I dislike Bale's approach to playing Bruce. He seems to lack intelligence (and I know Bruce sometimes acts dopish and absentminded in public, but that's not what I'm referring to; the board meeting scene in TDK was actually fine with me) and speak in this glib, fratboyish manner that's totally foreign to my conception of the character from the comics and animated series. I sometimes wonder if Bale ever opened one of the comics.
Though Bale's slightly Keanu-like American accent doesn't help, I think that Nolan has from the start intended his Batman to be not particularly intelligent, though I'm not sure why he chose to do this. Here are some a few things that I think clearly show this intention, and aren't just examples of thoughtlessness:
1) Batman relies on Lucius Fox to design all of his gadgets and technology. Lucius even comes up with the ideas for the gadgets on his own. Batman seems barely even included in the design of anything. Contrast how in the 1989 Batman, Batman figured out the Joker's cosmetic poisoning scheme by himself, basically out-geniusing the Joker, whereas in Batman Begins, Batman was only able to beat the Scarecrow because Lucius Fox took it upon himself to devise an antidote to the Scarecrow's poison, saving Batman's life and, by making him immune to the poison, allowing him to be at all effective against the Scarecrow. And when Lucius explains to Bruce Wayne how the antidote worked, Bruce says something like, "Can you put that in English?", which is the standard movie line to show that a character is much less smart than another one. In the Dark Knight, Batman is even more dependent on Lucius. Before Batman turns on Lucius' crystal ball-like sonar contraption at the end of the movie, he has made exactly zero progress against the Joker. Even after that he only is able to physically defeat the Joker because of the forearms blades that Lucius came up with and built completely on his own.
2) Batman is dependent on Alfred for much of his strategic thinking. In Batman Begins, he has to ask Alfred to come up with a plan to cover up his equipment purchases, and then in the Dark Knight it is Alfred's job to come up with the alibi for Batman's trip to China to kidnap the mob accountant. Probably the clearest example of Nolan's changes to Batman, is when Batman, usually portrayed as the "world's greatest detective", is corrected by his butler on a point of criminal psychology. In fact, Batman's views on criminal psychology were that there wasn't much to it and it wasn't worth thinking too hard about. Bale's Batman reminds me a lot of Brad Pitt's character in Seven.
3) No one seems to respect Batman/Bruce Wayne, except for Gordon who seems a little too enamored with him. The villains, Scarecrow, Joker, Maroni and Ra's Al Ghul all talk to Batman like he's some kid playing detective. They all just seem annoyed and impatient with Baman. Think about the scene in the Dark Knight where Batman's trying way too hard to scare Maroni with his Batman voice, and Maroni's just smirking at him like he's nothing. Meanwhile, Rachel Dawes always seems frustrated by his shallow ideas about morality and justice.
