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Though he never physically donned the batsuit, Kevin Conroy should at least receive an honorable mention for being the defining VOICE of Batman.
Great list, I'm really liking all the stuff you're doing in preparation for the "The Dark Knight" release.
Keaton's performance is really showing it's age as we progress to the 20 year anniversary of
that movie. Kilmer really does come across as a more believable Bruce Wayne, and this
ends up translating to appreciating him more as Batman.
But Baleman is second to none, except for the Joker perhaps...
Christian Bale is a tremendously great #2
Val Kilmer has the voice and had the look, but he never changed between characters, Bruce Wayne and Batman always sounded, and acted the same
George Clooney.........I love the Oceans movies.......but as Batman......plz stay away George
and ofcourse......Adam West...................yea that pretty much sums him up lol
1.) Keaton
2.) Bale
3.) Kilmer
4.) Clooney
5.) West
He embodied the tortured Wayne and was perfect as Batman. The fight scenes, the badass Batmobile (still gonna have one man!), the those toys! Everyone said "Whaaaaat?!?" when he was announced, myself included, and then you saw him in the costume and were like, "Oh. I was wrong. He's completely awesome. Sorry!"
While I believe Bale is an incredible actor, I wasn't thrilled with his Batman voice. It felt very forced to me, like a guy TRYING to disguise his voice. I was very, very impressed otherwise. He was a great Wayne and his Batman kicked it hard. My second favorite Batman.
And Val Kilmer does not deserve as high marks as you gave him. I hated the part where he leaves Chase and has this enormous grin on his face....I remember thinking, 'Batman doesn't smile!' I thought he was such a step down from Keaton. And you really thought the Batmobile going up the building was good?!? Or maybe the scene in slow motion where Batman is in court and tries to save Harvey from the acid! "NOOOOO!!" (arms reached out) Shall I go on?!?!? I'm not even gonna get into Clooney or West.
The reasons why Michael Keaton left was because A) he felt the movies were getting too far away from Batman - too many villains - which they did...and B) couldn't see eye to eye with good ole Joel and his neon vision.
While I still remember reading that Entertainment Weekly that announced he was out (still have it), and being completely disappointed, I'm glad he wasn't involved in the nonsense that Forever became. I refer to it as "The Jim Carrey Show" because that's who the seemed to focus on the most.
Also, I believe that Kevin Conroy should be considered because Mask of The Phantasm was actually released in the theaters. I should know, I saw it! Still have the ticket too. One of my favorite movies ever!
Looking forward to TDK, (midnight baby!)
Matt from Philly
You mention Bale going the extra mile that Bruce and Batman have different voices, but Keaton invented that with the first Batman movie, which all subsequent Batman actors since have copied.
I also feel that Keaton had a better Bruce than Kilmer. My favorite scene in the original Batman was Keaton's heartfelt confession to Vicki Vale about his life, only to be interrupted by the Joker where his dark side starts coming through. And in Batman Returns, his attempts to reach out to Selina/Catwoman because she was just like him was also very moving.
Kilmer had some great Wayne moments too, but as you said the movie wasn't very good. If it had been better there would have been more room for exploration. His performance as Bruce didn't have very much emotion. He was very softspoken and came off as sort of one-dimensional.
Yes it's true that Keaton wasn't very physically imposing. Tim Burton did that on purpose because he felt a more natural athlete wouldn't need all the gear and armor that Batman uses. I don't agree with Tim Burton but I see where he's coming from and I definitely believe Michael Keaton's performance was one of the best.
But there is no denying that Christian Bale is the best Batman, leaps and bounds greater than all of his predecessors in every category. A lot of this has to do with the fact that he and Chris Nolan have actually done legitimate research on the source material, specifically Year One, Long Halloween, and the Man Who Falls when preparing for Batman Begins. In Dark Knight, his performance was even greater as we saw him doing actual detective work and getting much darker and more intense.
