Bat Peeves: What's the WORST thing about movie Batmen ?

[Batmannerism]

Okay, so we all love Batman and we spend oodles of time arguing about which actor was the best Batman.....but even our favorite portrayals of Batman have some bits that we could do without.
Just live action Batmen, no Lego or animated versions this time - that's a whole other thread.

My favorite Batman actor was Bale, hands down. I feel like in Batman Begins he captured the essence of Batman's rage. To me TDK is the ultimate Batman film.

BUT Bale really overdoes it with the Bat voice in TDK. It's just too strangled and mangled to be menacing - he sounds really pissed off but also seriously in need of some throat lozenges...and in TDKR there are bits near the end where he's talking to Selina/Catwoman and Blake who know he's Bruce Wayne, and he still uses the OTT Bat voice.

Every Batman has his weaknesses:

West: Stilted delivery and weird em-PHA-sis on some syl-LA-bles is a bit much at times. Also his lack of physical presence, sure it was the 60s but you had plenty of actors around who could fill the tights a little better. Utterly bland as Bruce Wayne ( but hilarious as Batman).


Keaton: great Batman but his lack of physical presence and somewhat murderous tendencies always annoyed me.

Kilmer: Just meh, played the role with very little passion or feeling at all. Not a bad Batman, but not a very memorable one.

Clooney: If Kilmer was a little dull, Clooney brought a very disingenuous charm to the role, every time he smiled I hoped someone would punch him. Anatomically correct Bat suits....just dumb!

Affleck: Brought the physical side, but he's a bit too murdery for me - sure he's modelled on Miller's brutal dark knight, but even that character only deliberately killed to save a baby, and refused to kill the Joker or Superman. Yeah the Martha thing was ridiculous but no point talking about that, it's been done to death.

So what's your Bat-peeve ?

 

[frankgutz]

Bale is also my fave Bats, so the change to Batfleck was kinda meh, i really never cared that much for him + never been a fan of him so i vote for Affleck's body count

 

[Boom]

Bale's Batman voice.

I honestly cannot take him seriously in TDK or TDKR.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

I don't have a problem with any of the things listed (I really like Kilmer as Batman/Bruce Wayne) except for Bale's voice in TDK/TDKR. Like you he's my favourite Batman and I think he got it exactly right in BB, but in TDK/TDKR it was downright ridiculous at times (still love the films though).

As for Clooney, I loathed his portrayal and the film but the suit was the least of the problems.

 

[Cain]

Bale's voice was bad but Kilmer's blandness is unforgivable because he's a much better actor and far more charismatic than that performance ever displayed. He had his scenes. Specifically with Dick in the batcave but overall he has a lot of flat line deliveries. For example his "tell me doctor ever seen the circus" with the lisp at the end is such a dry and unemotional delivery.

 

[THORin]

For me, it was not so much Affleck’s body count as it was his inability to look natural in his costume in Justice League. He was like a dad in a Halloween costume who was trying to play along with the kids while hitting on the cute babysitter, as my sister eloquently put it. I can’t say I disagree.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

For me, it was not so much Affleck’s body count as it was his inability to look natural in his costume in Justice League. He was like a dad in a Halloween costume who was trying to play along with the kids while hitting on the cute babysitter, as my sister eloquently put it. I can’t say I disagree.

 

[Boom]

They seriously need to revamp the technology behind the batsuit the next go-around.

 

[Enriquespy]

More peeves:

Bale's permanently open mouth while on suit in TDKR.

Clooney's lack of any darkness at all.

 

[Enriquespy]

Bale's voice was bad but Kilmer's blandness is unforgivable... ...such a dry and unemotional delivery.

Unemotional? What about his creeptastic smile?

 

[Travesty]

-Keaton's Bruce Wayne was never all that great, but I still think he's the best live action Batman we've seen, so far.

-Kilmer's Bruce Wayne always seemed a bit too corny for me. Almost like he was channeling Adam West at times. I liked his Batman, though.

-Clooney is just a bad Batman. It's like he didn't even try.

-Bale was great in BB, and he was an all around great Bruce Wayne in the trilogy, but his Batman in TDK and TDKR are just bad. I mean, downright terrible. His voice, his slow ass fighting, his whining about Rachel, his moaning about life, him needing CONSTANT guidance by Alfred, Rachel, Lucius, or his nonstop virtue signaling about his "code", even though he keeps killing people. Ugh. If you're gonna be killing people, shut up about your goddamn code.

-Affleck was good in BvS, but terrible in JL. So I guess all of his corny lines that Whedon gave him in JL. He just felt like a completely different character. Wasn't a fan of JL-Batman. "I don't not like you".....seriously? Friggin Whedon!

-Adam West is perfect in every way. Never say anything bad about him. Never!





*Bale has a larger body count than Affleck, sooooooooo......

 

[jolldan]

West: Not enough dancing
Keaton: "Lets get nuts"
Clooney: All of the above
Kilmer: Felt like he had very little emotional range
Bale: Not really his fault but terrible fighting technique
Affleck: Bat goggles


Conroy: GOAT (Only complaint there isn't more of BTAS)

 

[Batmannerism]

*Bale has a larger body count than Affleck, sooooooooo......

I agree with a lot of what you said in your post, except the above quote.

