Keaton's my favorite Bruce Wayne. Sort of goofy and distracted and perfect for the 'role' he plays as a daffy billionaire wastrel. That's kind of my number one thing there. Hollywood is crawling with dudes who can wear a face-and-body-obscuring cowl and pretend to fight. Anyone who plays Batman has to be able to play a good Bruce Wayne.
Affleck obviously did the best job of portraying the grizzled old warhorse in the vein of Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns, but since he's literally the only one to play that particular interpretation, he's got no real competition (at least not until I get to see the older-Batman of Titans...).
Bale, distracting voice aside, was probably the best at the physicality of Batman himself, but, given the nature of the costume, I have no idea how much of that was him and how much of that was his stuntman...
Story and script aside, my fave is Affleck in acting, looks and badassery wise. Both his Bruce and Batman were more than solid.
Second fave, Adam West.
In order of my favorite live action Batmans.
1. Michael Keaton
2. Christian Bale
3. Adam West
4. Lewis Wilson
5. George Clooney
6. Ben Affleck
7. Vale Kilmer
8. Robert Lowery
It's really an impossible task. One person will say Adam West was the best because he best exemplified the comedic Batman and maybe they grew up on that Batman. Someone else will say Christian Bale because they only want the dark Batman.
The Adam West show was what Batman was in that time period. It's bull that the comics became that way because of the show. The comics were that way long before the show started. Some of the scripts were taken from comic book stories that were written before the show started. I've read some of those comics and that is what Batman was at that time. So, in a sense, Adam West was the truest to the Batman comics.
I'm not really a fan of the Michael Keaton Batman. I did think it was nice of the Joker to let Batman be in his movie and even nicer of him to let them call it "Batman" instead of "The Joker" which is what it really was. I also didn't think it was true to what Batman was in that time because his refusal to kill was a huge part of the comics. But mostly I didn't think Keaton ever felt like Bruce Wayne or Batman to me though I've loved him as other characters.
To this day, I have never seen the Val Kilmer Batman.
I thought George Clooney did a great Bruce Wayne but, as the OP said, he was hampered by trying to be both campy and serious at the same time.
If you love the dark Batman, it's almost inevitable that Bale will be your favorite. He does a good job of acting on top of that.
Ben Affleck also does a nice job of playing what the version he plays is supposed to be: a shell-shocked veteran who has gone through too much and is unstable.
So every one of them did a great job of playing what his version of the character was written to be.
Power with Girl is better.
It's Afleck and Bale for me, though Keaton is close. As for West, he was great for the comedy show and was the Batman of my childhood, but hopefully we never, ever see that type of Bats again.
A bat! That's it! It's an omen.. I'll shall become a bat!
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