This week sees the release of "The Batman," the latest big screen take on the Dark Knight, the top dog when it comes to our cinematic superheroes.
Sure, others have come along and out-grossed the Caped Crusader at the box office, but it was the original "Batman" movie in 1989 that awakened Hollywood to what big screen superheroes could be, and laid the blueprint for our current all-in comic book franchise landscape.
Over the years, the Batsuit has been passed on from A-list star to A-list star, each of whom has given their own take on the billionaire by day, vigilante by night.
Who's the best Batman, and who had us paying more attention to the villains? Here's our ranking of the best big screen Batmen, from worst to first.
7. Ben Affleck
(from "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," 2016 and "Justice League," 2017)
Ben Affleck always looked miserable in the Batsuit. Not that the Bruce Wayne he was playing was a miserable guy. But Affleck himself looked miserable, like he didn't want to be there, like he didn't want to be bulked up in a Batman suit, like he'd rather have been just about anywhere else. It wasn't so much a dour characterization as it was the work of a guy who just looked unhappy and uncomfortable — he said as much in a recent interview — and that feeling came across on screen in his portrayal. Part of it is it feels like he was never given a chance to become or grow into the character: he arrived, fully formed, as Batman in "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," a film he shared with an already established Superman (Henry Cavill, whom audiences were introduced to in 2013's "Man of Steel"). Batman — Batman, for crying out loud! — was treated as an afterthought, and Affleck didn't do anything to make the character his own. He looked like he just wanted to get the whole thing over with and move on.
6. George Clooney
(from "Batman & Robin," 1997)
Poor Georgie. Clooney was still a budding movie star when he got offered the role of Batman in director Joel Schumacher's second go-round at the Bat helm, and he would have been crazy to turn the offer down. But what he probably didn't realize at the time was he was signing on to a disaster so misguided it threatened to derail the series entirely. Not that it's Clooney's fault, but there's only so much he could do playing second fiddle to the nipples on his own Bat suit. Clooney, who was still on "ER" at the time, is adept at playing Bruce Wayne, and Clooney is smooth enough to sell the whole billionaire playboy thing; Clooney is the Bruce Wayne you want at charity galas, even if at the time he was still doing that thing where he acted by putting his chin down and shaking his head back and forth. But as "Batman & Robin" crashes and burns in real time, Clooney doesn't have much to do except watch it go down in flames. Returning to "ER" probably felt like a warm blanket.
5. Will Arnett
(from "The Lego Batman Movie," 2017)
OK, it was only a voice performance, and Will Arnett has been doing his low-voice grumble thing (hilariously, it should be noted) since he played a villain role on "30 Rock." But there was levity and vulnerability in Arnett's portrayal of the Dark Knight, and his comedic sensibilities helped cut through the self-seriousness that by 2017 had come to define and overtake the Bat character. Call him the Light Knight.
4. Val Kilmer
(from "Batman Forever," 1995)
In his 2021 documentary "Val," Val Kilmer described his frustration with playing Batman, mostly in the way that once he put on the suit, he was barely able to move his body. That stiffness stifled his abilities as an actor, he said, and he was essentially reduced to a pair of lips. As far as lips go, you can do worse than Val's. But he had other obstacles in his way, including not getting swallowed whole by Jim Carrey's go-big-or-go-home portrayal of the Riddler or by Joel Schumacher's over-the-top cartoon take on the material. With all that being said, Kilmer was fine, even if he was reduced to the third or fourth most interesting thing in his own movie. He famously walked away from the cape rather than continuing the role, which turned out to be a wise move, even if it tagged him as a "difficult" actor, a label he was never able to shake. Even still, Kilmer's time as Batman will always feel unfinished.
3. Robert Pattinson
(from "The Batman," 2022)
He's the most brooding Batman yet — he can't get much darker without going on tour with Bauhaus — as Robert Pattinson plays Batman/ Bruce Wayne like he just arrived in Gotham City after taking a red eye flight from Forks, Washington. We don't need to see his parents getting killed in an alley to know that he wears that loss on his soul, and R-Pattz plays his Batman so emo that he probably still has a LiveJournal somewhere in his online archives. It would be nice if Pattinson's Bruce Wayne was a little better at schmoozing and pressing the flesh at fancy-shmancy charity balls and fundraisers, a pre-requisite for playing the part. But he's an effective mix of shadow warrior, vengeance seeker and Gotham City savior, and one thing Matt Reeves' film does well is it gives him ample time to establish the character as his own. He's a Dark Knight for our dark times.
2. Christian Bale
(from "Batman Begins," 2005, "The Dark Knight," 2008 and "The Dark Knight Rises," 2012)
He rescued Bats from oblivion (i.e. "Batman & Robin") and rebuilt him from the ground up, and he became the most successful Batman and the most-tenured actor in the Batsuit. He was equally nimble in the Bruce Wayne and Batman roles, whether he was fighting off bad dudes or toasting Gotham's high society. Under Bale, we saw a different Batman than we had seen on the big screen before, one who studied to be a ninja in a prison in Bhutan, because one does not just become Batman, see. (Bale, known for his commitment to his craft, seems like the type who would insist on such measures.) For an entire generation, Bale is Batman, and rightfully so. There's just one teeny, tiny, little note: his growled Batvoice was never a good idea, it should have been stopped the first time he used it, and it somehow became a mainstay of his character for three entire movies. Otherwise, peachy. But that voice? Oof.
1. Michael Keaton
(from "Batman," 1989 and "Batman Returns," 1992)
He's the smoothest, he's the coolest, he's the original, he's the best. Michael Keaton didn't entirely make sense when he was first cast in the role of Batman, but he made the role his own, bringing his livewire energy to the role ("wanna get nuts? C'mon, let's get nuts!") and tempering it with the moodiness afforded by the Bat cape and helmet. (He had a working relationship with director Tim Burton after "Beetlejuice," and the trust they have in each other shows.) Because he pioneered the role — no disrespect to Adam West on the 1960s TV series — he was able to define what it meant to be Batman, and every actor that put the suit on after him owes him a debt. No wonder he's due to play the role again, both in the upcoming "The Flash" and on HBO Max's "Batgirl." And if there's ever a "Spider-Man: No Way Home" situation where all the actors who have played Batman are rounded up in one room, it won't be a party until Keaton shows up. He's our Bat, man.
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