Okay, then here: Ledger isn't playing the Joker. He's playing some kind of drug addict. Sure, it's realistic, but it's not "the Joker." It's Nolan applying his "it has to be realistic" aesthetic to a comic book character by turning said character into a what I've described above. It's NOT that interesting to me, not compared to the job Jack Nicholson did. Then again, Burtan's Batman was a comic-book movie, and Nolan's is NOT a comic book movie but a movie based on a comic book that tries to deny its roots at every chance. So there.
I kind of see where you're coming from here.
I mean, I disagree with you. I went into the Dark Knight skeptical, and was surprised by the extent to which I was won over. I was never a fan of Batman anyway, but given all the promotional material, it just struck me as surly and joyless. A moody, edgy action film. That's not my style, as a general rule, but I feel that it was executed
alarmingly well. Like, I thought it was a ridiculously immersive bit of cinema, and I never found myself watching the clock - which I was thoroughly expecting to. I actually sat next to a friend of mine who I joke around with a lot, 'cause I was expecting to be making silly asides throughout the whole thing, just to inject some fun into it, but didn't want to annoy anyone else. So you know, consider me rapt with attention.
But, to any long-term fans of the franchise, the mood of The Dark Knight (and, reportedly, Batman Begins) is so dissonant, compared to what came before, that it's got to be a fairly bitter pill. The Adam West stuff, of course, was incredibly campy, and - again, I've not seen it, so forgive me if I'm wrong - the Tim Burton version strikes me as probably fairly sinister in places, but also quite madcap? I assume, given what I know about Tim Burton. Batman stuff was never this dark and edgy. In comparison to other comics, yeah, it was one of the cooler ones, but it was never quite so po-faced and deadpan. I think, for a deadpan film, it really struck a chord with me. But if you're a follower of the franchise (which I take it you are?), I can see why it'd seem like it's been drained of all life.