The Dark Knight Rises Is Christian Bale the most popular incarnation of Batman/Bruce Wayne?

He's my favorite animated Batman voice for obvious reasons. I think Bale will be considered the best batman until someone else comes along. Although I do like what Keaton and West did with the roles. You couldn't interchange any of these actors in a different batfilm and have it work imo, everyone was right for their specific movie.
 
bullets said:
You couldn't interchange any of these actors in a different batfilm and have it work imo, everyone was right for their specific movie.
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Very good point, thats why Im always saying they were perfect for their versions
 
The Batman said:
Has Bale become for Batman what Reeve is to Superman or what Tom Baker/David Tennant is to Doctor Who?
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I don't think he is a type of Reeve personification. That level of character association in this genre has thus far only been matched by Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, in my opinion.

But there is no denying that Christian Bale's take is a majorly popular character. I'd say he's the most popular of the live-aciton Batmen to date (West, Keaton, Kilmer and Clooney) and that he has left a permanent mark on the hero. In the mainstream, when people think Batman, they think of the gravely voice and the Dark Knight menace. He finally has supplanted the campy image and replaced it with one of a near-mythic hero in a dark, corrupt world. Yadda yadda. Think of all the spoofs and parodies of him/the character on Youtube, on shows like Community and South Park, etc.

But I don't think it is quite as definitive as some make out. Just the most popular mainstream one to date.
 
Depends on the age of the person you ask. Also on how familiar they are with the differnt incarnations. Adam West is probably known the world over as Batman to people born before 1980 and is probably the most popular to them.
 
writer0327 said:
Depends on the age of the person you ask. Also on how familiar they are with the differnt incarnations. Adam West is probably known the world over as Batman to people born before 1980 and is probably the most popular to them.
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This. To most people I know and even myself included, if you ask them who played Batman the answer you get back is going to be Adam West. Much like Sean Connery with James Bond. I don't think West is the best, but he's the most memorable and the one I grew up with.

Frank Gorshin's Riddler and Burgess Meredith's Penguin are also iconic.
 
Pierce Brosnan is my Bond. Sorry old/new schoolers.
 
To be honest, I get the impression that this franchise has been a major success in spite of Bale. Most people I speak to outside this forum like what Nolan has delivered and absolutely love Ledger's performance, but consider Bale a poor Bruce/Batman - there are many who find him 'bland' and 'uncharismatic' in the Wayne role and 'over-the-top' and 'unintentionally funny' in the Batman role.

Personally, I thought he was fantastic in Begins, but I still automatically think of Keaton with regard to Batman on film.
 
I'll add that with Bale as Batman, he did something no other actor has done for me...by the end of TDK, when he is standing over Harvey Dent's broken body, I am not watching an actor play Batman or even "a Batman movie." I am watching a character. I don't see a guy in a costume. I simply see the character of Batman I grew up with watching TAS and reading the comics.

While I loved Keaton's portrayal of Batman (and prefer his voice), I was always aware of this being a guy in a suit and the oddity or strangeness of the situation. I was always aware that he is a "superhero" and this is a movie. It probably stems from the artifice of Burton films (which is not a bad thing). Kilmer slept walked through the role and you could see it in his performance. Same with Clooney. In TDK, Bale ceased being a guy playing Batman to simply being Batman to me.

So I don't think he has defined the character as well as REeve, Jackman and Downey have their's, he has become the character in a natural way unlike any other actor. It's why I think he is the most popular in pop culture and probably will be the yardstick all future Batmen are compared to.
 
Bale shone in BB. Contrary to some popular opinion he was the backbone of TDK too. The apparent blandness compared to Eckhart's driven performance and Ledger's larger than life one was done for the purpose of showing Bruce Wayne as a husk. It's exactly what needed to be done to show where Bruce is emotionally and psychologically. It's no coincidence that his delivery has more expression to it when he's appearing as Batman.

However because of this creative decision I think his popularity doesn't outweigh Keaton's. I still think West is the most popular though, purely because it's such a charming show to look back on and he is synonymous with that interpretation.
 
Within the fandom I think Conroy is by far the most popular (I can't see why myself, I've always found his performance very bland). Then for second place it's between Keaton and Bale.

