Over All Rating Reviews :
Well sculpted overall
Decent articulation
Good paint job from the neck down
The only Movie Master to get a real accessory - his knife
Easily the best Crime Scene Evidence extra
It's the Joker!
Cons:
The weird neck
The paint job from the neck up leaves a little to be desired (but is easily customized)
Nearly impossible to find in stores (Luckily Amazon is a huge help)
Hello, and welcome to my review of the Movie Masters Joker. I won't even mention Ledger's excellent performance (which would be redundant at this point) or the rarity of this figure, I'll just get down to the nitty-gritty.
Overall, the sculpting is quite good. His clothes, from his gloves to his coat to his shoes, look great and are for the most part very accurate to the movie. You could rag on his shirt underneath the vest (it's the wrong color), but c'mon.
His clothes look great, but that wouldn't mean anything if he was lousy from the neck up. However, once again Joker delivers in the sculpt department. The hair looks good and while it's not a perfect Heath Ledger, it's at least a decent likeness. His Glasgow grin isn't entirely screen-accurate (The cuts here are a lot cleaner, whereas the movie Joker has a truly grotesque look with some serious Keloid damage), but I'm sure that's because they only had early photos and very limited reference material to work with, and did the best they could. As it is, he looks good, especially for this scale.
In fact there's only one bone I have to pick with the sculpt: The neck. In an attempt to capture the "looking at you through his brows" look (I call it the Kubrick Stare because...well, just watch Vincent D'Onofrio's performance in Full Metal Jacket), Joker has a bit of a hunch, with his head pointed down - even when it's tilted back as far as it can go, he still looks like he's prepping for a golf shot. It's not like he's Quasimodo, not at all, and in certain poses he looks great. But the neck is sculpted with a twist, so if you pose it level, it's still tilted off to the side, meaning you can't have him looking straight ahead without him looking weird. Why did they do this? I have no idea.
Paintwise, from the neck down everything looks excellent, from the deep purples of his coat to the green of his vest. Like I mentioned earlier his shirt's in the wrong color, but even it looks great. But things aren't as great from the neck up. The facepaint frankly leaves a lot to be desired. (Remember that this just applies to the figure I got, and the one you'll end up with may be different). The face is mostly a flat white, and with no real wash he loses some of his detail. The smile mostly fares a little better, but for some reason there's this huge red line running up to his nose (I've seen this on literally every Joker I've seen in person), making it look as if he's got a scare there, too. And the raccoon look of his eyes isn't nearly as dark as in the movie, and doesn't let the eyes "pop out" as they should. I know they're working in a six-inch scale and may not have had much to work with, but if the makeup artist had done this bad a job, he'd have been fired. However, the eyes are great and look appropriately haunted.
Fret not, because the issues I have with the makeup can be easily fixed. I took a little (not too much) white acrylic paint and covered up that red line, but I didn't trust my skill with a brush enough to use it around his eyes. Instead, I used a simple black ink pen - and it worked! I wouldn't touch the ink after applying it (it'll smudge), but it looks so much better. A lackluster paint job can become a great one, if you have the right materials.
Easily the most controversial feature of the Movie Masters is that, in lieu of any accessories, they're packaged with "crime scene evidence", which is generally a doodad in a tiny plastic bag which doesn't look bad, but is in the long run rather useless and makes you wish that Batman came with some batarangs or even a Bruce Wayne head (no one likes Chases anyway) instead. But Joker's is easily the best on the bunch: It's a...well, it's a joker. Like the card Gordon showed Batman at the ending of Batman Begins, or the many Joker cards seen throughout The Dark Knight. Not only does Joker look good standing on it as sort of a base, but it will also come in handy if you're making a Joker costume. Or you could just put it in your grandma's Rook game for kicks.
When you're looking at your Joker in the box, look closely at his left hand. You'll see that he's holding a knife. A real accessory? In a Movie Masters figure? Yes, it's true! While a bit too "soft" and easily bent (to avoid a safety hazard, I'm sure), this knife adds so much in terms of potential poses and playability. Be warned that it's *tiny*, so make sure you don't lose it. If you were to give Joker to your average little kid, it'd be gone in a heartbeat.
Throughout this whole review, I've probably been a little nitpicky: The neck's crooked, the facepaint's bad, blahblahblahblahblah... you may get the feeling that I don't like this figure. You'd be wrong! If you're a fan and want to get this guy, don't hesitate for a minute. He's an overall solid figure, and is your only real option for a Heath Ledger Joker at this scale (and price range)...unless you like the weird, cartoony 5 inch version, that is. And my biggest complaint - the rather lousy face paint - can be easily and quickly fixed. And as of this review, he can finally be grabbed up for a halfway decent price online, which is really your best bet in owning one.
Things to watch for - just make sure not to move his legs forward too high...you'll make an unsightly dent where the joint and torso meet in a rather visible area. Other than that, you should be fine.
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