Who was the best Batman?

[bada]

The nice thing about Batman is he can fit any number of different molds like Sherlock Holmes or James Bond. I'm not sure it's possible to have a definitive version but if you have a checklist of classic Batman characteristics Bale's Batman misses a lot of them. I really like the movies and the portrayal works within that universe but Bale's version was basically a rich guy who could take a punch. He outsourced mostly everything else to Alfred and Lucius Fox. It's a cool well made version but I wouldn't hold it up as the best. The DCAU Batman is the closest to my personal perfect version. Put Kevin Conroy up there!

I liked the outsourcing. It made the character more 'realistic'. There are only so many hours in the day to be good at everything.

Bruce Wayne IS a rich guy who can take a punch. His super power is privilege. That's why Robin is going to fail.

He's the worlds greatest detective with a genius level intellect. He's the smartest guy in the room. He has helpers but their function is like Watson to Sherlock Holmes. They aren't there to figure everything out for him. If you prefer that version that's cool but the character did debut in Detective Comics.

[Dev]

i say christian bale but I have only seen those movies soooooooo

[Jorge]

Bruce Wayne IS a rich guy who can take a punch. His super power is privilege.

Ugh.

[bada]

my only argument about why Keaton is a better batman is that the Dark Knight stuff was the first I'd ever seen of Batman as a troubled and tortured super hero - I'm not much of an expert, but assume that was the first anyone had done batman in that way?

so for me, Keaton was the personification of that idea - even though I feel it was dumbed down a bit for a movie audience - or not so much dumbed down, but made more movie audience friendly for the time.
since google tells me the first Batman movie came out in 1989, that approach to batman was completely new (at least to me) and will always stand as the best representation for batman as a dark tragic hero.

if they could have made the Christian Bale batman movies then - I'd agree - but movies weren't made that dark and violent for a large mainstream audience of comic book lovers then, not in my mind anyway.
The only way I'd known batman before that was Adam West and the Super Friends cartoons on Saturday mornings. quite the contrast...

The darker version of Batman predated Keaton's Batman in the comics but yes you are right as far as what was on TV the '89 Batman was a stark contrast. I remember my cousin asking why Batman was so mean.

[stip]

The nice thing about Batman is he can fit any number of different molds like Sherlock Holmes or James Bond. I'm not sure it's possible to have a definitive version but if you have a checklist of classic Batman characteristics Bale's Batman misses a lot of them. I really like the movies and the portrayal works within that universe but Bale's version was basically a rich guy who could take a punch. He outsourced mostly everything else to Alfred and Lucius Fox. It's a cool well made version but I wouldn't hold it up as the best. The DCAU Batman is the closest to my personal perfect version. Put Kevin Conroy up there!

I liked the outsourcing. It made the character more 'realistic'. There are only so many hours in the day to be good at everything.

Bruce Wayne IS a rich guy who can take a punch. His super power is privilege. That's why Robin is going to fail.

He's the worlds greatest detective with a genius level intellect. He's the smartest guy in the room. He has helpers but their function is like Watson to Sherlock Holmes. They aren't there to figure everything out for him. If you prefer that version that's cool but the character did debut in Detective Comics.

Being a genius (and the movie wayne is still VERY smart) does not mean you are also a physicist, chemist, mechanical engineer, and all the rest. Someone else did that stuff for him. This makes sense in a movie universe that largely humanized the character. It is also somewhat important given a lot of the political and philosophic themes that run through the films.

[stip]

Bruce Wayne IS a rich guy who can take a punch. His super power is privilege.

Ugh.

I can't wait to post my Batman article here once I write it.

[bada]

The nice thing about Batman is he can fit any number of different molds like Sherlock Holmes or James Bond. I'm not sure it's possible to have a definitive version but if you have a checklist of classic Batman characteristics Bale's Batman misses a lot of them. I really like the movies and the portrayal works within that universe but Bale's version was basically a rich guy who could take a punch. He outsourced mostly everything else to Alfred and Lucius Fox. It's a cool well made version but I wouldn't hold it up as the best. The DCAU Batman is the closest to my personal perfect version. Put Kevin Conroy up there!

