Lively is Anna Wintour's darling and says she doesn't use a professional stylist)
Gisele Bundchen is a Victoria's Secret Angel with her signature horse walk between 2000 to 2007
Roles should be recast if an actor dies or is fired.
I feel compelled to write this after the season finale of Mandalorian, so if you haven't seen it yet, please do not read this and come back to it once you have, or if you don't watch Mandalorian, maybe you've seen something else with this problem. Hollywood needs to recast actors for the sake of telling the story that needs to be told in movies and tv. Death is a natural part of life and it will take all of us some day, but you don't just stop telling the story in a large franchise like Star Wars because someone passed. My first example of this is Dumbledore in Harry Potter. The untimely death of Richard Harris caused them to recast Dumbledore and for better or worse we got what we got; in this instance, we got a wonderful recast with Michael Gambon. And now with the Amber Heard bullshit, WB fired Johnny Depp(which sucks) and is being replaced by Mads Mikkelsen. My second example is Heath Ledger. His final film, he passed away while still filming and the production decided to do something very different in casting 3 other actors to all play the same role to continue the story. Nolan should have recast Joker for Dark Knight Rises and him doing so ultimately made TDKR the weakest of the trilogy. Terrence Howard was fired from Iron Man 2 for being a greedy fuck face trying to get more money than the actual star of the franchise, so they decided to replace him with Don Cheadle who was 100 times better. I get that Chadwick Boseman did a great job as Black Panther, but it would be a huge mistake to not recast T'Challa and continue Black Panther. It's a great story that should be continued. And now I bring it back to Star Wars. The death of Carrie Fischer was a heavy one. The choice to not recast her really messed up the story telling process for Rise of Skywalker. They said that they had plenty of unseen footage that they used to fill in the gaps of the story for TROS, but if you watch any of the making of it, you can tell quite a bit of it didn't really fit. They should have recast Leia to tell the real story they were trying to convey with the finale of the trilogy. Now with The Mandalorian, they should have cast Sebastian Stan to play Luke Skywalker in the finale that just aired instead of deep faking Mark Hamill onto a body double. Sebastian looks just like young Mark and even thought the episode was awesome, the deep fake brought the episode down. We need to stop putting actors up on pedestals simply because we love their rendition of a character and let Hollywood tell the stories that they're trying to tell.
Domestic violence surged by 23% during initial coronavirus lockdowns, driven by an increase in sexual and psychological abuse associated with economic stress, according to a new study from Spain Comments || Link
New research suggests that the use of terms like “Wuhan flu” and “Chinese virus” by conservative media outlets and Republican figures had a measurable impact on unconscious bias against Asian Americans. The study found that implicit bias increased after the use of such phrases went viral. Comments || Link
New Maps Show Forests Absorb Twice as Much Carbon as They Release Each Year. The continued destruction of the world’s largest tropical forests - 11.9 million hectares of tropical tree cover was lost in 2019 alone - makes them less powerful carbon sinks. Comments || Link
A personalized cancer vaccine produced long-lasting anti-tumor response in patients with melanoma. 4 years after vaccination, all the patients were alive, with immune system cells active not only against tumor cells with those proteins, but also spread to other proteins in those tumor cells. Comments || Link
At 9:21 tonight, it will be the 21st minute of the 21st hour of the 21st day of the 21st year of the 21st century. What will you be doing? Comments || Link
TIL that US president Calvin "Silent Cal" Coolidge used to buzz for his secret service and then would hide under his desk while they frantically searched for him Comments || Link
TIL that despite increases in computer power, each Shrek film has taken about twice as many hours to render as the one before it. Dreamworks calls this "Shrek's Law". Comments || Link?0#Production)
TIL at the peak of the financial crisis of 2008 Volkswagen became the most valuable company in the world for one day despite being on the brink of bankruptcy Comments || Link
Trump is the only president not to register a 50% job approval rating at any point in his presidency since Gallup began measuring presidential job approval in 1938 (Avg Record-Low 41%) Comments || Link
The Lack of Imagination & Iconic Moments of The Sequel Trilogy.
Think about all the iconic Star Wars set pieces throughout saga. Are the images flashing throughout your head? The Podrace! The Darth Maul duel! The Coruscant speeder chase, the geonosis arena battle, Yoda vs Doku! Obi Wan Vs Anakin, Yoda Vs Darth Sidious, The opening of Revenge of the Sith! And that’s just the prequel trilogy. The original trilogy had the Trench Run, Battle of Hoth, Luke Vs Vader on Cloud City, the Asteroid Chase, Jaba’s sail barge, the Speeder Bike Chase, Luke Vs Vader 2.0. Those are some iconic moments. I know the prequels are controversial but they at least had some memorable set pieces. But did you notice something? All of those memorable action set pieces are from the first 6 films. I have some issues with the Sequel Trilogy & lack of imagination is pretty high up there. This is where George Lucas was missed the most. The man has a terrific imagination. I remember the moment I realized that “Star Wars” as I knew it might not be in the right hands. The Rathtar sequence. Here’s a creature that’s been teased as being some extremely formidable man eating beast. And what do we get? A lame squid like creature that we’ve seen in hundreds of other movies. It felt like a creature more from Men in Black than Star Wars. It was all wrong. Then I kept waiting for a great imaginative action set piece that Star Wars is known for. I waited. & waited. & waited. Sure the first action beat with the millennium falcon is fun. But that’s it? That’s the best you’ve got? The Last Jedi is a bit better with what happens on Crait but it’s still not really imaginative or particularly memorable. Even the locations. Think of all the amazing planets & landscapes. The underwater City on Naboo, Kamino, Coruscant, Hoth, Bespin, Endor, Mustafar! The Senate Chamber, Dagobah, The Deathstar! The Opera! Again. All from the first 6 films. I’m sure some of you might mention Max’s palace or Crait but those are just the Canteen & Hoth with some new paint. I’m not a ST hater. There’s some of it I quite enjoy. I also think that those 3 movies represent the greatest missed opportunity in cinematic history. If anything the sequel trilogy has shown fans how vital George Lucas was. Sure he can’t write dialogue but there’s no better idea man in the Galaxy. I’ve always loved the 6 film saga & it’s great to see the prequels getting more appreciation as time goes by. Are they perfect? Of course not. But the story told across those 6 films...it’s magic. It really is. The prequels gave us midichlorians, Jar Jar, amazing lightsaber duels, Watto, Dex, Commander Cody, Order 66, pod racing & more. The makers of the ST were terrified of using their Imaginations. What if they created the next Jar Jar? Or midichlorians?(I love the idea of midichlorians btw, never understood the hate). They were terrified of the prequels. Coruscant isn’t mentioned, neither is Kamino or much else. Apparently we see Mustafar but I don’t think anybody realized it. So that’s what I think the biggest downfall of the Sequel Trilogy is. Lack of Imagination. Such a shame. EDIT: Ok. Some of you have taken issue with my use of the word “iconic” and..fair enough. Perhaps I should’ve used “zeitgeist”. Some of you are saying it’s unfair to call things in the first 6 films iconic vs the ST because the ST is only 5 years old. But that’s a load of, as the English say, “bollocks”. As I’ve stated elsewhere in this thread, certain things are instantly iconic. Think Baby Yoda or even “This is the Way”. Think Heath Ledger’s Joker, or bullet time from The Matrix. These are things that penetrate the cultural zeitgeist. The idea of this thread was that the ST lacks the iconic, imaginative set pieces of the previous 6 films. Not that no one will remember anything from the Sequel Trilogy. NOW.. some of you have given examples of Iconic things that happen in the ST such as “Chewie We’re Home” or Hans Death or Kylo Ren’s first entrance but...None of those are action set pieces. That’s what this was about. Memorable, imaginative and iconic set pieces. Pod racing, trench run, duel of the fates, speeder bike chase, yada yada yada. This is my final point. Consider this. Like the originals and the prequels before it, Both Clones Wars & to a lesser extent Rebels managed to expand the mythology in new and interesting ways. What did the ST trilogy do for the mythology? What did we learn about The Force? Rebels had “The World Between Worlds”. Clone Wars had Mortis. Sequel trilogy had... End of Edit
To clarify, in no way shape or form am I saying the Dark Knight isn't a good movie, because it is. It's got great action scenes, an amazing performance from Heath Ledger (like I even need to say), and a mostly solid story. I just don't think it matches up to Batman Begins, for one huge reason: it's not really about Batman. The biggest failing came from their decision to take Harvey Dent/Two-Face's character arc (originally intended to be told across two movies) and condense it to one. So between that and the Joker, there simply isn't enough time left for Batman himself to have a proper character arc or significant journey in the film. Instead, he winds up with a similar role as Gordon; he's there and does contribute to the story in major ways, but it's not really about him. The Joker is the unlikely source of chaos that no one takes seriously until it's too late, spreading destruction and out playing everyone in Gotham until he finally goes up against his true match. Two-Face is the white knight and hope of the future, corrupted and twisted by his own demons and a need for revenge. Batman has no such story. He's looking for someone to replace him as Gotham's savior, but doesn't find it and just continues on. He worries he can't be the Joker without stooping to his level, but he does albeit with a morally questionable act of rigging everyone's phones to feed information. He wants to be with Rachel, but then she dies and he's sad until he has to go thwart Joker's next scheme. He has a series of goals he wants to reach, which he does or doesn't achieve throughout the story, but there's no chance to explore his psychology or see him develop as a character because Joker and Two-Face took all that for themselves. The perfect example is the death of Rachel; while this completely dominates Harvey's story for the entire third act, for Bruce he's sad for a minute and then never even acknowledges it again. If they had made Dent's fall from grace a two-film arc as they had originally intended, that would have allowed him to take more a backseat and instead allow Batman to be the focal character, and the story to be about his physical and psychological battle with the Joker. They have elements of a character arc with him, but no time to make it fully realized. Even the title, The Dark Knight, despite supposedly referring to Batman, can just as easily be applied to Dent, foreshadowing his fall from White Knight to villainous madman. I can understand this isn't necessarily a problem for everyone, but for me, I prefer Batman stories that are actually about Batman. That's the biggest reason I love Batman Begins; the journey we see him go on from childhood all the way to becoming Gotham's dark protector. It explores the psychology and motivation of Batman in a way few other movies, live action or animated, have.
This series has been renowned for its prestigious cast and antagonists, delicately written and amplified by some of the most dexterous actors in the business. What no better way to honor that than to do a ranking of them with some details thrown in; plus mentions of notable side villains. Starting with the main players (My ranking starts out with what's supposed to be 6, then goes down to 1).
Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy): Much like The Joker, this fear doctor’s motives are kept in the dark. He’s not particularly deep like the five other major antagonists, but everything else about him is done to a sharp tune. Jonathan’s twisted love of science and using the fear gas to experiment with his victims, particularly Carmine Falcone, somewhat makes him like a twisted version of Sid from Toy Story. Cillian’s performance is subtly intimidating, snide and charming. Moments including him being gassed and interrogated by Batman, and him riding a horse in a cloud of fear gas are key in the first film. He’s the only villain in any Batman picture thus far to appear in three films- including his standout appearance as the hanging judge in The Dark Knight Rises; which plays an integral role in what makes that films’ social revolution aspect so compelling, and he makes himself memorable in those scenes despite a combined near two minutes of screentime.
Miranda Tate/Talia al Ghul (Marion Cotillard): Talia is the most divisive character in the series, but I stand by though that Marion Cotillard does a fantastic job with her (despite her four-second passing out death, which otherwise doesn’t hinder the films’ quality that much, big deal). Miranda starts out pure and charismatic, as she (apparently) wanted to bring Bruce out of his three-year seclusion (not eight as some have wrongfully assumed). Her misleading motives are sprinkled included picking up the weight of Bruce’s seclusion through a charity ball, and wanting to use the fusion reactor even after being rejected by Bruce. Hints to her true lineage come in waves, including a tender scene with her and Bruce as his life started to crumble again- her telling him about how her poor family felt rich through being by the fire. She contributes to The League of Shadows in ensuring that Gotham City would become a landscape for ruin for as long as it could for the bomb to annihilate them- including plugging herself into resistance movements so that Bane’s men could kill the special forces agents in horrific fashion, then the capture of Gordon and his partners. Her backstory with Bane and her father leaves an emotional impact, adding to the former’s humanity; also drawing influence from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities- Bane is Monsieur Defarge to Talia's Madame Defarge. She has some terrific moments like her “The slow knife that cuts deepest” speech to Batman, and her cold look that she gives as she tells her henchman to “Shoot them all” as they kill Deputy Foely. Her inclusion doesn’t make Bane a lesser character but adds to their motives, an ally and his human side (he’s not a henchman, they’re collaborators).
