Batman Vs Batman: Which Actor Wore The Cowl Best?

The best was clearly David Jason in Only Fools And Horses.

What about Lewis Wilson or Robert Lowery???

The result demands a thoughtful look at the criteria. Doesn’t pass the eye test.

I believe that the Christian Bale Batman is the BEST (so far). Michael Keaton is #2 and Adam West #3. The reason why I believe that Adam west is #3 is because these days the fans what to see a more dramatic and “Godfather”-like Batman and Christian Bale fits that category. Michael Keaton is #2 in my list because he is the first Batman to be closer to the 1939 roots of the Dark Knight rather than the “family friendly” and campy approach of the 1940s-1968.

Clooney had class all arguments invalid

Come on everyone knows Christian bale is the BEST batman ever. he has the attitude, style, killer suit, awesomest gegaws(the BAT!). PLUS he’s hot, which so seals the arguement.

btw, Keaton was best, he had the attitude of “I’m batman deal with it.” It was too much of an effort on Bale’s part, the voice, the untouchable morals, the style and loneliness, it all came off as forced and as if batman was more depressed than motivated. Going dark doesn’t mean going deep.

Pretty sure Adam West as Batman(and this writer) is a fucking joke.

For all you people saying Kevin Conroy, he may have voice but not the looks to ever play Bruce Wayne. Bale and Keaton win.

Well, I’m quite happy that Adam West has won the contest, but frankly the best one under every point of view is Keaton, and always will be. And it’s absolutely untrue that his moves have aged bad, contrarily, they are the only one who still are pretty entertaining and “out of this world” like they were at the time they were released. Bale’s Batman will age much worse and, even though those movies are great, they take place in nowadays, so as ridiculous it looks a 30′s movies today, they will be ridiculous 30 or 40 years from now! Burton’s Batman simply has no time, so one way or another they’re immortal!!

Kevin Conroy is to Batman what Peter Cullen is to Optimus Prime. That said, Keaton is the best so far, followed by Bale. The others are alsorans.

Keaton hands down is the true winner and is the only one on the list who would actually be able to convince people as bruce wayne that he wasnt batman. He also manages to utilize restraint in his character and doesnt overdo the gravelly voice (bale) Batman Returns is still the best Batman movie too btw. A close second being Dark Night, sorry Dark night rises sucked.

To John Martin; the voice change made by Bale in TDK makes non sense at all! First of all, the idea of Batman changing his voice was created by Keaton, never before this idea had been mentioned. Second, while in Begins it was his natural voice, in TDK it’s been modified in post production, which makes even less sense because the character doesn’t have superpower to make that change, so why should he sound like that?? Third, and final, it’s ridiculously stupid!! Even Kevin Conroy has criticized that voice!!! It’s ground for parodies and jokes!! Concerning the second part of your comment, Bale might have been imposing in Begins, but with the modified suit he looks smaller and he completely loses the bat-look that scares criminals!! Batman is supposed to remind of a giant bat, but in TDK there is nothing even close to that idea!! I still wonder why they changed the costume, in Begins it was PERFECT!! And I know of the realism of Nolan, but it’s quite unrealistic that an armour suit can resist bullets, knives and everything, but then can be scratched by a dog, IT MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL!!! Moreover, Keaton’s look was more in tune with the original character from the early comic books, mysterious, dark and supernatural, while in TDK there is nothing of these elements!

Final consideration, while I really love Nolan’s trilogy when I consider them as action movies, only “Batman Begins” is faithful to any Batman incarnation in comic books! 1989 “Batman” is still the best movie adaptation of the real Bat-Man created by Bob Kane, and still one of the most fascinating movies of all time!

Your reasoning is absolutely correct, I have nothing to say against your logical explanation, but I don’t agree with all the points. First of all, the idea of the voice change was created by Keaton, not by Bale, and the same for many other details in the Nolan’s movies, either technical or in the development of the character. Burton set the standard for all the comic book movies that came after that, we would have no Begins, X-Men, TDK, Spider-Man and so on wasn’t for the work of Burton, who gave the serious and dark tone to comic book movies! Today we have the feeling that Burton’s work was not so serious or scary, but this is just because we have lost sensibility toward violence and gore in movies, but in 1989 that was a major change!! Burton was criticized by many for what Nolan is appreciated today, and this is not to underrate, because had it been today, Burton would have received much more money to make a dark movie!!