I also agree with some of the above comments here that Kevin Conroy should get equal recognition. His voice was the definitive Batman/Bruce Wayne for nearly 15 years in the animated series and animated movies.
Bale is far and away the best Batman, but the voice is a bit much. I actually laughed out loud at least twice during TDK. Again, Kevin Conroy has the market cornered on the voice. Funny, though, he didn't actually get the voice right until Justic League. His Bruce voice on TAS kinda sounded like he had a lump of mucus in his throat all the time.
Was anybody else as crazy impressed with Ledger?
It'll blow your fucking mind!
Just cause Keaton was the original, people, doesn't mean he was the best. Good......but definitely not the best. Even if you prefer the original Batman's over the new Bale movies, you still can't dare say Keaton played a better Bruce Wayne. If so, you've obviously never picked up a comic book. Look, I love the first two Batman movies as well, but you Tim Burton fanatics gotta let this go. Batman Begins and, especially, The Dark Knight have set the bar higher than anyone could have foreseen a Batman movie ever doing.
I thought it was funny that you put George Clooney below Adam West. But it's true: Clooney did NOTHING for Batman and insulted the series by being in it. He didn't care about the role at all and I wanted to punch him in the face every time I saw him in the suit. The first time you see him in the movie, he falls through the ceiling and says "Hey Freeze, I'm Batman" all in his stupid cocky, sarcastic George Clooney voice. After he did that, the director shoulda yelled "CUT!" and told security to immediately remove Clooney from the set.
Props to Bale, Ledger, and Chris Nolan for making Hollywood their b*tch.
Had Kilmer had a well written/directed movie, we'd be talking about him today, and not Bale.
(Personally, I think had Clooney had a good writer and director, he'd have been great...a live version of the BTAS Batman that Kevin Conroy voiced).
But they both had the Goldman/Schumaker duo camping up the place, so they really can't be fairly judged.
Keaton's Bruce Wayne was really the Bruce right on the edge of being insane himself. From the moment he was cast, I felt he was gonna be awesome because his eyes show someone one step away from madness.
Bale, however, is the more modern Bruce Wayne, the absolute control freak. Everything that happens, it's because he's planned it.
They're Batmans are pretty much the same, allowing for 20 years of changes in Hollywood special effects/fight techniques.
say, it was nice to see that another superhero movie wasn't ruined or at least dampered a
little because of a bad choice of the actor playing the main character. Both of the new
Batmans were awesome and set a new standard.
I swear at some moments he was trying so hard that I saw spit coming out of his mouth. If hiding his voice was so key, why not introduce a device into his costume, perhaps around his neck, which would help mask his voice? The writers seemed perfectly OK to introduce the notion of 30 million cell phones all of a sudden becoming real-time 3D sonar devices, why not make the need for a ridiculous raspy voice moot by introducing a device to handle it?
Let's not even start on his sub par acting-- or the rest of the cast for that matter. This movie is extremely hyperbolic and not even near being parabolic; and the ending just sucked. The story was so weak and the loose ends and monotonous clutter of pointless additives added up to a nihilistic sophomoric intellectual action flick. This isn't even touching the multiple other reasons this movie is targeted at sheep who would rather sit back and blindly follow the latest action flick than analyze it.
Michael Keaton is CRAZY-- and this is the crux of the matter. Batman, as a concept, is not about toys, web belts, or cars. It is about a DARK knight -- a guy who is imbalanced, obsessed with the rage of revenge, and literally two steps from the loony bin. The only way he holds it all together is to bash criminal heads in a cathartic release of his inner turmoil. Or, in other words, he's CRAZY. Now, I ask you: is George Clooney crazy? No -- he's the model of sanity (getting paid millions of dollars to romance beautiful women seems like the actions of a sane man). Val Kilmer? Crazy? Forget it. He was known as "Iceman" -- that is a self- contained person, not somebody prone to explosive rage. And West ... well, I'll admit he is perhaps addled and senile -- but who is afraid that a senior citizen will crack and knock the tar out of you? Nobody I know. But, Keaton ... now he's CRAZY.