Harvey Dent/Two-Face (Aaron Eckhart): In the Company of Men, Erin Brockovich and Thank You for Smoking are pronounced roles in Mr. Eckhart’s filmography; and precursors to his one that’s most well-known to the public. He brings an effortless bravado to Harvey Dent, as seen in his courtroom introduction with Maroni and a defendant who fake-shoots him; moments like this imbue him with a sense of character for people to latch onto in TDK aside from the classic clown prince of crime. He also has an emotionally authentic side, making him not merely a wolf in sheep’s clothing; as shown with Rachel Dawes and his commitment to making Gotham a better place. His transformation into Two-Face is heartbreaking, and built up with his frustration towards the justice system and near-murder of the schizophrenic Schiff Thomas. Some believed that his arc was being radiated to make him to become the next big bad in the third installment, but that idea was overturned early on in the making of TDK. It made perfect sense as to not force sequel-bait, plus he wouldn’t have survived long with the scars and his tragedy is the hanging balance of the story. Harvey leaves more than a strong impression, and importance that shall not be forgotten; especially when the dystopian future of TDKR becomes a sad mirror of everything that “this fallen idol” strived for.
Henri Ducard/Ra’s al Ghul (Liam Neeson): Much like Metal Gear Solids’ Big Boss; he in some ways serves as a foundation for the trilogy, as well as the shoulder devil for Bruce in the first half of Batman Begins. Liam has become notorious for his archetype/roller-coaster action pictures; but in 2005, he sizzled the screen with his small role in Kingdom of Heaven and this. Ra’s is about as radical as you could imagine for the leader of an ancient terrorist organization, but the way his dialogue is written and Liam’s performance makes you understand where he’s coming from. From a comics to film standpoint, the change of Ra’s al Ghul’s ethnicity makes enough sense here- If Ducard was Arabic, it would’ve been obvious that the Decoy Ra’s wasn’t real; and to not depict an Arabian man attacking a city a few years after 9/11. Ra’s, Bane and Talia are all Moroccan/Middle-Eastern; which still makes them foreigners/somewhat like the comics, plus Nolan valuing talent above all so this all makes sense.
The Joker (Heath Ledger): Not hard to guess, as Heath’s immortalized performance magnetized me from day one of seeing it. All of his tics, influences and horrifying motives and actions, Heath’s transformation have been discussed ad nauseum. All for good reason, “the Coca-Cola of fear” as described by critic Robbie Collin.
I have reservations about him outside of the film, more so some of the egregious fan perspectives that came up over time (of which I’m an often reluctant member of). Some act as if he’s the only reason that made TDK successful, or that he should’ve returned in TDKR- all are hokum. Joker is an integral part of a well-oiled machine, what made TDK explode in the mainstream; as well as Bruce’s story arc. He appears out of thin air in Gotham, is stopped by Batman and last seen laughing before abruptly cutting to the climax with Harvey Dent. His absence in TDKR only strengthens the film; as it doesn’t rely on him to build the story- respecting Heath Ledger’s recent passing while giving him a Voldemort effect in how the people of Gotham refuse to acknowledge him- that’s great writing. All three films successfully revolve around Batman and Gotham, the fact that we got an award-winning and resonant character for many like this Joker is just one part of the whole puzzle.
Bane (Tom Hardy): He very well competes with The Joker for my favorite antagonist in the trilogy, and it’s easy to see why certain people prefer him to the latter. Not taking comic book lore into account, he was the perfect choice for the final chapter rather than just settling for The Riddler or The Joker (again). Hardy made Bane his own in addition to the writing. He’s in a constant state of pain, with an animalistic glide of fighting and movement. A lot of horror about his past lies behind his impeccable facial expressions; especially in The Pit where Bane ensures that Bruce made it in there alive, and to know what lied in store for him- his body language in that scene is great. His introduction on the plane, battle with Batman and speech at Blackgate Prison are all incendiary. Hiding behind the guise of a helper of the people; he is surreal but also real, in how many in our own world can believe a madman under the right circumstances. The Nolan brothers could’ve simply written him as a tough guy (like his dreadful depiction in Batman and Robin) or an occasional roadblock for the dark knight; but they went beyond expectations and crafted an emotional and believable malefactor.
Honorable side-villains:
Salvatore Maroni (Eric Roberts): Eric Roberts is macho, charismatic and sardonic as this mobster; who despite being a smaller role plays an important factor in the events of TDK. In The Fire Rises documentary; Scott Foundas of Variety Magazine cited Eric Roberts as an example of Nolan's Tarantino type-ability to bring seasoned actors from past decades into smaller-scale, notable appearances in these three films- same can be said for his other movies.
Barsad (Josh Stewart): The voice actor for CASE in Nolan’s Interstellar also pays importance here as Barsad. He’s seen as Bane’s right-hand man/sniper throughout TDKR, played often quietly but chillingly by Josh. He’s integral to the opening as he pretends to be a Uzbekistan mercenary, handing over Bane and his cohorts to CIA agents, having already gained their trust; and for the rest of the film speaking in an American one (or English). Aside from the context of the film; he’s named after turncoat spy John Barsad from A Tale of Two Cities, and could very well be an homage to the infamous Deadshot (as Selina Kyle’s partner Jen is an homage to Holly Robinson).
John Daggett, TDKR (Ben Mendelsohn)
Carmine Falcone, BB (Tom Wilkinson)
The Chechen, TDK (Ritchie Coster)- Despite having some characteristics of a typical Russian gangster, also has a level of respectability and sophistication.
[Podcast] Catching Up On Cinema - The Batman Masterclass: The Christopher Nolan Era, Part Two
[Film Analysis] Catching Up On Cinema | The Batman Masterclass - The Christopher Nolan Era, Part Two NSFW (occasional swears, blue humor) Episode link at Anchor // Spotify // RadioPublic // Pocket Casts // Overcast // Apple Website Link In this installment of Catching Up On Cinema's Batman Masterclass, we review the final chapter in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises (2012). Featuring the same cast and crew as the first two films in the series, the final chapter would see Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway and Marion Cotillard join the main cast. Despite working from a script that goes to great lengths to reference events and story threads featured in earlier chapters of the trilogy, the untimely death of Heath Ledger prior to the release of The Dark Knight (2008) resulted in a concluding chapter that is both unwilling and unable to acknowledge the most dynamic and revolutionary elements of it's predecessor. A sprawling, messy, and overly ambitious film, both in terms of scope and execution, the The Dark Knight Rises is very likely the least of Nolan's trilogy, however Tom Hardy's Bane is no less an iconic performance than Ledger's Joker, and the first half of the film is well-paced and full of terrific action set pieces. A frustrating and muddled conclusion, but one that I find myself constantly re-watching, over and over again.
I'm still glad that TDKR didn't acknowledge Joker during The Dark Knight Rises, or recasted him.
As successful as The Dark Knight Trilogy is among fans, critics and audiences; there are its detractors. A lot of people missed Heath Ledger and still do to this day, and there's been speculation about what his role would've been if he hadn't passed away. On one hand it would've been cool to see Joker have a cameo or an interaction with Bane; but taking the film for what it is I'm glad that it stood on its own without him. The Joker wasn't acknowledged out of respect for Ledger after his death as Nolan has stated, and that brings me to two grievances I've had around contrary perspectives: 1- Some people brought up this idea that he should've been acknowledged in TDKR but approaching it from the filmmaker's perspective, it can be completely understandable why he didn't want to account for his absence given that he and Ledger worked closely together during the second film. The way that some of these comments I've read that questioned Nolan's choice in the past came off as cold and unrelenting ("Even to a guy like me that's cold!"). As much as it is our right to judge these films and have different perspectives, I think it's still important to understand why the filmmakers did what they did. I also love how some fans who griped about this apparently had no problem with that Ra's Al Ghul and The League of Shadows weren't directly mentioned in TDK, but not mentioning The Joker is somehow a sin. Understandably he's the most iconic villain in the trilogy and the butterfly effect of his actions on Gotham; but there's also the argument that it makes sense why he wouldn't be mentioned in TDKR, given the turmoil that he caused and how people are still trying to move on from what he did. It's also interesting given that Joker appears out of thin air in Gotham, is stopped by Batman and is last seen laughing before abruptly cutting to the climax with Harvey Dent. I've mentioned in comments on my last TDKR related post that his absence has a Voldemort like effect, feeling his presence without even needing to say his name; and I dare even say that's great writing! TDK also didn't focus on the villains from Batman Begins, which helped it to carve its own story and themes. Did Marlon Brando need to be in The Godfather Part II for it to be iconic? No. Did Roy Batty have to be seen or mentioned in Blade Runner 2049 to remain consistent with the first film? No, and the film stood on its own; same with TDKR. 2- Some of the most disgusting comments that I've ever read said that Nolan should've replaced Heath Ledger for The Joker and used him again (as if there weren't already a lot of Joker portrayals in Batman media already). Like what I brought up in my first point this comes from more of a difference of opinion with the filmmakers than a legitimate criticism. If you felt that Joker should've been reused in TDKR, fine; but with this notion I brought up there's also a lack of understanding what effect that this possibly would've had. With the post Dark Knight hype could you imagine the backlash that the filmmakers would've received if they'd actually replaced Ledger? A lot of people are passionate about not remaking Back to the Future or The Crow which had Brandon Lee's iconic performance, so it wouldn't be hard to think that people would be very upset if a new Joker was cast that soon. This is different from other situations of this type; like Jim Varney who voiced Slinky in the Toy Story franchise being replaced in Toy Story 3 since it's a smaller character, or recasting Dick Hallorann in Doctor Sleep since the first actor Scatman Crothers passed away in 1986. Besides what good would come of just making The Dark Knight 2.0? I roll my eyes when I see people say that Joker was intended to be in TDKR as fact because there's no exact confirmation of what Nolan intended, and he's known for focusing on films one at a time. The closest that at least I've found is that Two-Face was going to survive and become the villain of the third film, then they decided to wrap up his arc at the end of TDK. Of course it was said by Ledger's sister that he wanted to return in the role, though he passed away after it was done being filmed. Nolan intended to do a third film only if he felt it would be a satisfying ending for Bruce's story, and I firmly believe that this notion that he didn't want to do it because of Ledger's death rings false to me. As much as I love Ledger as an actor it seems like some people in film discussion forget that the trilogy revolves primarily around Batman and Gotham, and they act like the success and story of the films revolve around The Joker or that he somehow overshadows Batman (which he doesn't because the latter has more screen time). Joker became one part of a larger story, and I'm glad that Nolan stuck to that even if some disagree. Of course he also brought in new characters like Bane and the return of The League of Shadows (which aligns with the comic book story Batman: Legacy); which solidifies their legacy in the world that Nolan created and given how integral they are to Bruce's origin. This probably wouldn't have happened if Nolan just played it safe and used The Joker as the primary villain again, or The Riddler which probably would've made it too similar to the psychological battle of TDK.
[SPOILERS] So I just FINALLY Finished Cowboy Bebop...
DISCLAIMER: I legit just finished the show like 15 or so minutes ago so sorry if this ends of being kind of a ramble. Also SPOILERS AHEAD I don't watch Anime all that much but Cowboy Bebop was always one that's interested me. I couple of years ago I watched Ep1 on YouTube but didn't commit to watching the whole thing because i'm TERRIBLE and binging and finishing stuff (like seriously it took me around 2 years to finish Death Note). Then in November I finally committed and began watching from Ep1. And now I have FINALLY finished 4 months later, and all i've got to say is WOW. What a MASTERPIECE of a show. Every single thing about this show was great from start to finish. Shinichiro Watanabe is a fucking genius, Yoko Kanno is a master composer, and Steve Blum as Spike Spiegel might just be the Heath Ledger Joker of Voice Acting. One of the best things I found about this show is that is episodic. Each Session feels like it's own individual work (aside from Jupiter Jazz and Real Folk Blues since they're both 2 parts). While still maintaining an overall continuity. This allows for a lot of very fun episodes instead of having to be serious all the time. Stuff like Toys in the Attic being a completely random story about a blob that's going around biting the crew and making them pass out, or Ed playing a never ending game of Chess with Chessmaster Hex in Bohemian Rhapsody, Mushroom Samba that's about them being so hungry, that end up tripping on some shrooms that they thought were normal. Stuff like this all being sandwiched between the bounties and the facing of the past and the weight carrying is what makes this series incredibly FUN. Next is the animation. It all just looks so beautiful, even the more grey and beat down places even look great. The way things move just looks so smooth and all the other little details just bring it all together and add on the the vibe and atmosphere from the show. The soundtrack. Holy shit the soundtrack. It is just absolutely perfect. So many of the songs just fit so perfectly. Especially at the end of of Session #25 where the crew encounters the huge fleet of ships and Jet tells Spike to go off and find Julia. The music the background made feel as if I was free falling or something. The songs that play during the fight scenes just add on even more to Spike's badassery. I could go on but Yoko Kanno did an amazing job of putting this soundtrack together and that's all that matters. The thing that separates Cowboy Bebop from the rest is how perfectly relatable it is. It stays extremely relatable, while maintaining enough fictional elements so it doesn't just feel like a slice of life Anime. The characters don't just feel like characters, they feel like people. We all have a past that haunts us, or we regret things from it, or we try to get over it, or are even still trying to process it. The characters don't have any crazy powers or something Spike, Faye, Jet, Ed, Ein, all of them are just great, relatable, normal characters chasing bounties, facing they're past, dealing with boredom, love, and other antics in dystopic future where the Earth is fucked and we all now inhabit the solar system. My take on does Spike die: I could see it being possible due to the fact the he sustained some pretty heavy injuries during the final battle with Vicious. But I since it's pretty open for interpretation i'd like to think he didn't that he just passed out due to his injuries and woke up back in bed on the Bebop just like in Ballad of Fallen Angels. In Conclusion Cowboy Bebop is genuinely on of the greatest pieces of media ever created IMO. All the from Session #1 through Session #26 the show takes you on an epic journey. Spike is the only fictional character that I genuinely admire and am inspired by his level of badassery and not giving a fuck while still having a little bit of a spot on the inside is just excellent and the ultimate main character to have. In the end we're all gonna carry that weight. See You Space Cowboy...
