Rank the Jokers...
Ranking all the live action movies and the animated ones. The ones I have seen anyway.
-Spoilers and What Not -
1. Jack Nicholson – Okay so that movie is a little 80’s and some of the effects haven’t aged so well, still the 89 Batman is one of the best comic book movies ever. And you have to love Jack as the Joker. He has played some great villains in the past, Jack Torrance for instance, and here he knocks it out of the park. The ego, the sadism, gunning down his own henchmen for no reason, dancing to Prince songs, its what the Joker is all about. No grand scheme, no big speeches, no plan at all really. Like he said, he makes art till someone dies. Remember he burned Jerry Hall’s face, she was the very first Joker girlfriend to get her skin messed up.
And come on, he was pretty bad ass even before the acid bath. I love that part where Eckhardt goes to meet Jack, and he's standing in the alley, wearing the trench coat and fedora. Bad guys always look better with a Fedora. And I love that final fight, Batman is kicking the *beep* out of him, Joker’s spitting blood everywhere, and yet he keeps making his dumb jokes. And I know people don’t like the fact that this Joker killed Bruce’s parents but I do. It sets up why this Batman hates the Joker and why he is do determined to stop him. And this version of Batman's parents getting killed was by far the best.
“You wouldn’t hit a guy with glasses, would you.”
2. Jared Leto – Okay I might be in the minority on this but I absolutely loved Jared’s performance. Yeah way to much got cut out, hopefully we will get to see it in the extended cut. Warner Bros really needs to edit these movies better. They did the exact same thing with BvS, the extended cut of that was a big improvement. Oh well hopefully, they will learn from their mistakes. Either way, from what we did get to see, he was great as the Joker. I loved the look, the tattoo’s, the teeth, the slicked back green hair. The design on Jared's Makeup was traffic. Sort of a pimp/gangster Joker. Jared is very handsome and those bright blue eyes really contrast well with the makeup. Also he really got the essence of the character insanity, vanity and total chaos. Him and Margot had great chemistry too. And she is really, really hot. I grew up watching Batman the Animated Series and I got to say Margot got Harley down perfectly. And I Love, Love that scene at the end when he comes to get Harley. He pops out of the helicopter wearing a tux, screaming his head off, firing a machine gun. That’s the Joker. Or the part where he is laughing hysterically while he is surrounded by his menagerie of weapons, laptops and baby clothes. Or the scene where he *beep* with Common. That was great.
"Are you sweet talking me.”
3. Mark Hamill – Now it’s hard to judge voice actors since they don’t add any physicality to the role. Still Hamill has left such an impact. Hell, he’s probably played the Joker longer than anybody. His voice, there is just something about it that is so perfect. High pitched and aggressive, and almost inhuman. He did such a good job on Batman TAS, really stood out. Which is impressive when you consider how many great voice actors they had on that show like Kevin Conroy, Richard Moll, Arlene Sorkin and Aron Kincaid. What’s great about him, was he really got the range of the Joker. In some episodes he would be very goofy and comical where as others he could be very dark and threatening. And come on, he was great in Mask of the Phantasm and Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker. Honestly he probably had the best Joker laugh. So unhinged and psychotic. So much power behind it.
“Behind all the gadgets and batorangs, you just a little boy in a play suit crying for mommy and daddy. It’d be funny if it weren’t so pathetic. ..Oh what the heck I’ll laugh anyway.”
4. Heath Ledger – Again I have a feeling, I might be in the minority on this one. Don’t get me wrong, I think Heath did a good job. But Mark and Jack and Jared did better. Plus with Heath, it’s hard to distinguish what people liked about his performance vs people’s reaction to his tragic death. It’s horrible that he died so young, especially with a little girl but still dying young always adds to someone mystique. Everyone knows who James Dean is, but that guy only did three movies. ‘Rebel without a Cause’ is a classic but ‘Giant’ stinks and ‘East of Eden’ was just okay. But he’s a legend cause he died so young and so horribly. Same thing here. I remember reading on one IMBD post, somebody asked how many people agreed that Heath Ledge’s Joker was the greatest performance in the history of movies. Stuff like that is a little much. But all that aside, he did do a great job. Sure his Joker talked way to much and gave way to many speeches, a problem with all Nolan characters, but I can’t deny Heath brought a real energy to the role. The scenes he’s in are amazing. And no, I didn’t love the idea that his Joker was just a guy in makeup, I guess that’s the more realistic style Nolan was going for. I don’t know, it seems to me the whole point of the Joker, is this is a guy who can’t take his makeup off. Though his character did have a nice grungy quality to him. Kind of like Sid Vicious as a super-villain. And he did kill Maggie Gyllenhaal. That was bad ass. She really sucked.
“This city deserves a better class of criminal. And I’m gonna give it to them.”
5. John DiMaggio – The Death of Robin is one of, if not the definitive moment of Batman’s career. The biggest *beep* up. The moment that solidified Jokers place as Batman’s arch nemesis. But we still haven’t see it in a live action movie yet. Hopefully will get to see Margot and Jared take the crow bar to Robin. But until then we got this. Not the best animated Batman movie, but it has it moments. John DiMaggio gives his Joker a much gruffer almost workmen like quality. This is a more hands on Joker, who really loves his work. The scene of him beating Robin is pretty brutal, even for a cartoon. There is nothing elaborate about it, or gimmicky. Just Robin getting beat to a bloody pulp. And the Joker loving every minute of it. Also this Joker might be the most divorced from reality. I love the scene where the Black Mask is trying to talk the Joker, telling him his grand plane, and Joker is just eating his chips. Not paying any attention. Then he kills all of Black Mask’s goons, for no real reason. And the final scene is great. Where Robin is gonna kill the Joker. And the Joker is just not even registering it. No matter how hard Robin beats on him, he just keeps laughing and laughing. He just doesn’t care. Granted this film I isn’t perfect. It can’t seem to decide whether it’s for kids or adults. A lot of the lines don’t work.
But Bender was a pretty good Joker.
“Be a good boy…And hey please tell the big man I said Hello.”
6. Cesar Romero – Okay the 1966 Batman movie and TV series are pretty stupid by today’s standards. Really stupid. But I remember my mom telling me how popular this all was when she was a kid. She told me ‘Batman the Movie’ was the first movie she ever saw in theaters and that every person in her school had seen it. So it is a big part of Batman history. And again, while its pretty goofy, Cesar was the first person to ever play the Joker and certain aspects of his character have stayed with us even today. It’s kind of like Dracula. Part of what we think of, when we think of Dracula, is from Bram Stockers book. And part of it, is from the way Bela Lugosi played him. Same thing here. The manic energy, the childishness, the erratic mannerisms, all stuff we associate with the Joker that started with Cesar. Silly, yes. Campy, oh yeah. But Important none the less.
“A joke a day, keeps the gloom away."
7. Michael Emerson – This guy sucked. With a capital Suc. ‘The Dark Knight Returns is easily the most overrated of all the Batman comics. The movie didn’t do much better. I get it, it was probably a big deal in the 80’s but now it’s all pretty dated. And Emerson was just awful. That stupid voice he did. He was trying to be subdued and creepy but it came off more like an eighth grader with a bad cold doing a Hannibal Lector impression. The whole thing was idiotic. With his lip stick and those cabbage patch dolls that spit out gas, all pretty stupid. It also didn’t help that Peter Weller had the worst Batman voice ever.
“I’ll see you in hell.”
Anyway even though we now have the definitive Joker ranking list, I’m still curious about what you all think.
How would you rank them and why?
And are there any Joker’s I left out?
i told you not to stop the boat. Now lets go. Apocaylpse Now