Firstly this is just my view based on all the live action Batman actors appearing in films. So animated or tv series and old historic Batmans of black and white era are excluded. Mostly my reason for this is because they are vastly different mediums two which the story was told and well they chose good actors to portray this role for that time. So putting them in the same category as the live action film category just didn’t seem fair. Secondly this is just my thoughts on this subject and thus I’m open to more debate on the matter. I am not a big Batman fan, I don’t sit in in the realm of canon law from the comics. Purely looking at this from a film perspective.
So let’s begin to which I am going to go backwards in time. Starting from newest to oldest.
Robert Patterson
After watching The Batman there was two thoughts I had about it. 1. This feels like the logical conclusion for a sequel to the Gotham TV series. 2. Robert Patterson was not a good Bruce Wayne. Which is not necessarily the actors fault. Whilst in the Batsuit I could totally by Patterson as Batman. But then as Bruce Wayne it just felt completely off for his character. it’s almost like we saw the Bruce Wayne from the Gotham TV series grown up and it was also influenced by The Gritty vibe of the Joker movie. And somewhere in this mix, this radically different but early days of Batman just didn’t sit right with me. Like an uncanny valley effect nothing seemed right about this film yet they followed the core idea. All I could say about that film was “it was inspired by” because you could see Gotham, Joker, even Christopher Nolan’s influence in the story telling of Batman. So this felt almost like a fan film or parody and it set the wrong vibe. I think Patterson should of been given more time to prep for this movie as I feel he was given wrong directions for this film. The fact they are making a sequel to this film leaves me feeling “Meh” as I’m just not excited about this franchise of Batman.
Ben Affleck
The problem I have with Ben Afflecks Batman was that it was set in the Justice League World. Batman is complex, his real costume is that of Bruce Wayne and that’s something that’s slightly unhinged about the guy. He is Batman 100% of the time and Bruce Wayne is but a mask he wears when he’s needed for public. Now I like Affleck as an actor and I feel this was such a wasted potential for him. He played somewhat the Iron Man Robert Downey Jr role in the DC Justice League movies and it didn’t work. What we the viewer needed was more context to this Batman and what would of helped this is if Ben Affleck was given the chance to have at least a trilogy of Batman films to develop his character before the Justice League came about. The justice league just lacked chemistry and you didn’t feel any of these characters would ever join together. This is not Afflecks fault, again it was the studios use of the character that kind of betrayed the actor portraying Batman and it also betrays the complexity for Batman for the character being displayed.
Christian Bale
I don’t look at Christopher Nolans Batman Trilogy as one of the greatest trilogies of all time. Batman Begins, Dark Knight was its best two films and suffered badly with its third movie. Nolan wanted to make a conclusion to his trilogy and I feel that this one decision clouded the films ability to tell the story. So Dark Knight Rises kind of sucked because the focus was on story and conclusions and didn’t offer enough fandom moments that made the two films before it iconic. Onto Bale himself, I think Bale portrayed Bruce Wayne and Batman almost to perfection. Just one element was missing that would of been the cherry on top. That was a crazy and humorous side to Bruce. Not in Batman for. But in Bruce form. As I said Bruce is just a mask for Batman as he’s batman 24/7. The only time I felt this to be present was only subtly in Dark Knight but then became non existent in Dark Knight Rises.
George Clooney
Clooney gets too much hate for this role when it wasn’t his fault. Bad script. Bad director, and someone was on LSD at the time when they thought this looks visually good, Batman & Robin film is the product of when too many people interfere with an established order. When you strip away the very terrible movie. Clooney was a perfect choice for this role. He is very similar to Keaton. In fact if Clooney had been in Batman Forever you’d probably be more forgiving of him playing Batman. I’m frustrated with this one because Clooney is a good actor and the fault isn’t him but that of the director.
Val Kilmer
Kilmer is a tricky category because he was the first to take over the role of live action film Batman and he is vastly different to Michael Keaton. Was he good as Bruce Wayne and Batman? Absolutely but if he did Batman and Robin after Batman Forever then I think it wouldnt of been good for him. Batman Forever I think is actually better than people give it credit for. It’s still a continuous story from Tim Burtons Batman era as the script was adapted from Burtons third movie idea. So it was great for this transitional phase because it’s literslly between Burton and Schueler era but it’s just downplayed by the laterd influence. Just didn’t sit right. But Kilmer could of been a good franchise of Batman but it just should of been a completly new universe for it.
Michael Keaton
So Burton had it right, for its time period as well. He crafted us a Batman that you totally believed in. Something that didn’t happen till Christopher Nolans films. I will only agree with one thing that the studios said which wanted to make toys. batman returns albeit very iconic was too dark. The first movie with Jack Nicholson’s Joker was perfect, then it went full Burton by the sequel and well it was too far away from thr mark. Enough to say, don’t make a third movie. Which is a shame, because Burton should of been allowed to make a trilogy and if he just lightened up a little with Batman Returns we may have seen the third outing. But one thing he did get right was Michael Keaton’s casting as Batman, as Bruce he was distracted and not really present which was good because as I said before Bruce is just a mask, he’s Batman. Batman pretends to be Bruce Wayne in public and Burton portrayed this very accurately on many occasions.
So after my analysis, who was the best Batman actor? It’s a mix of Michael Keaton and Christian Bale they both hit the role almost perfectly and thus no contest they both sit at the top spot.
As for the worst, sorry but Robin Patterson takes that spot.
As for the rest, they was just wasted potential and could of been really good. And not a reflection of the actors that portrayed them.
It’s not a matter of who acted the worst because they all acted well but the problem comes from director and script, if both or one is bad then it’s VERY notiable. So it’s not the actors fault.
What’s your thoughts
planetnerdy 