I've posted it on another page here on Reddit, but I was also thinking of sharing it on another, so here it is. Of all of the DC Comics movies released this past decade; The Dark Knight Rises, Wonder Woman and recently Joker have been the most positively received among other controversial films like Man of Steel. While this remains a fact; due to the fact that TDKR became polarizing in the internet community, I've seen some ludicrous claims against the film that I'd like to debunk here. While there are instances where people were genuinely confused about and questioned certain plot points in the story, to which people have answered those before, including debunking alleged plot holes. However, there are a few statements that have been made about the overall film that have boggled my mind. I will be as reasonable as I can be though.
Christopher Nolan didn't care about making the movie after Heath Ledger's death and just rushed it, his heart wasn't in it, Warner Brothers just bribed him to make this movie so he could do Inception, etc. :
While we may not always know what goes on in studio executive rooms, to claim that Christopher Nolan didn't care about making a good movie after everything that was mentioned, comes off as questionable. There was always plans for a potential third movie after The Dark Knight. Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan figured out the story while he was making Inception, which is reasonable since WB gave him creative space (and not just tying him down to one franchise). Given the freedom that Nolan and his co-writers (Jonathan and David S. Goyer) received after Batman Begins, it's reasonable to think that he returned to complete the story for a reason (the beginning, middle and end template of the series's story). He even said back in 2010- 'We have a story worth telling." To me, simply phoning it in probably would've resulted in a film less than what we got. The story of TDKR was inspired by some of the most acclaimed Batman graphic novels, and notably the classic novel A Tale of Two Cities. If he really wanted to phone this film in, would he have given us the sheer scope of the action sequences in the film; including one as grand as the opening plane crash sequence? Given the grand scope of the film, the ambition to build upon the first two movies and to give a definitive conclusion to Bruce Wayne's story is surely not phoning it in. I believe that one of the most condescending arguments that can be used to decry a film’s quality is “They just didn’t care.” If you didn't like TDKR, that's fine; but it's clear with this and most movies in general, regardless of their quality they have an unquestionable amount of effort plugged into them. Many would agree that for Nolan to close his Batman story successfully and for the studio to agree to not make more sequels after TDKR stands out in an era of continuous sequels and franchises. To me it's bizarre when some people act like the story and quality of the whole trilogy revolves around The Joker and Heath Ledger, and that his death affected the quality of the last film. I loved Heath's portrayal of The Joker as much as anyone else, but the story of this trilogy was started out first and foremost as a story about Batman's journey. The Joker was one, but significant, part of a larger story. I stand by Nolan's decisions to do TDKR without replacing Heath Ledger and making "The Dark Knight 2.0". Many would agree that not mentioning The Joker out of respect for Heath Ledger helps in the movie’s favor as it made The Joker's impact on Gotham City felt throughout the story. TDKR has managed to be a favorite among many fans, even without Joker's presence. With that being mentioned, someone might say "TDKR is just a rehash of Batman Begins."- No it isn't. Yes the second half of the film brings back visual cues and elements from BB; but I'd say it works since it's the conclusion of the overall series. The film also has structural and tonal differences from the first two films to set it apart. 2. The only movie in the trilogy that people really like is The Dark Knight! This ignores the fact that all three movies have an immense fanbase, and it’s considered by many to make one of the best film trilogies ever made, and some of the best Superhero films ever made. It's true though that TDKR and BB are not discussed as much as The Dark Knight or other recent Superhero blockbusters, but that's a given. The second film set a new standard for the genre. On the flip side though; most of the online ratings for TDKR are higher than BB. Back in 2012, it was even named one of the best films of the year by the American Film Institute. In 2018 film critic Robbie Collin for The Telegraph made a list of his 100 greatest films, which included TDKR. TotalFilm magazine also ranked TDKR #48 in its' 100 best movies of the decade list. I've even seen people still defend and post positive comments about TDKR to this day, whether it's on YouTube or another article; in addition to all the fan art and tribute videos made for those movies. Quotes from the film have been shared a lot on Facebook and pages like The Best Movie Lines to numerous likes and positive comments. Edit- It was also the 14th highest rated film of 2012 by film critics, appearing on 147 lists and being named #1 by 11 critics. This makes it the sixth highest rated superhero film behind Joker, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Panther and The Dark Knight. https://criticstop10.com/ EDIT- Back in 2014 it was also listed at #72 on Empire Magazine's 301 greatest movies list. https://screenrant.com/dark-knight-rises-batman-movie-dc-fans-good-better-reason/amp/ EDIT- It was also voted the best film of the 2010's by social media network LAD Bible.com. https://www.ladbible.com/entertainment/tv-and-film-batman-the-dark-knight-rises-voted-best-film-of-the-decade-20191227.amp.html
What are your Top 10 favourite sequels that you loved more than the first film?
What are your Top 10 favourite sequels that you loved more than the first film When movies make a sequel, it can often be impossible to live up to the original, depending on how successful and great the original movie was. But there will be a few times where the sequel actually manages to outdo the first film! Here, I want to talk about my ten personal favourite movie sequels that were better than the first movie. I just want to say that these are all my opinion. I would absolutely love to see what sequels you loved more than the first film! Anyway, onto the list! My Top 10 Sequels That Were Better Than The First Film 10.) Godzilla 2: King of the Monsters https://preview.redd.it/lp7we1i8q0q31.jpg?width=1500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4da973af42ef4f4dd440e7f8c4cdcc768be2ee1f Starting off with my list is this new movie, Godzilla: King of the Monsters. The first movie was alright for the most part. Godzilla was pretty cool but one of my biggest nitpicks was that there was way too much humans on-screen that Godzilla. The sequel mostly improved on that, by giving us a little more Godzilla this time, while also doing what good sequels should do, expand on the first film. This movie had excellent monster fights and the Godzilla vs Ghidorah fight was perfect. While the humans still had a little more screen-time than needed, the monster moments make up completely for that. 9.) Batman Returns https://preview.redd.it/5ugsvur7q0q31.jpg?width=1100&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a8a2814867df2b3e092c04bb21d66fb8ca2040b9 I may find quite a few hardcore Batman fans disagree with me about this but I don’t care. Batman Returns is WAY better than the original film in my opinion. While the first movie is without a doubt an amazing game changer for comic book movies, giving us a dark and gritty superhero movie, I just feel that what Batman did, Batman Returns did way better. The Penguin was far more memorable than the Joker, and I absolutely loved the romance between Batman/Bruce Wayne and Catwoman/Selina Kyle. 8.) Captain America: The Winter Soldier https://preview.redd.it/faox7iz6q0q31.jpg?width=1500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cad5abaec4883f68ea5156c25d6d112f8c7ce5b5 Not only my favourite MCU sequel, but favourite MCU film as a whole. With how confusing the watch order the MCU can be sometime, since The Avengers was more of a Captain America sequel and then Winter Soldier was a third Captain America story, I still found The Winter Soldier to be way superior to the first Captain America film. From the conflicted emotions Steve had about having to fight this mysterious Winter Soldier after finding out it’s his best friend who he thought had died, to the intense feeling of paranoia with Hydra and the epic action sequences (Like that elevator scene), this movie really shows what a good sequel should be. Also, that reunion scene between Cap and Peggy still gets me, even though Cap changed history in Endgame. 7.) The Dark Knight https://preview.redd.it/lbfs4rc6q0q31.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8bd0f179605503afa56ce3c3ab109a78e8082cfb I may be in the minority in saying that Batman Begins was a really great film, despite what most people say. However, I know for sure that I’m in the majority in saying that The Dark Knight is still a damn excellent sequel. The story continues Bruce’s story as a realistic Batman in fighting criminals and villains. The relationship between Bruce and Alfred is explored more and the action scenes have definitely improved. But the highlight of this film is nearly everyone else’s – the villains! First person I want to talk about is Harvey Dent. I absolutely loved how complex this character was. But I especially loved how his twisted quote was used against him as he started out as one of Gotham’s greatest heroes and became a villain. You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. That quote is beyond deep and still remains as one of the most memorable movie quotes ever. But the best thing about the movie? You guessed it! Heath Ledger’s Joker is flawless! He perfectly portrays a psychopathic anarchist. Joker was a mastermind like he is in the comics and truly played a damn excellent villain who actually did technically win in the end. The “Why so serious?” scene still sends chills down my spine. Ledger more than deserved that Oscar. 6.) Spider-Man 2 https://preview.redd.it/8x8grbo5q0q31.jpg?width=2000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=da793485db46de99cdb87159cc86a5631959dc75 Not only one of the best sequels ever made, but one of the best superhero films of all time! Years after Spider-Man saved the city from the psychopathic Green Goblin, Peter has kept his vow to protect the city and fight crime. New York may be safer, but his personal life is in tatters. He’s struggling at college, verging on bankruptcy, and is forced to watch as Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) prepares to marry another man. And the situation goes from bad to worse when Peter’s new mentor, Otto Octavius, becomes Doctor Octopus. There’s little to say about Spider-Man 2 that hasn’t already been said. Even so, it’s remarkable that the film gets so much that's right about the character. Tobey Maguire is at his best in the role, and he capably encapsulates Peter’s heartache, his torment, and his humor. Opposite him is Alfred Molina as Octavius. Though he’s a far more maniacal figure in the comics, Molina delivers such a layered and sympathetic rendering of Doctor Octopus that he is frequently named as one of the best ever superhero movie villains. Certainly, in the shared tragedies of Peter and Otto, Spider-Man 2 serves as a brilliant study about the pitfalls of power, and the sacrifices that come with superheroism. It doesn’t hurt that it’s also spectacular to watch. The infamous train fight remains a whirlwind of action, and one of the finest display of Spider-Man’s powers onscreen. 5.) Terminator 2: Judgement Day https://preview.redd.it/fuynjxz4q0q31.jpg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=799f88b14be417b8bc56c75005b0eeb8b17a6b5e Oh man, I absolutely love this movie! The first Terminator film was good… but the sequel was just so much better. This time, instead of trying to kill Sarah Connor and her son, John Connor, Arnold’s Terminator comes back and is a hero this time, trying to protect the Connors. The emotional bond between the Terminator and John was really good, the conflicted trust issues Sarah has with the Terminator due to the trauma she went through in the first film, the frightening Judgement Day sequence with the nuke, the epic action scenes, the strained relationship between Sarah and John due to Sarah seeing her son as too much of a destiny than her child until the end, the iconic lines from Arnold and the emotional ending where the Terminator terminated himself… this movie really is amazing. 4.) Kung Fu Panda 2 https://preview.redd.it/pzviui44q0q31.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=48c89bd5df4df32e36d53522351b0ba1e285ba8a The Kung Fu Panda trilogy is already one of my favourite trilogies of all time, but the second film is one of the best sequels I have ever seen that was better than the first film. Not to say the first film was bad. If anything, these two are very close to each other in terms of being great movies, but the sequel just does it for me in every way. The first film didn’t need a sequel, but it got one anyway, and it was way better than the first film for sure. We had a great mix of that special comedic charm the first film had with a bit of dark and dramatic emotional moments too. Po’s journey as he continues his life as the Dragon Warrior was also great to watch. The Furious Five had more character development and we got a great expansion of the world of Kung Fu Panda. But my favourite thing about this film is the villain. Lord Shen is easily one of my favourite Dreamworks villains ever, if not my first! He is so complex and has that sympathetic side, but at the same time, is loathsome enough for you to root for the hero. Then in the end when he admits he can’t let go of his anger and hatred, accepts his death. Overall, it’s hard to ever make a list without mentioning this film, especially when talking about sequels. 3.) Shrek 2 https://preview.redd.it/ma7l8q73q0q31.jpg?width=1400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9d7467b55428902974a47e27fc0c6b89e0959559 It was really tough choosing between Kung Fu Panda and Shrek 2… But at the end of the day, Shrek 2 came ahead. It’s one of the other best examples of being a perfect sequel. While I definitely enjoyed the first Shrek film, Shrek 2 did what made the first Shrek film good and made it way better. We got introduced to new characters, without overdoing it, had an excellent villain, had a really great plot and expanded the world of Shrek! One thing I have to say whenever mentioning this film is the climax. My gosh, it takes my breath away everytime. With an amazing cover of Holding Out for the Hero, and the action scenes with Shrek desperately trying to secure his relationship with Fiona, it still gets me everytime. That’s another thing I loved about Shrek 2. The romance between Shrek and Fiona was undoubtadly the highlight of the first film, but in the sequel, we open up with their honeymoon! It truly felt like a happy beginning! And the movie mainly focused on growing their relationship even more. Plus, I also really loved seeing the human version of Shrek with another awesome addition to the cast, Puss in Boots! 