Amph Census Best portrayal of Bruce Wayne / Batman by recent actor?

Best portrayal of Bruce Wayne / Batman by recent actor? (basically since 1989)




For me:

 

Conroy. No contest.

 

I’ve only ever seen the movies, so I’m going with Keaton.

 

Conway and Keaton.

The rest are fine in their own ways, but not as iconic to me.

 

Sensible people vote Clooney.

 

“Recent actors” but no Will Arnett or Diedrich Bader? The state of it.

 

I'm writing in Adam West as I think the year range is malicious

 

Everyone on the list has played Batman, but Conroy is Batman. He just knocks it out of the park, and his voice is the one I hear reading Batman comics. It’s just such a definitive performance.

For live action, I’m a big fan of Christian Bale’s performance. It’s not iconic at the level of Conroy’s, but it’s just a really excellent performance by a powerhouse actor, a great mix of intensity and vulnerability. And that performance and Nolan’s take on Batman are just huge touchstones for the character for me. They’re not perfect, but they really connect with me.

Pattinson would be my number three; I’m not sure how his weirdo isolated Batman will work out long term, but he gave a really excellent performance that worked great and was extremely emotive within the mask. It’s only one movie but it’s a really strong start.

Affleck, meh. I think there’s potential in his take on the character and I liked some of what was on offer, but it was trapped in the terrible Snyderverse and an underdeveloped, dodgy version of the character. I really would have liked to have seen what he and Jeremy Irons could do in a proper movie, but what we got was not that impressive.

The Burton and Schumacher Batmen are all terrible. Even Keaton. Especially Keaton. They’re in godawful movies doing cartoon performances for directors who have no actual interest in the character of Batman. Keaton’s oddball Bruce Wayne and stiffly posing Batman don’t do anything for me. Sub-par all around.

 

Affleck is my least favorite., And favorite isn’t the right word because I actually dislike his (and snyder’s) take on it. His Batman is dumb. Brutish. And worse..boring as hell.

I would even pick Kilmer over him. Any day.

And Bale is great..but his Batman is far too grounded in realism and militaristic for me to pick him as tops. He’s basically a billionaire swat team member.

I like my comic book movie to still be fantasy. With a touch of nonsense and magic.

 

Bale. But that might just be because I prefer the Nolan trilogy. Affleck's Batman is just Affleck playing Affleck. Before I totally run down Affleck The Town is incredible.

 

My own ranking
1. Kevin Conroy
2. Robert Pattinson (just like his Bruce, more realistic take on what he'd be like especially early on)
3. Christian Bale (iconic, but his portrayals of both Batman and Bruce just always felt a little off)

Where are they from?

 

I remember thinking Christian Bale would be a meh Batman, but he turned out to be a good one. I also thought Ben Affleck would be a good Batman, but he turned out to be a meh one.

 

LEGO Batman and The Brave and the Bold, respectively. To say nothing of all those DC animated movies that cast someone other than Conroy.

Edit: Oh and I guess the other animated shows aside from TBatB but, well.

 

Conroy. Not just for the show, but for the Arkham games.

 

Pattinson was surprisingly good as Batman; if not Bruce Wayne.

 

What a terrible question. It’s like asking if Mark Hamill is the best Joker. He obviously is, and Conroy is the best Batman and Bruce.

 

Bale for Bruce. He’s the only one who seemed real. Like that’s how I imagine a real world Bruce Wayne behaving, thinking, etc.

Affleck for Batman. Especially the Dark Knight Returns Batman where he’s just over this ****.

 

Kevin Conroy will always be the voice of Batman to me. But more than that, he’s the voice of Bruce Wayne. So many actors have struggled to distinguish between the two. Clooney didn’t even try. Bale sounded like a chain smoker. Even Pattinson struggled with it a bit.

But not Kevin. He played Batman longer than any of them. But what he understood so early on was the two personalities. His Bruce may have been closer to Kevin’s normal voice, but in the context of the show, it was always the mask. Bruce Wayne was always happy and cheery. But the minute he was alone with Alfred or Robin, that voice was Batman again. The same voice when wearing the mask. And that’s the key difference between the other actors and Kevin. When he voiced old Wayne in Batman Beyond, he did this again as well. This time, Batman was the dominant personality. “Wayne” only came out a few times- when he met Terry’s mother, when he was giving a speech to the Wayne board. But other than that, even when facing people like Powers, the voice was Batman. This is epitomized by the Justice League episode when they go into the future and young Batman meets old Wayne.

As to live action, Keaton got the legend factor down in a way none of the others have yet achieved. Despite all the talk from Bale’s Wayne, it was Keaton’s Wayne who truly frightened criminals and cleaned up Gotham. That’s epitomized by his delivery of “I’m Batman.” at the beginning of the film. For others, that would be a corny line. Keaton’s delivery makes it terrifying to the criminals and hopeful to the rest as he takes down Joker and gives the city the batsignal. There’s a larger than life presence that is felt in Burton’s films that works while Nolan’s films focused on trying to ground him in reality. In Begins, it’s clear that everyone sees Batman as just a man. But in Burton’s film, you have Knox jokingly looking at human-sized bat men. There’s a ‘bigfoot’ quality to the story - a mythological piece- that you don’t get in the Nolan grounded view and you don’t get with Pattinson’s detective.

But Keaton was not a good Bruce Wayne- because he was always Batman. So even in the Flash, when you see him as Batman, it shows why he is a legend. They tried this angle for Batfleck and it just didn’t work as well. I would chalk that up to not investing more in building that story up though.

On the other hand, Bale did the best live Wayne. He came closest to Kevin in trying to get the two sides- the only problem is his gravel chewing Batman voice in the sequels. Not sure why he changed his voice from Batman Begins- it worked just fine in that film.

So yeah, Kevin for me. Then Keaton. Then Bale and finally Pattinson.

 

Have to preface my list by saying I don't really consider myself a "Batman Fan". I've seen almost all the movies but the only comics I own are Golden Age, saw the first season or so of the cartoon when first aired so don't remember anything, and never played the video games.

1. Keaton
2. Adam West
3. Pattinson
4. Kilmer
5. Affleck
6. Clooney
7. Bale. I just don't like him as an actor at all. Begins was watchable but hated The Dark Knight and didn't bother with Rises.

 

I feel like picking the voices from the animated movies just to be contrarian.

 

Romero > Hamill

 

Adam West is seriously missing from this list. His Batman series is campy and fun by design. With a different actor the series could be ridiculous but West sells it completely making it work and is the glue which enables the amazing supporting cast of actors to shine as well.

The tone of Batman has changed over the years but owes much to the 1960s series. The Rogues Gallery is established here as is Batman being treated at face value.

Kevin Conroy is fantastic. The multiple series he voices Batman for are top notch. The original Animated Series followed Ducktales method of adapting established comic book stories to huge success.

I feel the animators share equal credit for Conroy’s portrayal which is in no way a knock on Conroy. Like West I can’t imagine anyone else doing that.

Burton’s Batman is great with Keaton but the costume in large part becomes the character.

 

Huh, best portrait of Batman by a recent actor when recent means any time in the last four to five decades?

 

Thankyou for not discussing the outside world.