I liked the outsourcing. It made the character more 'realistic'. There are only so many hours in the day to be good at everything.

Bruce Wayne IS a rich guy who can take a punch. His super power is privilege. That's why Robin is going to fail.

He's the worlds greatest detective with a genius level intellect. He's the smartest guy in the room. He has helpers but their function is like Watson to Sherlock Holmes. They aren't there to figure everything out for him. If you prefer that version that's cool but the character did debut in Detective Comics.

Being a genius (and the movie wayne is still VERY smart) does not mean you are also a physicist, chemist, mechanical engineer, and all the rest. Someone else did that stuff for him. This makes sense in a movie universe that largely humanized the character. It is also somewhat important given a lot of the political and philosophic themes that run through the films.

Yeah I conceded that it works within that movie universe. I thought we were talking the character as a whole.

[BurtReynolds]

Could you argue that Clooney is the only movie Batman that wasn't overshadowed by the villains? yes I think you can.

[bada]

Clooney could have been a good Batman. He was just let down by the material.

[stip]

The nice thing about Batman is he can fit any number of different molds like Sherlock Holmes or James Bond. I'm not sure it's possible to have a definitive version but if you have a checklist of classic Batman characteristics Bale's Batman misses a lot of them. I really like the movies and the portrayal works within that universe but Bale's version was basically a rich guy who could take a punch. He outsourced mostly everything else to Alfred and Lucius Fox. It's a cool well made version but I wouldn't hold it up as the best. The DCAU Batman is the closest to my personal perfect version. Put Kevin Conroy up there!

I liked the outsourcing. It made the character more 'realistic'. There are only so many hours in the day to be good at everything.

Bruce Wayne IS a rich guy who can take a punch. His super power is privilege. That's why Robin is going to fail.

He's the worlds greatest detective with a genius level intellect. He's the smartest guy in the room. He has helpers but their function is like Watson to Sherlock Holmes. They aren't there to figure everything out for him. If you prefer that version that's cool but the character did debut in Detective Comics.

Being a genius (and the movie wayne is still VERY smart) does not mean you are also a physicist, chemist, mechanical engineer, and all the rest. Someone else did that stuff for him. This makes sense in a movie universe that largely humanized the character. It is also somewhat important given a lot of the political and philosophic themes that run through the films.

Yeah I conceded that it works within that movie universe. I thought we were talking the character as a whole.

well, I would evaluate each of these within the parameters of their universe. Ben Affleck's Batman better be able to do all this crap to justify hanging with superman.

[malice]

my only argument about why Keaton is a better batman is that the Dark Knight stuff was the first I'd ever seen of Batman as a troubled and tortured super hero - I'm not much of an expert, but assume that was the first anyone had done batman in that way?

so for me, Keaton was the personification of that idea - even though I feel it was dumbed down a bit for a movie audience - or not so much dumbed down, but made more movie audience friendly for the time.
since google tells me the first Batman movie came out in 1989, that approach to batman was completely new (at least to me) and will always stand as the best representation for batman as a dark tragic hero.

if they could have made the Christian Bale batman movies then - I'd agree - but movies weren't made that dark and violent for a large mainstream audience of comic book lovers then, not in my mind anyway.
The only way I'd known batman before that was Adam West and the Super Friends cartoons on Saturday mornings. quite the contrast...

The darker version of Batman predated Keaton's Batman in the comics but yes you are right as far as what was on TV the '89 Batman was a stark contrast. I remember my cousin asking why Batman was so mean.

Keaton was, to me, a very good representation of the Dark Knight and Arkham Asylum graphic novel version of batman - I bought them when they came out in the 80s. (not sure I'd made that clear) - still have them, btw.

and he is mean

[Harry Lime]

How did I miss this? Keaton. It's not even a debate.

[epilogue]

I didn't vote for him, and I only saw the movie once and could be completely wrong, but I liked George Clooney as Batman. It was everything else that was horrid.

You are, in fact, completely wrong.