2.) The Empire Strikes Back https://preview.redd.it/6r11q1w1q0q31.jpg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a9a59fafa72b77bb8ee6819376fcc80ce0daff68 A very close second for me is my favourite Star Wars movie of all time; Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back! This may be my opinion alone but I wasn’t too much of a fan of A New Hope. For me, it was rather slow for the most part. But Empire Strikes Back, though… Now this movie completely changed everything! There is so much to be said about this film. First off is the characters. Luke is now more mature and we get introduced to the wise Jedi master Yoda, and the relationships between the characters such as the growing romance between Han Solo and Princess Leia. Darth Vader proves to be one of the greatest villains of all time in this movie as he leads an invasion on Hoth in the beginning, and sets a trap for Luke Skywalker on Cloud City. This movie also had one of the greatest twists of all time – Darth Vader revealing himself to be Luke Skywalker’s father. Overall, there’s not much else I can say about this film except how much of a great movie it is. 1.) Dawn of the Planet of the Apes https://preview.redd.it/z2mic8q0q0q31.jpg?width=2025&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=36ffb260359c7d3e826228d681204d379ca75f94 Not only my favourite sequel of all time, but my favourite movie of all time. I know it’s often a heavy stretch when considering a movie to be your favourite, but I put this movie at the top of nearly every list for me without shame. This movie, in my opinion, is a perfect sequel. Let me talk about the story first. So after a depressing opening as humanity slowly gets wiped out by the virus from the first film, we see the apocalypse setting which is just beautiful to look at. We see that the apes have become more evolved and much more intelligent. They're now capable of hunting and using teamwork. We're then shown their amazing built civilization lead by Caesar as we then cut to humanity. This is the one thing I really love about this film, we're seeing things from both sides' perspectives. We see the humans' side and the apes' side. Our main human character, Malcolm, tries to search for a generator with his people in order to restore the city's power. Cesar reluctantly allows them to do what they need to do but Koba disagrees with this. Because of their disagreements, Koba goes behind Caesar's back, despite how much Caesar trusted him, and starts planning the war. He frames Caesar's fake out death and leads the apes to kill all the humans. He sends the unarmed humans in cages which causes Malcolm to seek out Caesar. After an amazing climatic battle between Caesar and Koba, it is revealed be already too late as Gary Oldman had called the military which forced Caesar to go to war and protect his kind, leading up to War. The plot is very well written and very memorable, and I NEVER get tired of watching this story over and over again. Next thing are the setting and the music. I absolutely LOVE the soundtrack. I even hum to Koba's theme a few times because it's so catchy! As for the setting, as I said, I am a sucker for apocalypse stories so the setting was perfect, especially given the situation which humanity is in and having to deal with the ape uprising. I guess you could say this is an ape-pocalypse. No? I'll stop... Finally, the characters. Every character was unique in their own ways. Every character was well written. You have Malcolm who is desperately trying to find peaceful alternatives in bringing peace between the two communities. His wife, Ellie, who is helpful and supportive, but worried for her husband working with evolved apes, and his son, Alexandre, who is an artist trying to fully get used to this new world. Caesar's friendship with Malcolm is strong in this film. Next, we have other main characters like the return of the wise orangutan, Maurice, Caesar's oldest friend, Rocket, and Cornelius, Caesar's eldest son. However, the main highlights were the ultimate character development for Caesar and the film's main antagonist, Koba. You can see how conflicted Caesar is. See, he was raised by humans so he has a really soft spot for them, while on the other hand, Koba has only seen the bad side of humanity, thus fueling his hatred towards them. Caesar tries to put his kind first but at the same time, tries to help Malcolm's group as long as they don't put his family at risk. Caesar's relationship with Koba was the biggest thing here. Caesar trusted Koba with his life and looked at him like a brother. it all slowly turns from friendship to rivalry. I've also been wanting to say this: Koba's character. This is how you write a good villain. Koba becomes this loathsome villain that you want to see be stopped, but at the same time, you have this emotional feeling towards him that makes you feel bad for him at the same time. When he points out all the scars and pain the labs have put him through, you really feel sympathy towards him, so you understand why he is doing this. He has a proper motive. Make us care about the villain too, but not root for him too much otherwise we won't see him as a villain that much. So yeah, this movie will always remain special for me. By far my favourite movie ever. ***** So that is my top 10 list of my favourite movie sequels that I loved more than the first film! So what about you guys? What are your top 10 favourite movie sequels of all time?
As we know that joker is the archenemy of Batsman and it is one of the original and popular book villains. He has been subjects of some comic book stories like “The Dark Knight Returns” The Killing Joke” and “A Death in the Family. There were some famous actors like Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger. You can see the joker in live-action in “Suicide Squad”. We are going to describe some important things about Jo...read more https://preview.redd.it/6zoe0mx2jmb51.jpg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=473e92a8838224904c8456f28cdf674687866465
GOTY candidate emerges + 10 other completions [January Report '20]
This is my fourth year on this sub and fifth year overall that I'm tracking my completions and I've rarely been as excited to play games as I am right now. School is going great, my backlog is full of great games and Cyberpunk 2077 will be out soon looks like we'll be waiting a few more months for this. Thus, I had the motivation to play and beat many games this month, the most since January 2018 (!) actually. Let's get into my first progress report of 2020 :) ___ Games I've Quit - 19
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate
Crysis 2
Darksiders III
Divinity: Original Sin
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
Gears 5
God Eater Resurrection
God Eater 2: Rage Burst
Insurgency
Prototype 2
Red Faction Guerilla Re-Mars-Tered
Saints Row: Gat out of Hell
Snake Pass
Spyro Reignited Trilogy (3 games)
The End is Nigh
The Talos Principle
Woah, what happened here? Let's unpack this. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is a game I did not even start playing. I did finish the original and gave the sequel two tries before giving up both times. The gameplay loop really bothers me because you get guns that do barely any damage and you end up dying 10 times during each boss fight, which kind of takes away from the excitement that boss fights should provide in my opinion. So I doubt this'll be for me either. The 50th Metroidvania that I've quit is Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate. I really have a hard time enjoying these. I didn't like the story. The gameplay is God of War (the original) but in boring. The enemies suck. The level design is not fun, with all that backtracking (especially in Act II). Yeah, that's a No for me. I've quit Crysis 2 for the same reason that I've quit the original. The only thing I'm impressed by are the graphics. The nanosuit is just a gimmick in my opinion. It allows you to go invisible, to reduce damage, to sprint very fast and to scan an area for enemies. With the nanosuit, this game at least gives a reasoning for why your character can do those things but I'm not at all impressed by it. The shooting is boring. The enemies glitch out more times than I can count, there are so many "cheap deaths" and the checkpoint system is trash. Yeah, not a Crysis fan. I also didn't start Darksiders III. I didn't like the original, so I removed Darksiders II back in the day. I have the third iteration through PS+. Based on reviews, some videos and my disinterest in the series, I ultimately don't want to play this. One game I was looking to spend a bunch of time on this year was Divinity: Original Sin. Shockingly, I was very disappointed by this game. The soundtrack immediately felt very out of place (is it just me?) and not really fitting the setting. The fact that you were forced to have two user controlled characters kind of annoyed me as well because you basically needed to deal with inventory management TWICE, which isn't something I really enjoy doing (I didn't find a way to only create one char). Didn't really have the same feeling playing this game as with other cRPGs. This is the second time I have put Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen on this list but I had to be honest with my self here. I didn't like it that much during my first try, which was about three years ago. So don't feel like pouring 50 hours into this. I started Gears 5 in coop with my brother. We were immediately put off by the bad humor, boring and bland shooting gameplay and a story that we didn't really care for, because, to be fair to the series, we hadn't played another game in the series previously. Still, I doubt I would have gotten through a single game in this series with all those terrible one-liners. But I won't say that the production values in this game is great, it's evident that this is a bid-budget game, at least I think so. I've tried God Eater Resurrection and it felt like the game was way older than it is (released in 2010). Terrible mission design, bad graphics, technically very limited (maybe due to being originally released on PSP), meh soundtrack and trash combat. Didn't even try God Eater 2: Rage Burst but might give the newer release a try, if I get it for free. Insurgency is actually a multiplayer shooter and I mixed this game up with Invisible Inc. for some reason :D Nothing to see here. I saw some gameplay on Prototype 2 and after removing and adding it to my backlog two times already, I will now permanently remove it. I don't like starting with sequels anyway and the game seems to have aged poorly. Red Faction Guerilla Re-Mars-Tered is another game that I didn't even start but just based on gameplay videos I could tell that I wouldn't have fun with this. Saints Row: Gat out of Hell. Another case of "don't actually own it". I remember it being free through PS+ but looks like neither I nor my brother got it back then. Snake Pass. Man. Terrible controls. This could have been ultra relaxing but the controls were so infuriating that they made me quit an hour or so into it. I've only played the first game in the Spyro Reignited Trilogy but that's just not for me. No nostalgia attached to the series. I've tried The End is Nigh and some how made it past that poor intro and 15 not so poor levels before deciding that this is the type of platformer that isn't really worth my time. This one I'm truly sorry for because I think The Talos Principle explores very interesting elements about AI and if they should be considered conscious beings. There is this one funny archived chat on a computer where four guys argue about how one can determine, if a user is actually an AI or real. Person A says that no one can tell the difference, while Person B tells A that he is stupid. Person C agrees with Person B and says that Persona A is a troll. Then Person D tells Person C that Person B is actually an AI :D. Best plot twist of the year, folks.) And I think I did quite well with a lot of puzzles in World A and most of World B. But then puzzles get more complex and I never have the patience to spend one hour on one puzzle (same with The Witness) and so I give up. Yeah.. Hope you can all appreciate me trying to explain why I didn't beat this games, in case you are fans of any of them. This month could be called "The Cleansing of the Backlog" just based on all of these abandoned games. Suffice to say, February won't look like this. If it does, I might run out of games. And soon. ___ Games I’ve Added – 4
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate
Gears 5
My Friend Pedro
Overcooked 2
I got my hands on Xbox Game Pass for 1 €. It was supposed to be for three months but for some reason my Microsoft account says it expires in June. I guess it gave me 6 months and I won't complain. Unfortunately, you already know my thoughts on two games I got via Game Pass: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate and Gears 5. Glad I didn't buy these two. My Friend Pedro is the only one of these games that you will find in the "Beaten" section (and it's a good game imo). My last addition for the month is Overcooked 2, which I've been playing in coop with my brother and it's been extremely enjoyable so far. First Battle Chef Brigade, now this. I might be a fan of cooking games :O. ___ Games I've Beaten - 11 A quick overview of all the games I've beaten this month. Reviews are in alphabetical order. (Bold = Game of the Month)
Blair Witch
Detroit: Become Human
Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2: Episode One
Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
Marvel's Spider-Man
Minit
My Friend Pedro
Pokémon Sword
SOMA
Tacoma
