KeatBats V KilmBats V CloonBats V BaleBats

[Powerboy]

To me Keaton's blocking Napier's bullet is an example of SMvsFL. Not only does he not doing anything approaching that level of feat again, but every other time he is shot at he just stands there and takes it. It makes no sense given that he is not supposed to be above peak human in any way.

Overall my perception is probably skewed because of the ways the movies were made. Keaton had a suit that restricted his movement to an absurd extent, while Bale's was designed for maximum mobility. At least the function of Bale's suit is discussed on screen. The fight scenes in the Keaton movies treated him more like a tank than like someone who could move with any speed of flexibility. And Bale has the advantage that he could turn his head.

Another issue with the Keaton movies is that the abilities of his opponents are never really shown or stated. No one is stated or shown to have had any martial arts training whatsoever. Ad it may be because of the limitations of the suit, but with very few exceptions the fight scenes made it look like Keaton was fighting amateurs. Bale was fighting groups of trained ninjas and a superman who was immune to pain.

The question is whether the issues with Keaton's suit and fight scenes are only the result of technical limitations and not supposed to affect Batman's skills or if they meant for his skills to be what were shown on-screen.

I just watched "Batman" (1989) for, probably, the first time since I saw it in the theater in 1989. For a moment, forget the Rumble. Now I think it is far superior to what I felt about it 25 years ago. This series and Baleman are two sides of a coin with this having lots of atmosphere while Baleman gives us the fine details of Batman's origin. This was great in avoiding an origin everyone knows except telling just enough of it to get the point. Both versions are great. I think Nicholson excels at giving us the Joker.

However, I think Keaton Batman's speed is being way oversold. He does do stuff like block sword strikes but he's wearing armor that allows him to block them with his arms and hands. He's faster than Bale but not by any significant degree. And, yes, that bullet block is way above anything else he did.

I'd still give it to Keaton over Bale but not by a lot.

[Duskman]

Primarily, he's got one clearish BT feat

LOL.

Clearish.

Now there's your comedy.

[big_adventure]

LOL.

Clearish.

Now there's your comedy.

Sure is. Comedy is your friend.

[Dr Will Hatch]

See me practice necromancy as I revive this thread! Bwahahahahahhahahaha. Anyways, I agree that Keaton's speed feats are of interest, as well as his strength feat of punching through his batmobile in Returns, but Baleman has a consistent record of oneshotting thugs, improvising on the fly when the SWAT guys went into the building in TDK, and he also has consistent feats of disappearing from busy places like crime scenes. So yeah, he is a tad bit undersold here. He's not great, but as far as conventional action heroes go, he'll do in a pinch.

[Twickster]

What hasn't been mentioned is that Keaton Batman is utterly ruthless and has absolutely no qualms about killing people in the most direct (and absurd) way possible.

While the other Batman my hit to disable, Keaton does things like mow down enemies with machine guns and sticking bombs on them. Coupled with the speed edge, that's hard to beat.

[Guy1]

What hasn't been mentioned is that Keaton Batman is utterly ruthless and has absolutely no qualms about killing people in the most direct (and absurd) way possible.

While the other Batman my hit to disable, Keaton does things like mow down enemies with machine guns and sticking bombs on them. Coupled with the speed edge, that's hard to beat.

To be fair, he has horrible aim with those guns.

[Slade1]

To be fair, he has horrible aim with those guns.

Only the Batplane, the Batmobile gunned down lots of people and set others on fire. Also dropped bombs at the feet of goons.