Christopher Nolan gave us three of the greatest superhero movies ever made with "Batman Begins," "The Dark Knight," and, more or less, "The Dark Knight Rises." However, you won't find many of the films fans praising Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne/Batman. There wasn't much room to expand on his acting abilities. Bale was fed lines of dialogue which were, for the most part, facile and uneventful. The films were so damn great because of Nolan's tense and terrific direction and, most of all, because of the villains. The Joker, Bane and Scarecrow rocked. Simple as that. If anything, the film which Bale owns the most is "Batman Begins," especially the opening scenes where he's training with Liam Neeson's Ra's Al Ghul. The meditative, torturous and emotional aspects of these scenes are when Bale peaked in the trilogy. And, don't have me go on about the deep-throated voice Bale decided to use in the movies. What was that about? I know Batman is supposed to have that kind of manly, alpha-male delivery, but Bale just overdid it.
Now, it seems, like actor agrees with this assessment as he's shown regrets in his portrayal of the caped crusader.
"I didn’t quite manage what I hoped I would throughout the trilogy. Chris did, but my own sense of self is like, 'I didn’t quite nail it.'" [My read of Batman was as this] "very, very, very dark, messed up character." "I found when I put on the suit, I felt like, ‘I just feel like a bloody idiot if I don’t use this as a means of...it’s his true monstrous self that he allows to come out in that moment. Let’s do that." "Heath turned up and just kind of completely ruined all my plans. Because I went, he’s so much more interesting than me and what I’m doing."
Give me Michael Keaton any day of the week.
[EW]