For the GA I'd say that it was between West and Bale. Being English, I cannot gauge what is popular across the pond but over here the Burton/Schumacher Batman films and the Timmverse series have all been forgotten by most of the GA. So it's between the current incarnation (Bale) and the iconic one that still shapes public view of the character (West). I imagine it might be similar in USA.

I think what stops Bale being the most popular Batman and on the level of Christopher Reeve or Tom Baker in terms of synonymy with the character is the batvoice. It pretty much turned his performance into a laughing stock and whenever I watch TDK with other people, the minute he opens his mouth and starts growling everyone starts taking the piss.
 
I grew up with Keaton as Batman. I've got sentimental feelings there. Loved BTAS a lot as well. The Schumacher flicks put a dampener on my fandom. Bale and Nolan's Batman resuscitated the franchise as well as my passion. So there's big sentimental feelings there as well.
 
AnneFan said:
I grew up with Keaton as Batman. I've got sentimental feelings there. Loved BTAS a lot as well. The Schumacher flicks put a dampener on my fandom. Bale and Nolan's Batman resuscitated the franchise as well as my passion. So there's big sentimental feelings there as well.
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Same here. While I was a huge diehard fan since Jan 89, buying and readin every issue, Forever really stained the mythology for me and eventually I gave it up, buying my last issue in 99 thinking that its sad that Schumachers movies are the last/latest Batman flicks and big screen representation of the character. Then Begins hit the screens in 05 and I was extremely skeptical and it took 3 days for my friends to talk me into seeing it. I first thought, oh no, another Batman and another actor, give it a rest. I sat down in the theater thinking Im gonna see some lame attempt and said 'ok, wow me'. And boy, it sure did. Not only it was a phenomenal movie but restored all those great Batman elements that Schumacher lost
 
the amazing fro said:
Within the fandom I think Conroy is by far the most popular (I can't see why myself, I've always found his performance very bland). Then for second place it's between Keaton and Bale.

For the GA I'd say that it was between West and Bale. Being English, I cannot gauge what is popular across the pond but over here the Burton/Schumacher Batman films and the Timmverse series have all been forgotten by most of the GA. So it's between the current incarnation (Bale) and the iconic one that still shapes public view of the character (West). I imagine it might be similar in USA.

I think what stops Bale being the most popular Batman and on the level of Christopher Reeve or Tom Baker in terms of synonymy with the character is the batvoice. It pretty much turned his performance into a laughing stock and whenever I watch TDK with other people, the minute he opens his mouth and starts growling everyone starts taking the piss.
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Yeah, whenever there's an entertainment headline in the paper about Batman it's always 'Holy something something'. In England I still think Batman is thought of as the goofy 60's show by large swathes of the general audience.
 
GothamAlleys said:
The fact that people still recognize West as Batman, when he did that in the 60s, is an amazing thing itself. I think West will be what Roger Moore was to james Bond
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I'm not much of a Bond fan, so I don't really get the comparison. I just feel that West as Batman at the perfect time as far as pop culture goes with the general public. Any live-action Batman-related film/show will always be talked about in comparison to his show. Actually, I guess any superhero show would likely be compared to his. There wasn't a relatively big amount of other comic superheroes on at the same time like there is now, and the show was just plain goofy fun (depending on how you look at it) that it sticks with people.

TinkerTailor said:
I'm completely sick of Conroy now. It's reached the point of overkill. He was perfectly suited to the Timmverse vision of the character but using him in Arkham Asylum and Gotham Knight was an error in my view. I don't think at this point he can bring anything interesting to his performance. It seems dull.

But what do I know, I loved Jeremy Sisto's take. :awesome:

I know, I know... Heresy.
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I feel that he's used as bait at times these days.

I too am fan of Sisto's take. I actually wanted him back for Year One.
 
Conroy needs to take a hiatus. I enjoy hearing other versions of Batman, like Greenwood. Conroy's great, but he is not necessary for every Batman voice over.
 
I wonder if Conroy has gone over and redone all the batman voices for BB and TDK with his own voice for his private collection?
 
Conroy's voice didn't fit into what they where trying to do with Gotham Knight. I felt his portray was very bland.
 
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