Ben Affleck Is The Most Murderous Movie Batman So Far | Digital Trends

Bale certainly killed people - Harvey Dent being a prime example. However he didn't mow down henchmen with machine guns or beat them to death.

I don't have a problem with Batman killing when it's absolutely necessary but Affleck killed when he didn't really need to. The flamethrower guy he gets a pass for - because it was either him or Ma Kent.

Also his entire plan to murder Superman
was a bit off-putting.

 

[Spider-Fan]

To be fair though, the plan to murder Superman was supposed to be off-putting.

But I do think a stronger "no kill" policy would have made his decision to consider breaking it for Superman because he legitimately thought it was worth doing what he vowed never to do in service of the planet much stronger thematically.

 

[Fincher]

West: Silly, light, frivolous. Cheap, non-black batsuit, not a proper Batmobile in my opinion. Kind of weird complaining about it doing Batman "wrong", though, since the movie that made me a fan and defined my expectations didn't exist yet.

Keaton: Can't think of much. Well, Keaton as Bruce Wayne isn't the coolest looking dude, but that wasn't a big deal.

Kilmer: I didn't like that he wanted Chase to like Bruce Wayne instead of Batman, because as far as I'm concerned Batman is his true self and Wayne is the cover.

Clooney: Character got goofy, suit and car declined.

Bale: I enjoyed the character study approach in Begins, but I prefer Batman to be mysterious. He felt less Batman-ish as the movies went on and he became better adjusted and evolved past Batman, to where The Dark Knight Rises didn't feel much like a Batman movie to me (the rest of the movie played a role in that, too).

Affleck: I don't like how he murdered (not just killed, murdered) or how he wanted to murder Superman. He was an unpleasant character in general. I don't like the batsuit being gray; the only gray version I've liked is from the Telltale game. I don't like the muscle suit, and Ben looked dopey in the cowl. I don't want "Batgod" or for Batman to interact with characters like Superman; I like him in Gotham City doing his Batman thing with his rogues. I haven't seen Justice League and don't plan to at the moment. To me, he's just not Batman, which isn't something I can say for West or Clooney.

 

[Abudefduf]

West: nothing, he was perfect
Keaton: too violent, easily upstaged by his villains (especially in BR)
Kilmer: boring
Clooney: he wasn't even acting
Bale: Batvoice, unimpressive fighting style (he's still my favorite live action Batman, though)
Affleck: the costume being the only good thing about him

 

[Herofan]

Keaton: A little too much liking for annoying Vicki Vale and not enough charisma as Bruce in B89, also a bit the hypocrisy about Selina not killing Max.
Conroy: A little too not murdery enough, a little too self-righteous preachy about it.
Bale: Too fixated on Rachel and eager to quickly quit being Batman and also trusting of Catwoman.

Nothing particularly wrong with West and it's hard to have a particular thing wrong with Kilmer or Clooney when the whole versions were pretty bad though they themselves were OK for that version. Haven't seen Affleck.

 

[Erzengel]

More peeves:

Bale's permanently open mouth while on suit in TDKR.

Clooney's lack of any darkness at all.

 

[Dark Raven]

Who is Bat Peeves? The alter ego of Matt Reeves?

No, they'll never guess who he is!

 

[Mandon Knight]

Batman & Robin in it's entirety - E/O/T for me. The character's and my lowest point.

 

[The Batman]

In general, my peeve is that the 1989-2017 Live Action Batmen are the type of leads that get upstaged by their co stars, and that they ultimately weren't as quintessential as Christopher Reeve's Superman, Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, or Robert Downey Jr's Iron Man.

 

[Batmannerism]

West: nothing, he was perfect
Keaton: too violent, easily upstaged by his villains (especially in BR)
Kilmer: boring
Clooney: he wasn't even acting
Bale: Batvoice, unimpressive fighting style (he's still my favorite live action Batman, though)
Affleck: the costume being the only good thing about him

Being upstaged by his villains is like movie Batman's kryptonite!

 

[Brother Jack]

I don't have a problem with any of the things listed (I really like Kilmer as Batman/Bruce Wayne) except for Bale's voice in TDK/TDKR. Like you he's my favourite Batman and I think he got it exactly right in BB, but in TDK/TDKR it was downright ridiculous at times (still love the films though).

There was a lot of post-production audio meddling with his voice in TDK (not sure about Rises). In that film at least it wasn't entirely his fault, regardless if his choice worked for you overall.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

There was a lot of post-production audio meddling with his voice in TDK (not sure about Rises). In that film at least it wasn't entirely his fault, regardless if his choice worked for you overall.

I do remember reading that there might have been some 'tweaking' done for TDK. And I agree that it didn't sound quite so bad in TDKR. Still annoying though. I thought his voice in BB was perfect.

 

[B]

Bale's voice is more of a problem for me than anything else on that list, obviously I think the idea was good that he'd try to alter his voice as Batman & be more soft spoken perhaps as Wayne, but some of the scenes in his trilogy make me almost cringe his voice is so bad.

The only reason it's tolerable is because the films were good, but somebody should have pulled him to the side & told him to tone it down.

The way they handled Affleck's voice in BvS/JL should be the way they handle his voice moving forward as Batman ie a voice changer/microphone.