Blair Witch Owned Since: December 31st, 2019 Beaten: January 2nd Platform: Xbox One Playtime: 6 hours You will see a lot more Xbox One games on my completions this year. It all starts here, with Blair Witch being my first Xbox completion since Mass Effect on March, 2019. I've played this with my brother because we couldn't find a coop game we agreed on. We did have a horror game itch though, so we chose this. The game was released in 2019. I watched the recent Blair Witch (2016) movie a couple months ago and actually fell asleep, which is a new horror movie low for me. Suffice to say, I didn't really enjoy it. That might be why I didn't see any connections between game and movie but I doubt that would have made a difference. You play as Ellis, a veteran and former police officer, who suffers from PTSD after his experiences during his time in the army. Ellis joins a search for a little boy (Peter) who was lost in the woods, possible having been kidnapped. Ellis killed the kid's brother by accident when he tried to stop a robbery, so he feels like he owes this to Peter. He constantly communicates with others involved in the search and also with his wife, Jess. Their relationship is struggling due to Ellis' mental health issues, which is portrayed through many flashbacks throughout the game. Ellis is joined by his dog, Bullet, who helps Ellis find objects, guides him through the woods and also relaxes Ellis, whose symptoms worsen when he is left alone. I actually loved Bullet, he is helpful and not just a nuisance. He also has his own "back story" as well, so it's not just a cute gimmick or anything. Talking about back story, Ellis' personal struggles are also interesting to a degree and at least don't deter you from continuing the game. His relationship with Jess also helps in his character development, though one thing I disliked was this: You have a phone, so the game sometimes allows you to call Jess and have a conversation with her. Sometimes, this happens automatically. But man, these convos are so pointless and annoying. Especially when they happen automatically. Call 1: "I'm sorry Jess, I love you, you know that, right?", Call 2: "Fuck you, Jess, I'm angry now!", Call 3: "I'm sorry Jess, I love you <3!". And on and on it goes. I know that Ellis is very anxious and a very stressed individual due to his past traumas but this happened too much and most of the time, they would just discuss uninteresting topics that really didn't add anything to the game's story or at least not in a sense that it made you more interested in their relationship. And, you know, this is a "Blair Witch" game. It's not "Ellis: The Story", so I would've liked less focus on Ellis' relationship with Jess and more focus on the actual IP. The overall plot is fine but I won't say much more on that. One gameplay feature that I actually liked is that you can change your surroundings thanks to cassette tapes. Each tape is a short clip about what happened in the past. One of them for example is about the kidnapped boy, who drops a ball in the clip. If you stop at that right moment, the ball will reappear where he dropped it. You can let the dog smell the ball and track the scent. Really cool feature and added a unique element to the game. One final point: The final chapter, my god, that one took fucking ages. The boy is brought to a little house with a few rooms. I thought that yeah, some f'd up things will happen eventually and you might have to go through each room a couple times. But it ends up being this crazy episode where you get jump scared 50 times, enter 800 doors, sneak past the demon 20 times etc. They really made more than the most out of that little house because you easily walked 50km in there before the credits finally started rolling. And after all that, the ending was shit. Rating: 5/10 Detroit: Become Human Owned Since: July 2nd, 2019 Beaten: January 7th Platform: Playstation 4 Playtime: 15 hours Wow. This is one of those games were I felt empty inside for a day or two after beating it. That might have something to do with the ending I got but the overall journey definitely had something to do with it as well. The three characters you play - Marcus, Kara and Connor - all have their own interesting stories, which, as the game progresses, become more and more intertwined (as usual with David Cage's games). All three were played excellently in my opinion. The graphics, the atmosphere, the music and all the side characters even were all major positives in this games. And the best part about this game: Your choices matter. I've never seen a game with this many choices and so many of them having so much weight. I'm serious when I say that main and side characters can die at so many different points in the game based on what you choose to do. After each chapter, something like a "choice tree" pops up, which basically highlights your choices within the chapter. Just by taking a look at this window, you realize you can play each chapter in so many different ways. You also get points for each choice you make, which you can use to unlock extras. These can be the soundtrack, art works, trailers and other videos, interviews with the cast and more. This is pretty cool in my opinion. One thing about the gameplay. The game sometimes asks you to do mundane tasks like "wash dishes" or "clean tables". I didn't like these parts from a gameplay perspective but I understand how these tasks are supposed to show you how Androids "live". QTEs are very present throughout the game as well and.. yeah, you'll either like those or not. The best parts are definitely the decisions you get to make and when you can walk around an area and just look at all the highlighted items. I won't get into the story too much but I can say this. I really liked it overall but I still don't know what I think about the whole "Androids are people" storyline. You see them crying, having relationships, feeling any kind of emotion, arguing and all that. They are supposed to be sentient Androids, sure, but making them act exactly like humans kind of felt too much. Maybe that's because rogue AI is still something that is way too far into the future for me to really believe in. Still, if you look past this point, you will find an intricate, exciting and emotional story around it that managed to draw me in completely. I of course tried to keep everyone alive (main and side characters) but three people in total didn't make it in my playthrough. There is also one chapter called Freedom March. The scene is pretty epic and powerful in my opinion, especially if you can look past the point that I mentioned in the paragraph above. I'll definitely play this game again with a friend or family member, if they're interested, because they will 100% make different choices and I'd like to see how they experience the story as well. Great concept, great execution, hope to see more games like this from David Cage. Rating: 8/10 Half-Life 2 Owned Since: November 23rd, 2016 "Beaten": January 3rd Platform: PC Playtime: 10.5 hours I've played the original Half-Life when I was in Brighton for 6 weeks and doing an internship (I'm from Germany and my employer allowed me to do it, best experience ever). I only had my laptop available , which is not suitable for playing games, so I had to play graphically less demanding ones, like System Shock, Shantae and the Pirates Curse, CUPID and Half-Life. Half-Life was easily my favorite out of the bunch, because the game aged relatively well and the level design is solid. That was back in 2017. So playing Half-Life 2 was a long time coming and I'm glad I finally did. This game is absolutely incredible. The jump from the original, especially in terms of graphics and even level design, is crazy. Each chapter drops you into a different environment with different challenges to overcome. In one chapter, you have to drive an "airboat", in another you drive a car because Antlions come out of the sand and only allow you to pass with a vehicle. Then there is Ravenholm, where you jump from roof to roof in the dark, while monsters jump at you from everywhere (scariest level ever). What I loved about this game and it's something that (almost) no current games do anymore, especially not at that level, is that there are no cut scenes that interrupt you, when something major happens in the game. Everything happens within the flow of your playthrough. There is this robot dog that will jump around and throw cars at enemies, there are gigantic striders that come out of nowhere and shoot at everything they see and there is nothing that interrupts you, while you play. This game is just such an amazing experience throughout that I was just blown away throughout. The game keeps throwing stuff at you, especially in the first half, and manages to keep the gameplay fresh throughout, which, for a game from 2004, is ridiculously impressive. The game mostly uses similar weapons as in the original, though I believe the crossbow and something else I won't mention are both new. And also there is the gravity gun of course, which is a weapon that you can use for basically everything. It lets you pick up items, throw them at enemies and it even lets you pick up enemies and throw THEM at enemies. You need to use it many times to progress through a level and I was always glad to. Just a fun weapon to use. And then there is the G-Man. I don't really get the story much unfortunately but the G-Man is supposed to be a mystery anyway. One of the cool features in this game are the G-Man easter eggs. In almost every chapter, you can see the G-Man in the distance just walking away. I didn't know this before playing but once there was this train that crashed into a wall. There was a little hole which you could look through and I for some reason decided to do that and saw the G-Man. This spotting is accompanied by mysterious sounds and it actually startled me a little bit. The G-Man is definitely badass. Now some negatives. The voice acting is poor (though I played it in German). The characters are not that memorable. The story isn't really all that well told in my opinion, though that might be one of the negatives, if you don't have any cut scenes in your game. I'd rather have seamless gameplay as I explained above rather than cut scenes that don't tell much anyway but the combination of both (e.g. God of War) is something I'd obviously prefer. Still, I definitely understand why this game is considered the best game ever. I do think we should seperate games by the generation that they came out in because each gen produced very different games but the fact that Half-Life 2 still amazed me 15 years after its release says something about this game's quality. Rating: 9/10 Half-Life 2: Episode One Owned Since: November 23rd, 2016 Beaten: January 21st Platform: PC Playtime: 2 1/2 hours More of the same as Half-Life 2. I switched to English audio and it made a big difference. I don't know, if that was the sole reason or if the game did a better job with Alyx, but her character got ten times more interesting and endearing than in Half-Life 2. Also, Dog is great. The game is obviously much shorter and the level design is either similar to or more simplified than the chapters in Half-Life 2. Also, Alyx is following you around for way longer than in the "main game" (I guess that's what H-L 2 is), so that opened up a few different puzzles that involve Alyx, who can open doors and manipulate rollermines, among other things. Not much else to say here, the game advances the story nicely and I'm already dreading the finale of Episode Two, which will undoubtedly end on a cliffhanger. Rating: 7/10 Half-Life 2: Lost Coast Owned Since: November 23rd, 2016 Beaten: January 1st Platform: PC Playtime: 15 minutes This is a tech demo apparently. I've played it, so I'll add it here but I don't have much to say about this. Rating: No Rating Marvel's Spider-Man Owned Since: December 31st, 2019 Beaten: January 18th Platform: Playstation 4 Playtime: 30 hours This is one of those games where my review won't do it justice. First off, I got 100 % of the trophies. This is maybe the fifth game ever that I fully completed (and I've actually done it with another game this month, that one being not quite as impressive). That should tell you what I think about this game. As usual, here is my backstory with the Spider-Man franchise: I've watched the first movie with Tobey Maguire about 40 times as a kid. Spider-Man was my hero. Yet, I only watched Spider-Man 2 and 3 once or twice and have never gotten to watch the newer releases because I kind of forgot about Spider-Man and superheroes in general. After starting this game, I rewatched the original Spider-Man and let me tell you, the nostalgia was real. Anyway, about the game: The game references a ton of stuff from the comics I'm guessing (didn't read any of the comics) but I understood a few references here and there thanks to the original trilogy and just the soundtrack of this game got me feeling very nostalgic. The music, the web swinging and the web shooting sounds all were immediately recognizable as well. The web swinging in general is easily the most satisfying thing I've ever done in any video game ever. It's incredibly smooth and as close to perfect as it can get. Once you unlock a few more abilities, swinging gets even more fun. I found myself swinging without any goal from time to time because it was so fun and that's really the most impressive thing about it, the fact that you even forget what you were going to do. Just as smooth is the combat system, which is like the Batman Arkham games for anyone who played those. You have a few buttons to hit enemies and get alerted before you get hit so you can dodge. Right from the start, because you're Spider-Man, the combat system allows for so many nice combos. Hit a guy, slide between his legs, come up behind him, kick him in the back, done. Then go to the next guy, uppercut him into the air, grab him with your webs and throw him on top of another enemy, done. Later on, you unlock more abilities and a lot of gear that you can use to beat the crap out of enemies in even more fun ways. Pinning an enemy against the wall with your webs is also immensely satisfying and easily my favorite way to beat them. Next to the main story, there is a LOT of extra content to explore and because the web swinging and combat are both so fun, I actively wanted to do all the extra content. I didn't want this experience to end, which is why I did EVERYTHING in the game and got 100% completions in all 9 districts. Side content varies from side missions, in which you help civilians or fight "side" villains to random encounters against enemies of one of 4 varieties (Fisk's guards, "demons" etc.). While you're fighting, Spider-Man is being Spider-Man of course, so he always drops some one-liner to annoy his enemies. Most of these are hilarious and I audibly laughed at least a couple times. He repeats himself during some of the side content but with the sheer amount of the side content that is in the game, that might be unavoidable. Also, the voice acting (played in German) is superb. Probably the best German voice acting in any game I've played, which can be very poor in even AAA titles sometimes. J. Jonah Jameson's voice actor does an amazing job and so does Spider-Man's. Everyone else ranges from very good to solid, which was a positive surprise. Two more things I want to mention quickly: 1. There are a few dozen Spider-Man suits in the game. Now get this: All of them can be unlocked JUST BY PLAYING THE GAME. Yes, the game released in 2018, not 2008 and there are no microtransactions for this sort of stuff. They put stuff in the game that they didn't need to and didn't charge you extra for it. I know, it's nuts. And it made me remember how big of a difference such a little feature can make in the grand scheme of things. You can just feel the love that went into creating this game and I really appreciate everyone working on this. Lastly, the story and the games villains. There are actually more than a few that you encounter throughout the game. Most of their backstories are actually explored during the game, which was great. My favorite thing about any story is a game, movie or book is a good