Don't get me wrong.. because if Bale would have brought the same force he brought as Patrick Bateman (if you don't know what I'm talking about don't even bother) then I would say it totally opposite. Enough said.
Bale's Batman character was written to be a "what if he was real"! So if you are trying to compare those to Bale, it is non-comparable. Keaton ~ yes was a good batman too. I agree, but Keaton's batman was not really made in the idea of "what if he was real" type of Batman. He was just another version of a comic book version of batman, only without "biff, bam & boom". Another larger then real life Batman & Bruce Wayne version too.
YES, I KNOW BATMAN & BRUCE WAYNE ARE CHARACTERS TAKEN FROM A COMIC. HOWEVER, EACH BATMAN CHARACTER IS WRITTEN AS EITHER "BIFF, BAM, BOOM" OR WRITTEN AS LARGER THEN LIFE!
Bale's Character is not either of those! His writer was focusing on real as life...the "what if" factor! What if Batman/Bruce W. was a real person? What would they really do, say, act...etc?
Same thing with Ledger's vs. Nickelson's versions of the Joker. It is a non-comparable type of character. Nickelson portrays the comic version and Ledger gave you a big dose of "WHAT IF"!
As a rule of thumb, I wouldn't vote in total for one particular Batman character to complete the Batman as a comic book, larger then life character: Clooney would be the choice for Bruce Wayne; however my choice to portray Batman as a comic book, bigger then life Batman would be Keaton! Clooney can be somewhat arrogant in character and therefore made the best cartoon version of Bruce Wayne. Keaton has a darker side (remember Bettlejuice). West would also be a good choice of Bruce Wayne, but not Batman.
Bale was able to step into a part that no other actor has tried to portray - the reality if Batman was real! HE DID AN AWESOME JOB, GRUFF VOICE AND ALL. IT SHOWS YOU HOW TWISTED THE MENTALLY ILL GOOD GUY HAS TO BE TO BECOME THE BATMAN. BATMAN IN REAL LIFE WOULD NEED A THEREPIST AND TO THROW HIS MIND INTO BATMAN COMING OUT OF HIS BRUCE WAYNE, HE DID SOMETHING NO ONE WOULD THINK BRUCE WOULD DO; A GRUFFED-UP VOICE.
SO, NO MATTER WHICH WAY YOU VOTE YOU ONLY VOTE IN FAVOR OF YOUR FAVORITE TYPE OF BATMAN MOVIE OR YOUR JUST VOTING FOR YOUR FAVORITE ACTOR.
MY 1st VOTE WOULD BE REALITY VERSION – WITH BALE!
MY VOTE SECOND VOTE WOULD BE THE CARTOON VERSION WITH KEATON AS BATMAN OR CLOONEY AS BRUCE WAYNE. EACH DID A GOOD JOB IN DIFFERENT WAYS AS BATMAN (KEATON) AND BRUCE WAYNE (CLOONEY).
THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX, BATMAN DID!
MY RATINGS.
1.CHRISTIAN BALE
2.MICHAEL KEATON
3.VAL KILMER
GEORGE CLOONY AND ADAM WEST WERE SO BAD, I LEFT THEM OUT.
Anyway, great list. i thoroughly enjoyed reading it. As long as Christian Bale is alive and kicking ass, there should no other Batman other than him. ALL HAIL!
Keaton, ummm.. sorry buddy, would still have to be 2nd for me :) you did raise some excellent points on Kilmer though. i did like Kilmer for his suave and his Wayne parts, i did like his voice as well during his Batman scenes, but he was just too... "jokey" for me. "The batsignal is not a beeper?" "ill get drive through?" Good Batman nonetheless.
and as for the monstrosity of Batman & Robin... i will really, never. ever, forgive Clooney for making a mockery out of Batman. Up to this day, whenever i see his face anywhere, i just want to rip out that magazine or just punch his freakin' lights out. ( though i still love the ocean's 13 series... that's the only one of his movies i like)
And yeah, let's make the ratings BATS. 4 out of 4 Bats. Batman G.O.A.T.
