Jack's Joker and Heath's Joker

What does Jack's Joker in for me is the script rather than his performance. His performance is great, but in that film the Joker is too much the "Mob boss" character. And the artist aspect of it that comes in and last for about the third quarter of the film before going away again seemed needless and a bit stupid (see: Joker dancing to Prince and flinging green paint around). The scenes where it's just the Joker are great, and sometimes the stuff with his henchmen are good too. But mainly them just get in the way of his character. Like the final scene with Joker and Batman in the bell tower. It's actually pretty amazing (and somewhat similar to Batman and Joker's final confrontation in The Dark Knight), but it's worsened by having a few random henchmen pop out of nowhere to fight Batman before they come face to face. One of the guys actually beats Batman pretty badly, which is annoying.

But the scenes where it's just the Joker being the Joker are great. His first appearences before taking over the mob and his final scene being the main ones. Although once again, having the henchmen fly in to chopper him out kind of spoils it. But that's the script. Jack's performance, while different, was just as entertaining as Heath's (though not as menacing/chilling/scary/etc, but just as crazy) when Jack was just being the Joker and not a mob boss or an artist or whatever. That's not an interpretation of the Joker that I like. When Batman is hanging from a ledge and the Joker is stamping on the crumbling bricks yelling "THEY DON'T MAKE 'EM LIKE THEY USED TO, EH BATS?", that's a Joker I like. When Vicky Vale chucks watre in his face and he pretends to be melting, that's a Joker I like.


Heath's Joker was the combination of a great performance, but also a script that fit the character perfectly. If say Heath's Joker was transplanted in the 89 film, and was given the mob boss/artist character, I'd have exactly the same criticisms I do for Jack. But The Dark Knight thankfully didn't bother with that. Didn't bother with any story for the Joker really. He just came in and fucked the city up and I enjoyed every bit of it. He was funny and terrifying and calculating and spontaneous seemingly all at once. So yeah, over all I prefer Heath's Joker, but part of that is The Dark Knight's script (but I do think Heath's performance is a notch better than Jack's). I prefer how the Joker character was written in The Dark Knight as opposed to how it was written in Batman. In terms of the performance, the best bits of Jack's Joker just about match up with Heath's Joker, though they are different portrayal's of the character.

There's also just the fact that Batman is nearly 20 years old, the techniques used haven't aged well. I think some if some of the scenes were to be recreated today they could have just as much impact as the scenes from The Dark Knight. Like when the Joker stares down the Batplane, and pulls a giant gun out of his trousers (corny as hell, but it fits with that Joker). Seeing it now it doesn't look that good, just because it obviously uses several different elements that don't cut together too well, so you don't get the sense of the scale of the situation.

Soooooooo.......... which is it that you prefer out of the 2?..........maybe I'll read it later, dont feel to right now, at all.......

Over all I prefer Heath. But it's as much to do with the script as it is his performance.

thing is i think script played a larger part in this more then anything
see my review

Well I saw dark knight, heath really did steal every scene he was in and was great as joker, the voice he made really suited him, and I heard it was his choice to do whatever with the role and what turned out was brilliant.......I haven't seen batman 1989, I got in on my pc, I just skipped to jack's parts and it didn't really excite me and I was into it to tell the truth, just seemed like an average actor doing his thing........I realize it was 20 years ago, but still.......batman in the 1989 one didn't really get my attention either, he seemed like a C actor or something......maybe I'll watch it later tonight..........I felt sorry in the end of dark knight though, just cuz of heath and the fact that we wont get to see him anymore, in a batman sequel as well, it would've been awesome if he was in a sequel just cuz he was so badass.......they'll probably get someone else for joker for the sequel since I doubt joker will stay in jail for a long time, but it wont be the same............R.I.P Heath (I know I'm late, but still)

well i watched batman 1989 when it was fairly new
at the time it was an amazing movie
mind films were crapper in those days
as they normally didn't have storylines

Yeah I know, just saying since I never wacthed it back then I guess I cant really compare cuz jack's seemed a lil childish to me now.......for example I liked batman forever alot back then and the one after too kinda, the one with freeze, but if I watched them now I guess it would be different.......

Luk wrote:

Yeah I know, just saying since I never wacthed it back then I guess I cant really compare cuz jack's seemed a lil childish to me now.......for example I liked batman forever alot back then and the one after too kinda, the one with freeze, but if I watched them now I guess it would be different.......

If Jack's Joker appears childish to you, then Mr. Freeze will just be ridiculous. Seriously, watch those films again.

Again, I said I kinda liked that one at the time, forever was much better.......and that if I saw them now they'd be as ridiculuos......forever not so much maybe.......I was still a kid when I watched the freeze one so I guess his "jokes" didn't bother me at the time, I probably wont make it to the end of the film if I played it now........but I'll give batman I try since I have it......

Check out the Nostalgia Critic review of Batman and Robin. It's great.