villain. Pagan Min of Far Cry 4 could have been awesome, if he wasn't so absent during almost the entirety of the game. Same goes for Vaas in Far Cry 3. Heath Ledger's Joker is easily my favorite villain ever and Gus Fring in Breaking Bad is also an incredible character. Both get a ton of screen time, not just when they are one on one with the protagonist. They get their chance to shine on their own. And the main villains in this game do as well. Electro, Vulture, Scorpion and Rhino are some of the less frequently presented villains but their boss fights were still all unique enough and enjoyable. Everyone else, like Spider-Man, Mary-Jane, Miles, Aunt May, Martin Li, Otto Octavius, Norman Osborne and Yuri Watanabe were well written and all added something to the story. Can't wait for the sequel! (Also, I could've sworn this game was developed by Sucker Punch, this game reminded me of Infamous: Second Son so much). Rating: 10/10 Minit Owned Since: October 3rd, 2019 Beaten: January 1st Platform: Xbox One Playtime: 1 1/2 hours I wanted to check out Minit since the game was released because I liked the premise. You have 60 seconds to get as much as possible done before your character dies and resets in the last home that you were in. Beating this game requires exploration, timing and patience. Often, you are required to solve puzzles, which, because you only have 60 seconds, can take you a few trips to the location of the puzzle. None of the puzzles are too challenging but if you're someone who has a hard time solving ones on, say, medium difficulty, this might get slightly irritating. Yet, Minit manages to be an enjoyable experience and offers enough variety in its game and level design to not bore you and make the main gameplay mechanic be annoying at the end of your playthrough. The 60 second loop is not groundbreaking by any means and I know there are other games out there that use this same mechanic. I don't know, if those were developed before Minit, but I'm guessing that Minit isn't the first game ever with this 60 second loop mechanic. The soundtrack is fitting to the gameplay. Nothing special. If you own this game and have a free afternoon at some point, give it a try. It's a solid experience imo. Rating: 7/10 My Friend Pedro Owned Since: January 20th, 2020 Beaten: January 22nd Platform: Xbox One Playtime: 4 hours A banana called Pedro wakes you up and tells you to kill "Mitch The Butcher". So you do as told. You go through a wave of enemies and obstacles during the first few levels and make your way to the boss fight, which was actually pretty epic in this case. Then the second of 5 chapters begins. As you progress, there are new weapons, obstacles, enemy types, ways to kill, objects to use and more. Pedro will talk to you during missions as well to give a little bit of insight on the backstory or to just tell some dumb jokes. He even writes you a poem (which was hilarious) but overall you don't really engage with him in a way that makes him this memorable and unique character that I thought he'd become. The gameplay is great. You can use pistols, uzis, shotguns and more to shoot enemies. You can shoot them while walljumping, by letting bullets ricochet from metal objects (even by shooting a frying pan) and you can make barrels drop on top of them, among other things. When you get better and can do all these things in one motion, it looks amazing. There is a "bullet time" system as well and you can even dodge bullets by pressing LB to spin around, which just looks epic. Some levels are more annoying than exciting though, especially when there is less shooting and more puzzle solving or platforming going on but overall the level design is superb. The soundtrack is the biggest disappointment here in my opinion. Some tracks are as strong as in other Digital Devolver games (Hotline Miami in particular) but there aren't enough memorable, epic electronic beats that flow with the action. And there aren't enough tracks in this game, period. Definitely expected something more grand here. Most boss fights were also pretty boring, especially the penultimate one. Overall definitely a game I would recommend, with a ton of replay value for anyone who wants to get an S-Rank in every level. Rating: 7/10 Pokémon Sword Owned Since: November 18th, 2019 Beaten: January 16th Platform: Nintendo Switch Playtime: 19 hours Hot take alert! This review might anger some of you, so continue reading with caution. Quick overview on my experience with the Pokémon franchise. I've watched the anime as a kid. I've watched friends play Pokémon games on their Nintendo DS's. That's it. I've never played a game myself. Always wanted to. My brother bought Pokémon shortly after its release, so I decided to give it a try. Right at the start of the game I was very much reminded of the Persona series, so I guess I can see which series the Persona games were influenced by. Anyway, as a big Persona fan, I thought I would dig finding new Pokémon, the battle system and hey, maybe even the story. Let's start with the positives. The music is awesome. The track that plays during arena battles is especially great. Collecting Pokémon actually is fun as well, so I wasn't left disappointed there. A lot of Pokémon's have weird names and look really sometimes and I wanted to throw my Switch against the wall when they would break out of a Pokéball at like 1 HP but 'oh well'. I also really liked the wild area. It offered a ton of Pokémon to catch, a few characters to battle and get items from, items to find and challenges to do. This could definitely be fleshed out but I liked the time I spent here, though that wasn't much at the end. The battle system is good but fights are way too easy. I've played for 19 hours and didn't lose a single battle. Every gym leader does the same thing. They fight normally til they have 1 Pokémon left and then they active the Dynamax. Predictable and makes me wonder what the point of the Dynamax feature really was. For everyone who doesn't know, Dynamaxing a Pokémon means that it becomes gigantic for three rounds. That's it. There isn't much strategy involved with it, because the Pokémon still take damage like they're at LVL1 sometimes. One final issue I have is those extremely long animations, especially for dynamaxing Pokémon. The persona series and many other JRPGs have this issue though, so I'm nitpicking here. One last positive are the different areas and locations in the game. Some, like Engine and Claw City, look pretty cool. You can definitely see that art designers put a lot of work into this game as a whole, though as I mentioned, some Pokémon characters are so stupid (like Klikk, what the fuck is that?!). The worst part about this game in my opinion is its' story and characters. If you're only playing the game to collect Pokémon, you might not care but I personally always look or a good story, unless the gameplay is fast-paced action like DOOM or Metal Gear Rising. In this game, you partake in Arena challenges. So you and your friend, Hop, who is one of the most annoying characters ever, embark on a journey to beat eight gym leaders and fight in a tournament to be the new champ. Hop's brother is the current champ, so Hop always talks about how he wants to be the best and how you're his biggest rival. You fight Hop after almost every arena fight and you wipe the floor with him each time. Then he starts talking about how "he is inspired by you beating his ass" and "how you humbled him" and how he will work harder now. Then you meet him in the next arena and he says: "I just beat this gym leader, he couldn't handle me and my GOAT Pokémon, I'm the best!" (GOAT as in an actual goat, not the "greatest Pokémon of all time". And his goat sucks). So this is the story of Hop for 20 hours. Gets cocky, gets humbled, gets cocky and during all of this I'm thinking "I don't care about you, Hop." Throughout this game, every character talks the same way. "You're amazing, nobody can stop you, keep going!" and I just felt like the game thinks I'm a 5 year old or something. I know that's Nintendo's spiel, to make things feel very fun and also very nostalgic for all the players who have grown up with their games but Pokémon takes this to a whole nother level. One last thing about the Pokémon franchise. Why are Pokémon games so highly regarded for doing stuff that other AAA games get absolutely destroyed for? Releasing two different versions of a game with slightly different content? Imagine Mortal Kombat 12: Version 1 and Mortal Kombat 12: Version 2 with exlusive fighters for each version? The shitstorm would be huge (and rightly so). But Pokémon does it and it's OK? Also, gamers criticize FIFA and other sports games for releasing the same game every year and Pokémon doesn't? It's the same gameplay loop every time from what I can tell, it's badly optimized even, it's mostly the same Pokémon (fewer this time around), a bare bones plot and horrible childish writing. Sure, if you like these games because of what they mean to you and you actually enjoy it, great for you. But to go hate on similar games for doing the same thing feels kind of hypocritical and I'm always amazed at how Nintendo gets away with it. Rating: 4/10 SOMA Owned Since: August 22nd, 2016 Beaten: January 20th Platform: PC Playtime: 9 hours This is one of the oldest games in my backlog. I got it from one of the first Humble Monthlies but never got to it until the game was giving away for free on, what feels like, every platform by now. Nevertheless, I'm glad I was able to support the devs somewhat back in the day because this game is pretty good. You play as Simon Jarrett, who lost his girlfriend after a car accident. He barely survived the accident himself with severe brain damage. He agrees to go into a brain scan developed by some student. When he wakes up after the scan, he finds himself in an unfamiliar room, surrounded by machinery and technology he's never seen before. The start to this game is so weird. First off, I've played this on "Safe" mode, so monsters don't attack you. They're still there and they will hit you, when you're too close but they don't kill you. There are also these blue "mechanical plant" things. You can put your finger into its hole and then ... nothing happens. I've done this with every "plant" I've seen in the game and nothing ever happened, though later Simon puts his whole fist into it (yep). Maybe this would recharge your health, if you're not playing in safe mode? I don't know. You meet a bunch of broken robots in the game, who all think they're human, even though they're clearly not and that gets you thinking: Where the fuck am I? Later, you meet Catherine, who helps you uncover all the mysteries. I won't go into any detail here but she basically created this thing called the "ARK" and needs you to shoot it into space because humanity depends on it. As you go, the story starts making more and more sense. Gameplay in this game boils down to solving puzzles, which are perfect in difficulty in my opinion, walking a lot, interacting with items and reading data. You can add "hiding from monsters" to that list, if you're not playing on safe mode but I was perfectly happy with my decision. The game is eerie enough as it is and I probably wouldn't have gained anything from dying a bunch of times. As I mentioned, the game is really atmospheric, which was really important because otherwise the constant walking around would have become very tiresome. The story started off slow as well but once I started to understand, it was this interesting dilemma about where the line is drawn between at which point you can still consider yourself human and at which point you can't. Overall, I liked the story, I liked the atmosphere but the slow start and the tedious nature of walking simulators are the reasoning behind my final rating. Rating: 7/10 Tacoma Owned Since: July 12th, 2018 Beaten: January 3rd Platform: Xbox One Playtime: 3 hours In Tacoma you play as Amy Ferrier and have the task of retrieving data and the wetware of an AI, ODIN. from an abandoned station, Tacoma, which was struck by a meteor a few days prior. The crew was rescued, so as you collect the data, which happens automatically once you enter an area, you are free to explore the many different rooms in the station, where you can re-watch interactions between the crew members during and immediately after the meteor strike. During these, you find out about each member's role, ambitions, backgrounds and relationships between each other. While checking some info about this game, I found out that this was developed by the same guys who made Gone Home. These games are very similar in that there isn't any threat, you can basically just explore a location and piece together the story and the events that unfolded. It's possible that you can beat the game without really "completing" the story or finding out every truth but I wouldn't recommend it, because the story is actually pretty interesting (way more than Gone Home in my opinion). Beware that this is a walking simulator, so there isn't much in terms of gameplay. You just walk around, read some notes, listen to dialogue, do a few very easy puzzles and interact with a couple other things and that's it. All the value here is in the story and the characters, so your prior experiences with walking sims should tell you, if this game is for you. Rating: 7/10 ___ Currently Playing PC
Half-Life 2: Episode Two: Let's "finish" the series. Very hyped about Half-Life Alyx, though I'd only be able to get my hands on it, if they port it over to the Playstation 4 (probably 5) at some point. I'd definitely buy a VR headset then.
The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine: Made some decent progress at the end of the month once I was content with all those completions I had. Could be a completion in February.
Playstation 4
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End: Time to continue/conclude Nathan Drake's story. Very hyped for this.
Xbox One
Overcooked 2: Coop game of the year contender. Love this. Currently on Chapter 5-1.
Ryse: Son of Rome: Been in my (PC) backlog for a while. Now that I have the Game Pass, I'll give it a try (that rhymed).
___ 12in12 original list - Progress: (6/12)
Batman Arkham City
Blair Witch | COMPLETE
Bioshock Infinite
Deponia Doomsday
Detroit: Become Human | COMPLETE
Half-Life 2 | COMPLETE
Mass Effect 2
Minit | COMPLETE
Orwell: Ignorance is Strength
Pokémon Sword | COMPLETE
SOMA | COMPLETE
The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine
Half of the list done already! This is what I'm most satisfied about, the fact that I'm actually playing games that I wanted to at the start of the year. Been very disciplined when it comes to this fact to start off the year. The next completion on this list should be either The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine or maybe Orwell. ------------------ My Yearly Stats:
Games Added: 4
Total Price: 1 €
Games Removed: 19
Games Finished: 11
Games Left in the Backlog: 63
Pretty good start. :D Thank you for reading, hope you all had a great month as well. :)
Too many complainers. Appreciate the show for what it is.
