August 6, 2013 Tuesday 7: Movie Batmans
Paul Simon famously sang “Everything looks worse in black and white,” but I don’t think he ever saw this picture
If you want to argue that it should be “Movie Batmen” you’re going to have to go elsewhere because I think it could be either. I chose “Batmans” because it sounds funnier. Also, I’m only including one animated Batman movie at this time.
7. Lewis Wilson – Played Batman in some serials in the 40s, but I haven’t seen them, so I can’t really rank him. In this instance “can’t really rank him” means “gets stuck at the bottom.” Sorry, Lewis. I’m going to guess, though, by what I’ve read about those serials that this ranking wouldn’t change if I had seen
6. Adam West – I understand why people like the campy movie and series, I just don’t.
5. George Clooney – I think George made a decent Bruce Wayne, or at least would have if the script had called for it.
4. Val Kilmer – I love Val in other stuff, but he suffers here because his movie wasn’t good. That’s not technically his fault, I don’t think.
3. Kevin Conroy – I know at least one reader who is going to be angry that Kevin isn’t at the top. He’s fantastic, and for many folks he’s what they think of when they think of Batman. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm was for the longest time the best Batman movie there was, and his work in the Arkham video games were movie-like enough that he gets bonus points from me for them, too.
2. Christian Bale – The only nitpick you can have with him is the Batman Voice thing he does in the last two movies, but that’s just because you don’t like hearing it. It would mess with criminals’ heads, I think, and it was the right choice. It was part of the persona.
1. Michael Keaton – Listen, I know Christian Bale is the best movie Batman, so don’t give me any grief. These lists aren’t about “best,” though, they’re about “favorite.” I still remember all of the griping around the choice of Michael Keaton back in the day – “A comedian! Playing Batman!” – but not only did he do a great job, he also had the sense to leave the series when he saw what Joel Schumacher was planning for the next entry and that might make him the smartest guy on this list. And we all know Batman is super smart, y’all.
Written by: Mark
- 8 comments
- Posted under Movies
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Derek
said
My 2 cents:
1. Val Kilmer really did not work as Batman or Bruce Wayne IMO. A lot can be blamed on writing but I just don’t think he has the spacific “it” that makes for a good DC hero. Really I think he’d make a better nemesis. Also we know from Tombstone that he can play the anti-hero in fantastic ways. If this were my list I’d swap 4 and 5.
2. I’d argue the Michael Keaton is the best Batman to date. Christian Bale was fantastic early in Batman Begins when he was in Tibet and what-not but I thought his Batman was good, not great (which is not to say that Nolan’s Batman movies weren’t great). Of course I still haven’t seen the last movie.
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Mark
said
1. It would be awesome to see Val play a Bat-villain, but it’d have to be a lesser-known one, I think.
2. I think Bale gets a bump because The Dark Knight was such an amazing film. But, hey, Keaton is still my favorite!
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bd
said
Kevin Conroy only being #3 is sad. Christian Bale is annoying in every other scene.
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Mark
said
Guess who I knew would be mad about Kevin Conroy?
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bd
said
Meags?
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Mark
said
No
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d4v34x
said
Actually, Paul Simon sang “everything looks worse in black and white”. At least in the original version of the song. He did change the lyrics to “everything looks better in black and white” during the Colorization scare of the early/mid 80s. But never “looks good”.
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Mark
said
I’ve made the change and the caption still works. That’ll teach me to rely on my memory!