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=bl...
I mean COME ON!! His face in the batman mask looked bad ass because he had hard facial features. If you would have replaced Bale with Keaton from the 90's he would have been kick ass! If you look at the comics Batman never had a chin smooth as a babies ass! it always looked rugged and hard. That's what I loved about Keaton playing the Batman. He played a good Bruce Wayne too. Tim Burton, the producer of the movies didn't give Keaton long rolls as Bruce Wayne. He was more Batman in his movies, but Keaton played a good Bruce Wayne when he played the roll. Val Kilmer sucked ass!! He broke the number one rule as a Batman Character in that scene when he kisses Nicole KidmaN. HE SMILED!!! YOU NEVER SMILE IN THE MASK!! Batman doesn't smile. He kicks ass!! Adam West was allowed to smile because he was like the pioneer for screen film Batman's abroad. When I saw Val smile harder then Shaq in the Batman Mask my face scrunched up tighter then a raisin! Moving on to George Clooney. Who produced those Batman Movies.........Walt Disney? ENOUGH SAID!! On to Christian Bale. Almost Everything looked good. The Batman Suit , the enemies, the plot, the Gothic atmosphere, the special effects it's all wonderful. Christian Bale as Batman However...........a little problem. The dam mask is too small!! His face is scrunched up like a fat woman's feet in a pair of pumps!! and when he talks his lips pucker up like a drag queen and he sounds fake.......lol. CONCLUSION.......................GET MICHEAL KEATON FROM THE 90'S. PUT HIM IN THE NEXT BATMAN MOVIE. YOUR GOOD TO GO!!.......OVER AND OUT.
Kilmer had everything correct about him except one: he was in a Bad Movie. One simply canNOT refer to Bad scenes in a Badly scripted Bad Movie by a Bad Director to explain why the actor was not good to play his character. I understand, Kilmer could have never replaced Bale, but he would have easily replaced Keaton (who even though was a good Batman, WAS a wimp Wayne). Even if we forget that Keaton was the least good looking and had the least physicality required for an ideal Wayne/Batman respectively, we still cannot forget that he never had the ideal Wayne magnetic personality to attract females. He was a plain idiotic wimp as Wayne.
Whereas while Kilmer was definitely muscular/handsome of the two, his was unfortunately limited by the Bad Movie itself that he worked in that did no justice to the character of any roles in it, least of all Batman. Also, we can't forget that Kilmer did play a very good playboy-Wayne of whatever the script allowed him to. That is what is important (where Keaton failed). Because once you're inside the caped costume, it does not matter who is inside it, because nobody's going to recognise you anyway. So the character that must be given more priority is of 'Wayne' where one can't hide behind a costume.
Remember, Kilmer was a good Wayne/UNDERUSED Batman in a bad movie by a bad director. Keaton was a good Batman /wimp Wayne even in an overall OK movie by a very good director. Even worse was that, unlike Keaton who got two opportunities as Batman under the very good director to prove himself as Wayne and yet failed on all points as Wayne, Kilmer never got a second chance to prove himself as Batman even though he had proved himself as Wayne, no... not even under the same hellish director. SO... I AGREE WITH THE LIST. IT'S PERFECT.
MY POINT: If the physically strong, play-boyish Kilmer was that good as Wayne under the hellish Schumacher, imagine how great he could have been in costume (Batman) under the very good Burton.
As for Bale, he's leaps and bounds ahead of the two. As for 'Batman & Robin', every thing was wrong about it and so was Clooney who only played 'himself' both as Batman/ Wayne. Anyway, except when the movies are called 'Syriana', 'Ocean's Eleven' and 'Confessions of a Dangerous Mind', Clooney is all himself everywhere. I seriously hope they destroy all records/sources of that B&R-crap.
