Christian Bale, Batman Begins has taken Batman to a darker level, although the very first was rather dark!!

He brings the physicality, you actually believe he could, almost, do some of the stuff he does, pulls of the character much better!!

Kilmer?!

Yeah, no.

Bale for sure. He's the most visceral, dark, brooding, arrogant Batman yet and I think he's fantastic. None of the others come close (and no I'm not the weak type to instantly give "classic" points).

This was very tough for me to select, it's between two actors, Christian Bale and Michael Keaton, even though Dark Knight is now my favorite Batman movie of all time, it was more because of Heath Ledger playing the Joker then Christian Bale playing the Batman. So my vote goes to Michael Keaton, I think he did a superb job portraying Bruce Wayne and the Batman, I wish he would of done at least one more movie. But it's very close between the two.

Christan Bale= hot. End of thread.

DL's right. Plus he was in "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" and he's got quite a list of productions coming up. Though he was one of my least favorite a long with... well just about every other actor who played Batman. All of them were so dry and devoid of personality I didn't really get a good sense of strong character.

+1 for Bale.

Here is how I rate it only by the ones I am familiar with

6. Adam West (comical but too campy for my tastes)

5. George Cloony (I just didnt feel the batman vibe from him)

4. Val Kilmer (Kicked **** but was not a good enough bruce wayne for me I was constantly feeling like I want him to immediately change into batman)

3. Kevin Conroy (Had the batman voice down)

2. Michael Keaton (I felt he had a very good bruce wayne batman balance but didnt kick enough ass)

1. Christian Bale (Kicked **** and I got invested with him as bruce wayne. My only gripe was the "batman" voice it kinda annoyed me)