[epilogue]

How did I miss this? Keaton. It's not even a debate.

Well, that just isn't even true. Obviously.

[Harry Lime]

How did I miss this? Keaton. It's not even a debate.

Well, that just isn't even true. Obviously.

No, it's true. I didn't see this thread at first.

[malice]

MICHAEL KEATON REMINISCES ABOUT BATMAN SUIT FROM ’89 FILM
http://www.themarysue.com/michael-keaton-bat-costume/

Depending on the Batman fan you speak to, Michael Keaton‘s portrayal of Batman is fairly beloved. Ranking up there with portrayals of the Dark Knight by Adam West and Christian Bale, many fans didn’t expect much from Keaton’s Batman but were pleasantly surprised. To this day, especially for fans like myself who experienced the 1989 Tim Burton-directed film as their first live-action Batman, Keaton set the standard that everyone else who played Batman had to live up to (some have and some… have not). While doing press for the new Robocop remake that he’s starring in, Keaton talked about that intense rubber Batman suit and how it informed his portrayal of Batman.


Keaton relayed these stories to explain how he relates to the difficulties of the suit his costar in Robocop, Joel Kinnamen, had to wear to play the titular character. As someone who has been the lead in the crazy costume, he knows better than anyone how challenging it can be. He said:

[Joel] probably won’t get credit for the degree of difficulty that was required [to play Robocop]. A long time ago, when they were asking me when I did the first “Batman,” I made a joke, but I was actually serious, you know. I just worked the suit, man. I let that suit go to work for me — and that’s kind of what you have to do… I’m very claustrophobic, and we didn’t even know that the suit was going to work at all until literally, like, I think hours before we were about to start shooting the suit. We had shot a lot of the Bruce Wayne stuff — which was the key, by the way, it was. I never worried about the Batman thing — the way in was Bruce Wayne, that was it for me. That was it.
Keaton went on to talk about how the stiffness in his version of Batman was caused a lot by the difficulties of moving in a full-body rubber suit:

So when we got in [the suit], I went, “Oh, I’m in trouble.” Because you couldn’t get out of it; the second one, you could kind of get out of, but this thing was wrapped [around me] and it didn’t totally work… This whole thing [where I moved my whole body like a statue] came out of — I mean, I’ll take some credit for it, but really, it was practical! It really came out of the first time I had to react to something, and this thing was stuck to my face and somebody says something to Batman and I go like this [turning his head] and the whole thing goes, [rriipp]! There was a big fucking hole over here. So I go, well, I’ve got to get around that, because we’ve got to shoot this son of a bitch, so I go, “You know what, Tim [Burton]? He moves like this [like a statue]!”
Keaton then went on to briefly talk about how actors use challenges like a intense rubber suit as a way to find new ways to approach roles:

You just take all of that stuff, that suit, all of that stuff that suit was giving me, and I said, “Oh, I got it — I know how to do this, now.” It’s odd how those things happen to actors — that thing you think, “I have no idea how to do this,” [and] something will happen in your life, or something, that comes up and you just kind of get it.

I don’t know how you get it, but actors are kind of pretty extraordinary in that regard. I think it’s fear.
It’s a very small subset of the world’s population that really knows what it’s like to wear a Batman costume for real and attempt to move and fight in it, so props must be given to Keaton and all the other Batman actors over the years for their unique kind of suffering. But hey, at least Keaton didn’t have to suffer through this disaster:

Spoiler: show

[red calzolaio]

i vote Bale. but my favorite Batman movie is by far Batman.

[Thejambi]

Bale.

[bada]

[bada]

Following its announcement last year, the first trailer has arrived for the all-new animated film “Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders”.

Original 1960s “Batman” TV series stars Adam West and Burt Ward reprise their roles of Batman and Robin, at least in voice roles, for the new feature which also sees the original Catwoman Julie Newmar returning to her role.

The new film sees the superheroes going up against The Joker, The Riddler, The Penguin and Catwoman both in Gotham City and in space. “Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders” will be released on Digital HD on October 11th and Blu-ray on November 1st.