original "Batman" v.s "The Dark Knight"

Rating: 10/10 (4 April 2009)

i know there are so many of these here posts but: i remember being about three and loving the original "Batman". It was one of my favorite movies in my childhood. I loved it. I thought Nicholson's performance was fantastic. Tim Burton's version was masterful, but i mean it WAS. I watched it yesterday and wasn't as impressed. I had not seen it for about a year, and up to that point i watched it religiously. I wasn't comparing it to "The Dark Knight" but as a movie on its own, but i was comparing the Joker roles.
Anyone who thinks Nicholson did a better job is only being nostalgic and loyal to the original. Which isn't really the original. If someone said Caesar Romero did a better job because he was really the original Joker, than it would probably be laughed at. Compared to the 89 version, Romero's performance was childish.
The same goes for Nicholson's in relation to Ledger's. Nicholson did not put himself into the performance at all. It wasn't the Joker but Nicholson, acting as he always does. His voice was the same, he looked like himself, and the way he acted and breathed was of Nicholson.
Now Ledger became the role, which is what actors are supposed to do. The Joker in 89 became Nicholson and the Joker in 2008 overtook Ledger: in an acting sense. It was like a real character, not just another way to see the same man.
In comparison, Nicholson at the end of the scene with Vicki Vale, when leaving her apartment, blew a raspberry and then went off on his way. Yeah, okay, this is definitely a funny dark side to the character, but come on, it's a little silly. Whether it was meant to be silly or not, it did not fit the role of a "maniac".
And to comment on the art museum scene with the dance song...not too scary. Although entertaining, this is really something that a supposed "insane" man did in Burton's Gotham City. it doesn't feel dangerous and it isn't.
Ledger's Joker was fun and scary as hell. His voice sounded the way the Joker should, his laugh was actually creepy as opposed to Nicholson's: excluding one great laugh after his surgery. Ledger's got in the faces of the citizens, wielding a knife in their faces, and he never complained about stolen balloons.
and to mention Nicholson while about to fall to his death, he showed real signs of being frightened. Ledger's Joker was laughing as he thought he was falling to his death. Now who is more of a maniac? I still like the original "Batman" but the superior film in my opinion will always be "The Dark Knight"