I wasn't a fan of the movie, but Ledger was nothing short of superb in it. Christian Bale has really started to "over-act" his roles, Rescue Dawn was probably his last solid performance IMO.
I disagree, yelling is not over acting. He is one of the most subtle actors alive IMO, he uses his eyes better than anyone else I've seen.
He was excellent in Public Enemies and as subtle as ever (though a lot of the general public just label subtle acting as boring and wooden), the son of the guy who he played even said they couldn't have gotten a better performance if they cloned his father. He delivered another great downplayed subtle performance in 3.10 to Yuma too and a memorable couple of scenes in I'm Not There (a more flashy role in this one). The Prestige was also filmed after Rescue Dawn and he is brilliant in that, playing two (or four if you count their alter egos) characters, giving them all subtle differences.
He is the ultimate thinker, every little mannerism and intonation of his voice is done to serve a purpose. An example is The Dark Knight, a lot of people called his performance boring and tired and mopey; that was exactly how Bruce Wayne is in the script, the whole movie is about how he is tired with living a dual life and considering giving it up.
He is an actor, not a movie star. His aim is to serve the character and the movie, not to entertain the public. He isn't afraid of stepping into the background if it serves the movie. He's not the next Brad Pitt, Will Smith, Tom Cruise or George Clooney; he's more like Gary Oldman, Robert Duvall, Chris Cooper or Daniel Day-Lewis.
Terminator Salvation is the exception (along with a couple of others when he was poor and looking for work e.g. Reign of Fire, though he was still good in that), that movie was just poorly written and had no substance. He either agreed to that before the script had been finished and took a leap of faith in McG and it failed big time, or he just wanted a nice pay packet. He used an angry, husky voice a lot in that movie because the character was pretty much a stereotypical yelling, angry military leader, the writers gave John Connor no character development at all. The only depth was that he was frustrated with the leaders above him which simply led to more anger and yelling.
Fair enough if you dislike his Batman voice but it is not simply his choice, the director is the one who is in charge of the movie.
I personally loved it, it sounds exactly the way I imagined it as described in the comics.
I find the other Batman voices laughable because they don't disguise it at all, it makes no sense when they talk the same as Bruce Wayne, especially if they are going for 'realism' like the Nolan movies.
..but I'm just a Bale fanboy, so you can probably disregard everything I said up there ^.
Really though, I think some people are simplifying his performances a bit and not thinking through why they are the way they are. I think more people will start to notice what I and other Bale fans see when he plays some bigger roles with substance and flashier characters. The Fighter sounds like one of those roles but I'm not sure if it will get a wide release.
I think the Ledger Joker was great too and about as faithful to the comics as you could get in Nolan's world.
Also, Blade Runner is awesome and Superbad is a great honest and touching comedy about teenagers, IMO (and Michael Cera is one of the most gifted comic actors I have seen, but that rant will could take up a few more paragraphs).