(P.S. : I thought I was the only one who thought that the vastly UNDERUSED Kilmer was better than Keaton but it's nice to see there are more like me who think deep. Believe me, none of these four actors is my personal favourite. I love Denzel Washington.)
people say he is better than christian bale. i saw nothing in keaton to justify all the praise
he receives, i'm confused as to why people continually assert he is "brooding," "dark,"
"driven," "obsessed," etc. etc. in the '89 movie, i will agree that his batman at times
seems mysterious and brooding, but only because he almost never speaks. to me, that
just shows bad writing and shallow acting. given that much limited dialogue, a good
actor would focus on physical aspects to convey the character, much like if they were in
a silent film. keaton conveys nothing physically, he is consistently monotonous and
blank. as a result, his batman bored me. and to be quite frank, his bruce wayne was
god-awful. keaton looks and acts nothing like a billionare playboy, and while the whole
awkward, antisocial thing was an interesting idea, there needs to be a clear sense of
duality between bruce and batman. so while i understand that keaton is dark and
disturbed by the standards back then, given what we've seen from christian bale in
recent years, i don't get why keaton is continually cited as "the perfect batman."
SYNDROME: Batman's Voice
PATIENT(S): Those people who think ... 1. ...script writers should have helped Batman to wear some kind of device around his neck to generate that intimidating voice of his. 2. ... Batman himself speaking in that voice is merely to hide his identity and really is a 'embarassing', 'ridiculous', 'funny' voice.
MY DIAGNOSIS: Read my lips... THESE PATIENTS DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE BATMAN IS. Because it's not The Batman's voice that is funny, it's only that YOU are.
TREATMENT: STOP COMMENTING ANYWHERE ON ANY BATMAN RELATED SITE FOR NOW AND GO AND READ SOME GOOD COMICS FIRST: DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, DARK VICTORY, THE LONG HALLOWEEN, THE KILLING JOKE, THE MAN WHO LAUGHS, A DEATH IN THE FAMILY, BATMAN: YEAR ONE. If you have already read it, re-read it once again. You ask me Why?
REASON: I bet a lot of people use the term 'alter-ego' generously to define what Batman is to Wayne or vice-versa. But I'm sure a very, very few of those know the real meaning of the term. It has something to do with why Wayne 'became' Batman. I used the term 'became' and not the terms 'acts as' or 'disguises as'. It has something to do with the traumatic incident that occurred in the child Bruce Wayne's life infront of his very eyes: His beloved parents' murder. So... his personality / mind at that time could not bear the trauma and in order to bear the insufferable pain his Personality/ Mind split into two. One, a recessive one - a softer
Bruce Wayne and other, dominant one- the tough Batman who bore the trauma. So when he wears that cape, his dominant personality takes over the control and let's his anguish/pain out in the form of that intimidating voice. The alter-ego 'Bruce
Wayne' is not even aware of it except that Wayne does know he becomes The Batman at times. And that's the reason why, Batman speaks only in his gruff voice even when he is only in the presence of those who know WAYNE is Batman (Gordon, Fox, Alfred, Dwayes / whatever). He has undergone a change in personality. He's suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD)). Batman has as much varied personalities as a Harvey Dent / Two-Face and is as deranged as The Joker.
It's 'funny' as in : like you know some deranged, mad person dancing/acting in the streets appearing funny to us and we laugh at him/ her. In reality he/she is suffering from 'Delusion' and is under a definite pain that simply refuses to go away.
Try to view the world through his vision and the next time you won't laugh AT him but laugh WITH him.
And yes, these patients are the one who think that Keaton was better than Kilmer.
Clooney-Terrible
West-Bad
Keaton-Very overrated,he couldn't even fight.
Kilmer-At least this guy can fight and hes better looking as well.
Bale-Kicks ass,disguises voice, good looking etc.