Todd’s Movie Blog

So, I’m surfing around the web looking for something to blog about and come upon an interesting article on MSN.com.  Warner Bros. announced a tentative choice for the next villain in their Batman franchise…..The Riddler.  My initial reaction  was “No! Not The Riddler, he’s so lame!”  Now understand something, The Riddler was originally my favorite Batman villain.  I loved the concept of someone so smart he would leave clues for his proposed crimes, confident that no one would figure them out.  I could have done without the lime green tights, but that’s another matter.

The main reason I loved the character was because of Frank Gorshin.  Out of all the special guest star villains on the old Adam West show, he was the only one who seemed truly menacing, those manic eyes and that weird high pitched giggle that came out at odd moments.  This was a man who appeared truly unhinged and on the verge of actually killing someone, no wonder he won an emmy for it.

The character never fared so well in the comics, a low on the totem pole second stringer in the rouges gallery, a thief forced by a psychological compulsion to send clues before he is able to commit a crime, most of the writers for the last forty years have portrayed him as a whiny, pathetic loser.  The animated series in the nineties gave him back some dignity, portraying him as a man out to prove he is smarter than everyone and get revenge on the business man who cheated him out of his computer game creation.  But then came Jim Carrey , who came across as Ace Ventura: Puzzle Thief!

So I was less than enthused about The Riddler being put into the more realistic setting of Nolan’s Batman Universe.  I had thought a suave and sophisticated gangster oriented version of The Penguin or a high rise, safe cracking burglar version of Catwoman would be the way to go.  And then I saw who they were thinking of casting and my attitude completely changed.

Johnny Depp!  Yes, that could work.  His Pirates of the Caribbean movies and such thrillers as Once Upon a Time in Mexico and Secret Window have demonstrated his ability to play quirky, menacing characters who you are never sure what they are going to do from one scene to the next.  if this does come to be I think Depp will make the definitive Riddler, like Ledger made the definitive Joker.