Every time I see people complain, or random bad reviews from critics on the internet, I get scared the show will be cancelled..lol. I understand some of the complaints. The season finale looked like 3 episodes crammed into one. Especially when you pay attention to the editing. Who knows why it happened. Maybe they thought they had more time or more episodes to shoot. Regardless, they still pulled it off and it was still great! A lot of people complain about Donna's death and how it happened. I was one who hoped more than anything she wouldn't die, but it's extremely obvious they did it that way to set-up Rachel's story-line to become Raven and bring Donna back. I'm assuming in her black suit. You also have to appreciate the sadness and love they gave to Donna. We didn't get enough of the Donna we fell in love with in season 1, but we got it and more after she died which refilled my love for her. Some people will even complain that Gar keeps turning into only a Tiger. Some people just want to see a straight up super hero show with them being good and fighting bad guys. Like we're used to seeing. This show is the complete opposite of Marvel movies. The style of this show is like no other. Same with Doom Patrol. It's something I hoped to see for so long and it's the best thing I've seen in a long time(if ever). I appreciate it very much. People praise the Dark Knight films for being edgy. Especially Heath Ledgers Joker, but it doesn't compare to the newest Joaquin Phoenix Joker film. Titans is a slow paced eccentric edgy psychological thriller and drama. It's great to see traditional superhero movies like a lot of us are used to. Whether they're super corny like Marvel or somewhere in between. But I appreciate what they're doing with this. Bruce Wayne most definitely should have major screws loose in his head. Same with Dick. Just look at Raven. That's terrifying. Or Jason, Donna, Rose, Jericho, Connor or any of them. Even Deathstroke. I disliked Hawk and Dove in season 2, but I liked them in season 1. What they went through is pretty messed up. Nothing about what they been through and decide to dress up and fight bad guys should be normal. (Edit 1) I also want to mention how much I love that these superhero's aren't immune to getting hurt or killed. It's not the ridiculousness of Marvel. Or the Justice League movie. Or Wonder Woman using her bracelets and shield to protect against 1,000 machine guns. Or Aquaman brushing off bullets. In this show they will surely get shot and killed. As strong as WonderGirl is, if Deathstroke cuts and stabs her, she's doing down. (Edit 2) Also when people complain about their secret identities. I think it mainly with people/civilians. This isn't the type of show were Superman can get away with wearing eye glasses as a disguise. This show is realistic. Some episodes might be too slow, or confusing, or may not make sense. Then we get 100 posts and comments about how terrible it was. Then 9 episodes later it comes together. Trust the process. I think this show is best watched binge watching it. I wish they would release all the episodes at once like netflix does. It may not be everyone's cup of tea. Overall the show is doing very well. The ratings (for the most part) are high. I hope it lasts for at least 5 seasons. Lasting forever would be my wish..lol. Thanks for reading.
Tl;dr - 10/10. With complex characters that all believably have their own agency yet whose own respective places in the central character's story are integral in the defining chapter of the titular hero,The Dark Knightis a cinematic masterpiece in the superhero genre. And it's my favorite movie to boot. I know there's probably nothing about The Dark Knight which hasn't been said, but I'm going to attempt it. Whenever someone speaks of The Dark Knight, they invariably go into 2 things: 1) Heath Ledger was phenomenal as the Joker. 2) It's a dark movie. I somewhat disagree with one of those 2 things. Heath was a phenomenal Joker, but the movie being "dark" is, at best, overstated. That's all anyone can typically think of to say about it for some reason, but I actually think it's a pretty uplifting film, especially in its lasting meaning. It's to the point where I've seen a lot of people argue with one or two sentences that the Joker was the main character and that he won, both of which I strongly disagree with and would cite overwhelming evidence in the movie to demonstrate otherwise. And it takes nothing away from Heath's impact as the Joker, his command of the screen, to say that the Joker didn't win, but no matter...we'll get to that. Anyway, as with Batman Begins, I hadn't seen The Dark Knight in 2 years prior to my recent re-watch. Nolan really upped the ante, my memory of which is part of why I found Batman Begins more underwhelming than I remembered (though certainly still a great movie, but more of a great start than a game-changer). I remember thinking several times about the sheer volume of explosions, gunfire, and environmental destruction which were coming out of every direction in this movie, much of which was driven by the villain of the piece. One vocal criticism at the time of the film's release was regarding the production design being seemingly different from Batman Begins despite both films featuring on-location filming in an enhanced Chicago as a stand-in for Gotham City. I believe that this observation is largely a function of the Narrows being heavily featured in Batman Begins while it's entirely absent from The Dark Knight for the obvious story reason of Batman Begins' "the Narrows is lost" line via Jim Gordon. The city, as it was, is still intact, even with the Batman Begins Monorail serving as background eye-candy in several shots. It's still very much giving a heightened sense of the real world, but the lack of visual influence from the exaggerated slum which was the Narrows makes it more identifiable as a real world. This served the story well, actually, because there would be a certain expectation involved in the Joker blowing up slums and committing crimes in a bad neighborhood which really doesn't yield the unnerving effect of his carving a swathe of chaotic destruction through Gotham's more pristine environments. The Dark Knight, much like Batman Returns, is staged against an industrial setting and it's that setting which the Joker is warring against. All clean straight lines and every hair in its place, which only makes the violent outbursts and action sequences more striking and hard-hitting. The visual storytelling of The Dark Knight, just from that, is masterful in my opinion. And that's before we even talk about the groundbreaking Imax sequences and how this movie really introduced an entirely new mechanic into live action filmmaking (non-documentary), which I won't do because there are so many other, better sources for that - namely the film's special features. With my Batman Begins retrospective, I tried to break the movie down by its 3 Acts. The Dark Knight is constructed a bit less...clearly, so I'll instead try to break it down by the 3 most important characters and how everything else revolves around them. Batman - Not everyone will immediately agree with this statement, but Batman is not actually the protagonist of The Dark Knight. No, neither is the Joker... Harvey Dent is. That being said, Batman is the main character in that he's once again the subject of most introspective focus, and every other character in the film is designed to define who and what he is from a 3rd person perspective. That's as true of his confidants, Alfred and Lucius, providing him wisdom and technical assistance, as it is for the subverted "love interest" Rachel Dawes, who is more than an object of pursuit for Bruce Wayne in this film but is certainly also functioning in that capacity as the finish line for his mission as Batman - a prime factor in Bruce losing her love to Harvey Dent. But the characters who most uniquely define Batman are Harvey Dent and the Joker. Batman's major limitation in this movie, but also his most important advantage, is that he's a hero without a face. This lack of official authority is why he needs Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent to legitimize his efforts, and the mob's ability to hide behind official constraints is why Gordon and Dent need Batman to actually make their jobs possible in Gotham City. It's a perfect alliance. And this alliance places Batman as the most publicly scrutinized character in the film's narrative, which sets the stage for some complex introspection into Bruce Wayne. (This is one of the major reasons that I never thought Robin was terribly important to these movies, because Batman has so many other great allies which don't steal his limelight. When you introduce Robin, you have to explain Robin. Which means the film becomes about Robin.) Side-note:My favorite thing about this film isn't Heath's Joker, it's how well Heath's Joker and Bale's Batman play off of one another. Batman is the straight-man of course, less obvious is the sheer quality of the performance because of that. But their central conflict, the battle of one force of nature vs another, unstoppable force versus immovable object, that's the backbone of the movie. Look no further than the interrogation scene. The Joker - Just as Batman is handing the mob their collective ass, or handing it to Gordon and Dent to do with as they will, rather, the mob turns to the Joker who they find to have been correct about what the real problem was, who the real problem was. Batman. The thing which I find most striking about this depiction of the Joker is that he's coming from someplace that we're all kind of afraid to go. That's what made him powerful. The thing that he believes in, the ONLY thing he believes in, is that whenever you strip away the confines of a "society" the people that inhabit it will resort to their baser instincts. They won't cooperate or help each other, they'll trample each other. "They'll eat each other." That's something that's inside every one of us, and I think the most challenging part of his characterization is how legitimately he presents the characters in the film and Gotham City, itself, (and us, frankly) with the ugliest aspects of their (our) own humanity. As I said before, the movie is benefited from not taking place in an expected environment like the Narrows or a overly heightened/stylized world where the Joker would make sense. It's because the Joker in this clean-looking world doesn't make sense is what lends him such credibility and teeth. It makes Heath's portrayal so haunting. It's like the Joker says to Harvey Dent in the hospital - nobody panics when things go "according to plan...even when the plan is horrifying". If a building in the Narrows gets blown up, or if some criminals in the Narrows get blown away, nobody panics. It's expected, and we've become numb to it because it's an inherent part of our society for the horrific acts to be contained to a predetermined theater of war. No one would lose their minds if there was a mass shooting in the Narrows, really. The mayhem needed to take place in an environment where it made people uncomfortable seeing it; where it had the sensation of taking place just a bit too close to home. This effect is really the crowning achievement of Nolan's approach of 'cinematic realism' with the property. While the Joker's origin is wisely kept a mystery, the movie still finds a way to give it purpose as we see him tell varying versions of his origin (likely meaning that each telling/re-telling of this origin is actually a lie, considering that he's a "notorious liar" and all). He's tailoring this "origin" to the person he's telling it to because he wants them to feel like, deep down, they're the very monster that he is. And that right there is the crux of his plot against Gotham City. The Joker's ideology, as inspired by Alan Moore'sThe Killing Joke, is that everyone is one push away from madness, one bad day away from the abyss - basically applying that comic's torment of Jim Gordon onto a societal scale. Everything he does in the movie is about proving that; proving it to Batman, proving it to Gotham. With the mob's backing to 'kill the Batman', the Joker angles for a deeper victory - to make Batman kill him. He wants to take a man of obvious principle, albeit anonymous, and make him break the core of that principle - his one rule against being an executioner. And he ALMOST succeeds... Harvey Dent/Two Face - We're introduced early on, via dialogue between Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent, that Harvey is Gotham City's "White Knight". He's the hero with a face, the one the public places their trust in, and the one who Batman places his faith in, as well, to shape the future of Gotham City. Harvey Dent is Batman's 'Ace in the hole', his exit strategy. Even more so than that, Harvey Dent is a good man. He's as dedicated to justice as Batman is, but he's putting his real face in front of everyone in the demonstration of that. That's what makes him a hero, arguably more of a traditional hero than even the Batman (arguably). It's also what makes him one of the Joker's prime targets, along with Batman. Harvey is another shining example of a man of principle, and considering his role in hammering the criminal contingent of Gotham, Harvey is identified by both Batman and the Joker as their prosecution's biggest liability. If he falls, everything that Batman, Gordon, and Dent have worked for would be undone. Gotham would lose hope. The Joker would win. Harvey's most important attribute as a character, in my opinion, is the counter-point that he makes to Batman. After Rachel's death, Harvey is a changed man. His arc, the tragedy of his story which precipitates the change in his characterization from a good man to a broken man, this is why David Goyer considers Harvey Dent to be the film's actual protagonist. Batman successfully demonstrates that he can catch the Joker, that he doesn't have to kill him. He can win his way, his ideology is not false - the Joker is wrong. And with that, Gotham City disproves the Joker's ideas that everyone is just like him when 2 men on 2 different ferries decide not to make monsters of themselves, even though the Joker believes that all it takes is a little anarchy to make them so. But the Joker's failure isn't complete. He's given himself another chance to be proven right because he's taken Batman's 'Ace in the hole', Harvey Dent, and made him his own. The prosecution will fall apart with Harvey's reputation. Everything that Gotham had suffered for, the accomplishments their city had made for all of that devastation, would be undone. People would lose hope and Gotham would once again crumble under the weight of corruption and the mob and the Joker would be proven right about everyone. Because of Harvey Dent and his becoming corrupted by the pain of Rachel's death which he can't overcome. But then there's Batman. Batman had overcome the very thing that tore Harvey Dent apart. He was the "Dark Knight" standing behind Harvey's "White Knight" to keep the Joker from having that second chance at victory, from testing the good people of Gotham any further. Because even though the truth is that Harvey became that monster, sometimes people deserve better than the truth. Because even if 99/100 people are exactly as the Joker says they are, it doesn't matter so long as that 1 person is there to make a stand, to inspire others, to make a difference. And that's what "The Dark Knight" is doing, he's using the example of the "White Knight" to inspire others. It's based on a lie, but Gotham deserves better than what the truth is. And I love the little touches which illustrate this idea from Alfred burning the letter which would only devastate Bruce, who also deserved better than the truth, as well as Lucius' faith in Bruce Wayne being rewarded after typing in his name and seeing the Sonar imaging machine self-destruct. It's reflecting his monologue to Gordon, but they're also still defining his character by the 3rd person perspectives of his supporting cast. It's just a masterfully efficient film which takes a deep dive into the Batman mythos and rolls out the most powerful, important forms of those characters and the ideas that they represent from the comics straight onto the screen. I consider it a Masterpiece, but who am I? 10/10. Best superhero film of all time.
The Dark Knight's Joker: 10 years later and some things to add.
