Batman is one of the most important and oldest superheroes of all time. SInce his debut decade, he has received several film adaptations leading to the incredibly popular Dark Knigh t trilogy. The film trilogy, headed by Christopher Nolan, is often considered the best and most accurate set of Batman movies to date. Yet, the movies didn't get everything right.
The Christopher Nolan films are largely considered a slightly more realistic take on the Batman mythos. Sadly, this entire premise alienates one of the main principles behind the Caped Crusader: he isn't meant to be realistic. At the end of the day, he's a man dressed as a giant bat trying to scare the criminals of Gotham onto the straight and narrow. The Dark Knight movies make several more similar mistakes and while they might be considered the pinnacle of Batman flicks, they are far from perfect.
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5 Christopher Nolan Got Robin Completely Wrong
"Robin" Makes a Brief Cameo in Nolan's Last Dark Knight Film
When many Batman fans first think of the Caped Crusader, their mind instantly drifts to his longest and most trusted ally: Robin. Sadly, The Dark Knight Trilogy completely misuses one of Batman's greatest companions. The way Robin is used in the films is so forgettable, many might've forgotten that a Robin actually has a small part to play in the iconic trilogy. Instead of being someone Bruce could realistically see as a ward, he's a regular beat cop under the tutelage of commissioner Gordon.
John Blake is a character in the final film, The Dark Knight Rises, meant to serve as an amalgamation of the three older Robins. He deduces Batman's identity as Bruce Wayne, and it is later revealed that Blake's first name is actually Robin. While this might seem like a clever way to include one of Batman's sidekick, it made many of the characters' fans feel cheated. Blake would eventually take on the identity of The Batman, but many fans question if he even deserved it.
In the comics, Robin is trained by Batman from a young age to be the best crime fighting has to offer. Dick Greyson only takes over the mantle after Batman has reportedly died, and he has spent a literal decade under the Caped Crusaders wing. The fact that some literal nobody with the name Robin gets to take up the mantle just didn't sit right with several DC fanatics. The trilogy's misuse of Robin might be the series' most obvious mistake, but it is far from the only one made by the impeccable franchise.
4 Bale's Batman Voice Starts Fine, But Is Laughable In Later Installments
His Batman Voice Turned Several Scenes into Memes
To create a clear distinction between their performances as Bruce Wayne and Batman, many actors will often deepen their voice while donning the cape and cowl. Voice actors like Kevin Conroy have famously developed a perfect duality between Bruce Wayne's two sides, and while many actors have attempted to follow suit, none have truly perfected it. In the same vein as Conroy's Batman voice is famous, Christian Bale's has become somewhat infamous. What started as a noticeable growl in the first film becomes an almost intelligible garble by the last.
Christian Bale's Batman voice is so bad that it became a running joke. Even the actor's emotional performances were severely diminished by the voice's uncanny timbre. The loss of his main love interest in the films, Rachel, is meant to be a heartbreaking sequence, but many fans couldn't help but laugh after Batman's unintelligible garbles. Bale would noticeably tone down the voice for the third and final installment, but the precedent had already been set.
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These days, when modern actors attempt to take on the mantle of the Bat, they usually look towards Conroy over Bale. There are many things the actor does right as the character, but his voice simply just isn't one of them. What could've been a somewhat clever device to separate Bruce Wayne from The Batman almost made the trilogy a laughingstock. The Bale voice still remains relatively iconic today, for all the wrong reasons.
3 The Series' Fight Choreography Makes Bale Look Stiffer Than Keaton's Batman
Keaton's Batman Couldn't Even Use His Neck
The Dark Knight trilogy gets so much right about Batman, but the choreography just isn't one of them. The scenes where Bruce is training during The Batman Begins are the highlight of the film's choreography. Once he dons the Batsuit, things take a stark downward turn. Most of the time, Batman looks as though he's moving through waist-deep water. It's not a huge issue when he's facing heavier enemies, but it looks out of on subsequent watches.
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Christopher Nolan's Batman choreography is so stunted that many fans compared it to Michael Keaton's Batman. Keaton's Batman couldn't even turn his neck properly, so the statement is in no way meant as a compliment. His rapid succession of forearm movements seems tactical and cool at first, but quickly gets boring. Batman is supposed to be an incredibly competent martial artist and the film only depicts him doing stylized boxing at best.
Keaton's Batman manages to avoid choreography criticism due to the age of the films. When Keaton was brought back in 2023's The Flash, fans were expecting a stiff neck because it had become iconic. Unfortunately, Bale's Batman didn't have the time or the charm to handle such a criticism in a similar manner, leading to awkward fights in all three movies, especially against Bane.
2 Bale's Batman Barely Does Any Detective Work In The Movies
There Aren't A lot of Showings for the World's Greatest Detective
One of Batman's most commonly used nicknames is The World's Greatest Detective. While some of Batman's enemies, like Ra's Al Ghul, occasionally use the sentiment sarcastically, it holds up most of the time. That said, Bale's Batman does barely any detective work throughout his trilogy of films. Bale Batman's most common form of investigation is interrogating criminals. He doesn't really do the big picture stuff.
Similar films like The Batman depict The Dark Knight desperately attempting to get to the bottom of their current query. Several movies might not depict Batman as the most competent detective, but they show him doing the work. In the Christopher Nolan trilogy, it feels like everything happens to Batman to the point where he doesn't need to find out where his enemies will strike next, he only needs to defend his beloved city.
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In fact, in The Dark Knight Rises, Bane was able to take over the city from right under Batman's nose. He had essentially retired at that point, but Bale's Batman probably wouldn't have retired if he were competent enough to know there was that large of an issue with his beloved Gotham. He might not be as intelligent as other iterations of the character, but he's still plenty passionate about his mission.
1 Batman, At the Character's Core, Isn't Meant to be Realistic
Batman Is the Balance Between Comic Craziness and Crime-Fighting
Many fans' largest complaint about the Bale Batman films comes from something Christopher Nolan gets inherently wrong about the Caped Crusader. At the end of the day, Batman isn't a realistic character. Nolan's films are meant to be a realistic version of a superhero who just doesn't lend himself well to realism. Batman is literally a man dressed like a giant bat dedicated to ridding the world of all crime.
There are ways to depict Batman without leaning too hard into realism and Cristopher Nolan's trilogy slightly crosses the line. The films opt towards realism the majority of the time, when it should be the other way around. Batman might be the most plausible popular DC superhero, but that doesn't mean that each of his films need to be completely bare bones. It's a little sad that Nolan was too afraid to get campy now and again.
Adam West's Batman is famously the most absurd live-action version of the character, but it is also one of the most popular. A lot of that has to do with nostalgia, but on the other hand, it proves how dedicated the classic series was to making Batman's depiction accurate. Ultimately, the best Batman depiction would fall somewhere in the middle between Bale and West's performances. At least that's what many fans hope to see in the DCU's Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
Batman Begins
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- June 15, 2005
- Runtime
- 140 minutes
Cast
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Christian BaleBruce Wayne / Batman -
Michael CaineAlfred
