I'm one of those infidels who claims the original Batman movie was way, way better than the Nolan vehicles. And it's all thanks to Jack.
Batman Begins
Batman Begins was... so so. Why? A mobile microwave unit that cooks water, but not people? And it's used to evaporate that aforementioned water so a deadly poison gets spread throughout the city? Why not use the unit to cook the people right away?
Get serious. I can stand Farscape but this is too much, even for me. It's not... evil enough. If director Nolan's take on the dark knight is supposed to be more realistic, nitty-gritty, then we deserve better movie logic than shown in this one. Okay, it explains how the Bat acquired his nearly superhuman skills. So?
Why would I care?
This Batman doesn't even invent his own gadgets...
The Dark Knight
I had higher expectations for the second movie, and yes, it was a bit better. Heath Ledger (as the Joker) stole the show, but I can't help but wonder if he plays The Joker, or just a white faced maniac with a bad hair day. 80% of his character seems to be missing. Oh, he's brooding. He's impressive. He's intriguing.
But he's not the Joker.
Heath Ledger is not the over the top comic book character that an over the top hero such as Batman deserves. Criminal? Yes. Maniac? Yes. Twisted? Yes.
A Joker? The Joker?
No.
But then, who is?
Jack.
Uncle Jack is.
Crazy
Jack Nicholson is still the man. He's... crazy.
He is not evil per-se, he is not driving for anarchism, he's not simply a maniac, he's... well, let's say his perception of the world does not match ours. (An eternal smile can do crazy things to a person.) He knows what is evil and whatnot. And he revels in it! He thinks it's okay to relieve people from their cash, well, fine by me. (Governments are of the same opinion 😉) He also thinks that life, in general, is a relative concept (with his own relatively more important than others). He thinks that evil and fun are not mutually exclusive. And of course, he enjoys the good things of life, especially those things in life that anger the bat.
Now that's a joker. The Joker.
Nicholson got that right. Nolan / Ledger got it wrong.
You could complain that Nicholson's Joker was just Nicholson, playing himself, playing the Joker. (Un)fortunately, that's just what Nicholson's good at: playing Nicholson. Which, coincidentally, seems to fit the Joker's profile...
Sorry, Nolan.
Sorry, Ledger.
You didn't even get close.
Dapper / TellTales! 49
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