Concerning the realism in Nolan’s movies, there are so many things up to debate. I don’t think they’re so realistic, there are a lot of things that make no sense at all! The choice of setting the movie in modern times is the first one, no masked vigilante would ever survive in this high tech era! With GPS and satellites they would locate the Bat-cave in 5 minutes, the Tumbler would be shot down by the US army with a missile (if necessary) and with a real threat for the city such as the Joker, the government would send thousands of soldiers to solve the problem!! This is reality, those movies are not!! And even though I love his movies, I can’t ignore the many implausible things behind the stories!! About the dark tone, actually Nolan’s movies are more dramatic rather than dark. Dark is a term that has been improperly used many times in this last decade to describe movies, but it can actually be applied to “Batman”, “Batman Returns” (possibly, the darkest bat-movie ever) and “Batman Begins”, which was definitely the darkest one in the trilogy. Fear was the main theme in that movie, and this is why it was so effective! Batman was truly scary, and criminals were afraid to work at Night!! Besides, the main environment of the movie was the Narrow Island, which was dark, bleak and oppressive, while in TDK the movie is set in a clean and bright Chicago!! That’s not dark at all!! They are very dramatic, you see and feel the pain of a character who is not able to deal with the monster he has created, and this is both psychological and dramatic, not so dark!! You must consider the meaning of the word dark prior than the title of the movie!!

Finally, Keaton’s presence was much more terrifying. He might be 5 ft 9,5 in, but the look of his character was more frightening, and even the fact that he couldn’t turn his head, which someone considers a disadvantage, was actually an advantage for the theatrical effect, because he looks “unfazed” most of the time, like a creature of the Night or a monster that no-one can beat, no matter how hard they try!! Bale was the same in Begins, he applied the Batman’s handbook in a proper way, but in TDK he wasn’t scary at all!! This is why the Joker could do anything to him, to the policemen, the city and to other criminals, because Batman was no more frightening!!

Now I think this debate can go on forever, so probably you will keep your idea and I won’t change mine, but it’s an interesting discussion anyway!

P.s. check on the internet for parodies of Bat-Keaton! You will not find a single one, while there is a lot of ground with Bat-Bale, unfortunately for him!! You compare “The Godfather”, but the difference is that it’s another serious movie who has material to work on if you take it out of the context, but you can’t do the same with Burton’s Batman!! You can’t take him out of context!!

I absolutely agree with you!! It’s incredible how these talented film-makers have been able to give us 5 movies which are definitely the top of the comic book world in cinema!! And it’s also amazing to see how Batman has left a mark in history like no other hero!! Still a lot to talk about him in the future!!

For Allan; I am one of those who is not complaining, actually I’m happy! I know the not-so-serious tone, but why did you say “even Keaton” would take this?? I think it’s pretty obvious that Keaton deserves the winner prize in a serious contest, with all respect to the amazing work of Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne (more than Batman) and Kilmer, who could have been a good and plausible Batman, had it not been for a terrible script, WB pressure and ridiculous villains! I do not mention Clooney, he was in fact the most terrible Batman!

Hail to Adam West anyway!!

Now it’s clear!

Well, Bale is definitely the one that has given the character his most tragic and dramatic portrayal. He is a tragic hero rather than a super hero, and even though there are elements that are overrated in this trilogy, Bale was able to follow the direction that Nolan wanted to take! In the final movie, “The Dark Knight Rises”, there are no trace of the Batman anymore, but there’s a lot of Bruce Wayne and his personal battle to give Gotham City a good example! In the end it works, but in a Batman competition it doesn’t! Bale was great in “Begins”, that’s the best portrayal of the Batman alongside Keaton’s in “Batman”.

About Kilmer, I think the main reasons of the failure of that movie are all behind the villains, producers and screenplay. Kilmer was not so bad, even with the bat-suit (ignoring nipples) he was pretty believable. Lee Jones and Carrey were the personification of idiocy, they ruined the movie! Every time I see a scene when they are present I’d like to shoot them for what they have done! Finally, producers wanted to create a movie for kids, well, they made it, but I don’t think Batman is a character for kids! He’s a complicated character who is basically dark, and you can push it inside a green-neon Gotham City with pyschedelic lights and a lot of noise, that would take the character back to the campy 60′s tv series!

never go full nipple

What about harry potter??? Dumbledore is dead!!!

Michael Keaton. No one is even close. Not even Adam West.

out of those Bale, but the arkham batman is better

Bale is horrible like Batman, good actor though. but anyone who actually READS comic books will tell you that Keaton was best. Only moviegoers like Bale. CB fans know what is right.

bale is the best of all the batmans keaton played an awsome batman back in the 90s

How would Adam West be the “original” Batman if there were 2 separate serials in the 1940s with their own actors?

Im sure he’s been mentioned already, but my vote goes for Kevin Conroy. Hes been the voice of batman in basically every animated carnation of the Dark Knight, since i was a young lad, And to this day is still my fav Batman. Mark Hamil as Joker ftw while we are at it

Bale by a mile. Not because of Nolan’s superb direction, but certainly better than Clooney or Kilmer. West would come in next.

Of course everyone is going to say Bale was the best and I agree. However, he was in the worst representation of Batman films ever. Batman Forever and Batman and Robin don’t even count and I think Everyone should pretend they don’t exist.