I know this horse is long dead, but i'd like to try beating it with a different stick, if youll permit me. I post this as a new thread because i havnt seen anyone else bring these points up as yet. Then again, i may just be looking in all the wrong places. If thats the case, feel free to link the theory, as i'd like to read it myself. My "credentials": I was Army, deployed to Iraq, spent several years as both a combat engineer and EOD. I’d like to propose that the Joker, as portrayed here, most likely served in Iraq/Afghanistan as a combat engineer, then EOD, and was most likely an NCO (SGT and above for those non-military out there) . I’ll try to stay on track with this, addressing the videos points in the same order, but I tend to ramble. Apologies in advance. Truck full of soldiers comment: I’d wager that he got his scars from that (after all, we don’t have face armor) and that he ALSO got some form of TBI (traumatic brain injury) which may have been what pushed him over the edge. This also ties in to his "what doesn’t kill you only makes you stranger" comment: the blast didn’t kill him, but it altered his brain function. The scars may well have resulted from battlefield reconstructive surgery, such that it is, hence why they are so prominent. Honor Guard: If he was a career soldier and NCO, as I suspect, it’s fairly likely that he not only participated in an Honor Guard detail, especially around the time of the Iraq war, but he very well may have trained and lead the detail. However, EOD typically doesn’t do this... but Combat Engineers do. I'd suspect he was an engineer, then went into EOD. His incident with TBI probably occurred after his EOD training, hence why he would still retain the knowledge for the honor guard. One thing I don’t see mentioned is that the Honor Guard, no matter what organization, is a very prestigious position and duty, and the uniforms, movements and overall appearance will always be very closely scrutinized. It shouldn’t be too big of a deal to think that he highjacked the honor guard, but to actually kidnap the original HG, get all their uniforms, find people the exact same dimensions of the original HG, then clean up their appearance (haircut, shave, etc etc), then train them accordingly so they could get close without anyone noticing, not to mention making sure they all wore the uniforms correctly, shows he has incredible attention to detail and probably did it before somewhere. Weapons and explosives: Gaining proficiency with weapons isn’t difficult, being proficient and knowledgeable with SEVERAL weapons gets tricky. The fact that he can, and does, utilize them all with such confidence and success should showcase that he may have been familiar with them through some formal training. EOD typically goes through "Weapons Intel Training" where they address every single weapon one could think of, and some you can’t, and how they operate. As to the explosives, simply knowing what they are and how they work from a regular soldiers perspective wouldn’t be enough. Sure, he could dig around and find some things out on the internet, deepweb, whatever, but what he uses is far too advanced for that. He doesn’t just utilize explosives; he used BBIED's (body-borne IED's) with cell phones, straight out of the insurgent’s handbooks (so to speak) from Iraq/Afghan. To make this work, and make it work consistently, he'd have to have more than a passing familiarity with simple explosives and detonators. He also has a safe/arming switch on at least one (the ferry) detonator. That belies a little more professional knowledge of the subject. And of course, the explosives he uses, for the most part, are not "military grade", probably because they are too easy to trace... he "is a guy of simple tastes" like gasoline, gunpowder and dynamite because they are more widely available and much more difficult to link to a specific time and/or place. Interrogation scene: I’d like to point out in the scene directly before he gets his head slammed into the table, he asks Gordon " Does it depress you, commissioner? To know just how alone you really are? Does it make you feel responsible for Harvey Dent's current predicament?" , this reminds me of the feelings alot of leaders have if they get hit, lose their soldiers, and survive. Moving on, one could argue that his "head" comment means he interrogated someone before, possibly in other situations, but it may also be referring to the head trauma he may have suffered when hit by an IED, or perhaps (if my theory is to be believed) he worked with other agencies while deployed and watched these interrogations himself. He then points out that Batman got people killed, then let Dent "take his place", and that "even to a guy like [him], that’s cold", further making me think he was an NCO who took responsibility for his soldiers deaths and feels he should have been killed in their stead. Obviously, he thinks letting someone else "take the bullet" for that persons actions is reprehensible. Stories about scars: completely fabricated, probably on the spot, and as far from the truth as possible, HOWEVER, I don’t think he did it himself. His "creation": There’s a saying among veterans and soldiers: PTSD is realizing that you’ll never be anywhere near as badass as you were while deployed. If my theory holds then it stands to reason that a thought process like this could have contributed to his creation, but I don’t think that’s the ONLY reason. He is far too smart for a simple "he needs to be challenged" explanation. I think TBI pushed him over the edge, but what got him "out the door" and working towards everything was simple: he was bored. So, TBI altered his mental state drastically, Boredom got him out the door, and finally, Batman was a challenge, and we do so love to overcome challenges in the military, EOD even more so. (DISCLAIMER: I’m not saying that everyone with TBI is insane, I’m simply saying that brain injury has been shown, in some cases, to cause people's behavior to radically change, and in rare cases, they become violent sociopaths). Ive heard people theorize that he “had no goal” or “end game”, except pure chaos. I think he had goals, and that his goals never shifted. They were the same from start to finish. This will take some explaining, so bear with me here. In the military, and especially with leadership, we have two VERY well known processes: Backwards planning, and risk assessment. Backwards planning, simply, is planning to achieve a desired result or goal. Now, where the Joker is concerned, if I had to nail it down to one goal I’d say that the he wasn’t interested in money, power, "running the city" or anything close to that. His goal was very simple and he even stated it in the beginning, in a way: "We kill the Batman". I don’t think he meant this literally, but that his goal was to destroy the idea of Batman and anyone who might have the same ideology. Now that we have established that his desired result was killing an idea and not a specific person (which, oddly enough, is exactly what we were trying to do in Iraq/Afghanistan), we can start some backwards planning. Since the Joker is working backwards, and the police are forced to react to everything, working forwards more or less, it may seem like he "conveniently" knows everything or plans for everything. However, since his goal isn’t necessarily a specific person, it’s MUCH easier for him to be flexible in real time, whereas the police are stuck in a waiting game. This helps fill in some of the plot holes, but not all of them. How did he know to have a BBIED in the jail, for instance. Enter my second point: risk assessment. In the Army (where I served) risk assessment is what leaders live and breathe. A simple breakdown is this: you have your goal, then begin your backwards planning. During this planning phase, you think of every possible hazard that may occur during the course of reaching this desired goal. IE: we plan to drive tactical vehicles out to a range, could the roads be wet? will there be a lightning storm? could one of them break down? could there be an accident? could God himself smite one of the drivers? As ridiculous as it may sound, no possibility is considered too extreme (although it’s usually shortened to relevant hazards because let’s face it: we'd never get done writing them), in theory. He knew that in the course of attempting to capture Harvey he may very well be captured himself. He also knew that if he WAS captured, he'd most likely be taken to that jail. He also knew that he needed a way to get out that was simple, undetectable, and that the police would be unprepared for, hence he used a BBIED. He planned this long beforehand not because he KNEW that he'd be there, but because he recognized that it MIGHT happen, and established and applied "controls" appropriately, just like you're taught to do with risk assessments. At this point, I’m sure you're saying "but what about the phone call? How did he know that he'd be able to make it, much less that there would be an officer he could overpower in the interrogation room?" Good point, but he didn’t. He had no idea, and I’d be willing to bet that he had someone on the outside (remember he told Gordon that Harvey and Rachel were being moved around depending on the time?) who was told to wait and call the number on the phone at a certain time. He may have even had that person outside the building, observing, to make sure the joker wasn’t close enough to be injured or killed by the blast, and waiting for the appointed time. As far as the officer in the room, that’s what we would call a "target of opportunity". It wasn’t necessary for him to be there, but it made it much easier in the end. Some other points: Why knives? Bayonet Assault Course. Everyone went through it back then, and I think he realized how psychologically powerful even presenting a knife is in a fight, much less threatening someone with it up close. The fact that knives never need ammo, are dangerous in every direction and never jam probably didn’t hurt either. His lack of a back-story is important in that it presents the idea that it isn’t important who he is, (or was), where he came from, etc. The important thing is the idea of him, and his opposition to the idea of Batman. Again, in the military, it’s drilled into you that as a person, you are simply a small part of a very very very large machine, and what matters is the goal/mission and not yourself. This is also reinforced by the fact that the Joker is willing to sacrifice anything and everything, including himself, to accomplish his goal. His comment “they need you right now, but when they don’t, they’ll cast you out, like a leper!” was very telling as well. A lot of veterans feel this way after their service. In the end, everything above is just my theory and not really any different from any other theory presented. I just figured id provide a look at this through “army EOD goggles”. Either way, Heath Ledger did an amazing job, and the movie was great. Of course, I welcome any questions regarding my theory. EDIT 1: on fingerprints, DNA and dental records: First off, the fingerprints. Now, if he was EOD, he would absolutely have fingerprints on record with the DoD, as is required for people with that level of clearance. However, as EOD, he would also have gone through a course we call "Sensitive Site Exploitation" or SSE for short. This is similar to what a forensic investigator would do at a crime scene, the only difference being that it would be done on deployment. This was primarily used to identify and exploit intel that might be found at weapon caches, or evidence left over from an IED strike (said evidence would have been collected by EOD in a Post Blast Analysis, cataloged, and sent to labs for further testing). Again, i wont get into specifics regarding the techniques, i will say that fingerprint collection was a large part of this process, just as it is in civilian law enforcement. It was at this point that he would learn that fingerprints are unique... but if they are damaged, by thermal/chemical burns, cuts, sandpaper, etc, then they will not match the original fingerprints taken. The damaged prints would still be unique, but the person would have to be fingerprinted again for them to be entered into any database. It would have been too easy for the Joker to burn off his prints, knowing exactly how to do it. As for the DNA, i'd like to say that the theories youve presented are a good guess as to a clandestine involvement with CIA, Delta, whomever. But of course, the answer is nowhere near as interesting. As per Per DoD Instruction 5154.30, Section 3.c.(1), which is absurdly dry and a little confusing if you dont know which parts are simply "administrative" data that you can skip, any service member who has completed their obligation can request to have their DNA sample destroyed. It must then be destroyed within 180 days, and confirmation sent to the veteran. So the (admittedly boring) answer is: he had the DoD destroy it after he got out. Wish it were more interesting, but again, its just my take. :) And about dental: The service would definitely have a copy of all dental records of any soldier. However, with the advent of DNA they tend to use those records strictly for medical purposes. Also, congress had to pass a law to allow outside agencies to use the DoD DNA database for criminal investigation/prosecution, and only after exhausting all other resources and getting an order from a judge. Considering HIPAA and its implications, id wonder if dental records would be even more difficult to obtain than DNA... but good point. To add to the dental records: i double checked, and if it had been more than 2 years since someones last appointment, their records would be in the Archives, and would require a written request for the specific records. The request would need Full name and SSN and the date and location of last treatment. Keep in mind, thats to get a paper copy. There are simply too many medical records for them to scan everything into any sort of database, assuming they didnt loose it first (it is the govt, after all). Adding for ease of reading, and the last little bit about dental that i didnt think to include on the response below. PS: thank you guys for the feedback :D
Heath Ledger was found unconscious on his bed on 22 January 2008 by his housekeeper. On 6 February 2008, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York in the report said, "We have concluded... 5 Stories You've Never Heard Before About Heath Ledger As The Joker. By Todd Van Luling. Legendary makeup artist John Caglione Jr. worked closely with Heath Ledger over the course of shooting "The Dark Knight," helping the actor transform into the role that would posthumously win him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Caglione had his work cut out for him: Tasked with creating a Heath Ledger's breakout role was in the film 10 Things I Hate About You with Julia Stiles. Ledger received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for his role in Brokeback Mountain. In 2008,... When the NYC medical examiner finished Heath Ledger’s toxicology report 15 days after he was found dead in his New York apartment, they ruled that Heath Ledger’s death was caused by “acute intoxication” and abuse of prescription medications. Ellen Borakave, spokesperson for Office of Chief Medical Examiner said: “Mr. Heath Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine. We have Here’s the story of how Ledger’s Joker came into existence and why everyone loves him. Also Read: Joker 2 is all set to hit on the screen very soon! Preparation For The Role At the time Heath One of the more intriguing things bandied about in the days following Heath Ledger’s tragic death last month was that the Joker — the comic book character Ledger plays in the upcoming The Dark Knight — killed him.. By this people didn’t mean that the Joker, a fictional character, literally killed Ledger, but they didn’t exactly mean it in a wholly figurative sense either. Actor Heath Ledger’s death was caused due to an accidental overdose. It forever cast a shadow on the film The Dark Knight. Ledger played the role of Joker opposite Christian Bale’s Batman. It... Ultimately, this is the story of how a young, talented actor on the verge of breaking into the very upper echelons of Hollywood died of an overdose in January 2008, a little under six months before... Actor Heath Ledger’ s death due to an accidental overdose forever cast a shadow on the film The Dark Knight, in which Ledger played the Joker opposite Christian Bale’s Batman. Rumours at the time... Heath Ledger was a critically acclaimed actor whose sudden accidental death cut his impressive career short. Starting on humble stage plays and minor roles in television shows, Heath eventually
The Dark Truth Behind Heath Ledger's Joker - YouTube
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