Why Christian Bale Is The Best Batman.

If you haven’t been living under a rock you know that there has been a new Batman film that has recently come out, called The Batman. It stars Robert Pattinson and Zoe Kravitz and is supposed to be an origin story of the dark, twisted superhero.

Currently, I’m 22 years old (really 22 and a half but who's counting halves anymore), and if you know anything about the early 2000s you would realize that that puts me at the prime “tween” age when Twilight first came out. And I am not afraid to admit that I was Team Jacob over Team Edward every time. And my obsession was real,  enough that I went to my local mall with all of my friends to meet the actor who played Edward's father in the film.

To this day it is one of our favorite movies to watch (though I’m much more into New Moon, my Team Jacobness shows through in this). I do recognize how awful the films actually are, from bad writing to bad acting and everything in between. They’re so bad, in fact, they’re good.

Here I am photographed in my Team Jacob sweatshirt that I didn’t take off for the entirety of my 2010 family vacation. Oh, and, also every day of the 6th grade.

Since the release of the Twilight films, Robert Pattinson has really grown as an actor and his role in Tenant (directed by none other Christopher Nolan who is also an avid Batman fan and director) is truly one of his best (though if someone could explain the film to me that would be wonderful). I was honestly very excited to see the new Batman film as I had high hopes for it, knowing that he can play moody better than most people and who is the moodiest superhero?

Batman, of course.

However, when I left the theater I was honestly pretty disappointed. For starters, the film in my opinion had little to no character development. It felt as though we were dropped into the Batman World and were already supposed to know everything that had happened before. The emotional connection to the characters was expected to be established already. But with a new cast and characters, I felt like the relationships were extremely underdeveloped, especially for an origin story. It almost felt like we were watching the second movie of a series, not the first.

And, as I mentioned before, Robert Pattinson and Batman definitely have at least one thing in common and that is being moody as hell. But the other thing about Batman is that he’s cool, suave, a rich orphan with some detachment issues but he’s got an aloofness everyone wants to be around and more. Pattinson in the film, unfortunately, has none of those qualities with the mask off. 

Robert Pattinson was a great batman, but a terrible Bruce Wayne

He is shy, awkward, and looks uncomfortable in his own skin, and to me, that is just not what Bruce or Batman is. He may be a superhero, in the general sense of the term. But keep in mind the only thing super about him is his money and his awesome gadgets. He doesn’t have any actual superpowers that make him special. Batman is supposed to be raw and real and struggling but always confident. 

Enter Christian Bale.

Christian’s role as Batman over the years was one of the best that we’ve ever seen. From his origin story of Batman Begins to The Dark Knight Rises, they all draw in the viewers in a way that you can’t get with many superhero movies. It didn’t feel like the entire time you were in a different universe. There is a relationship between you and Batman. He’s calm, cool, and collected and the character development is phenomenal making Christopher Nolan‘s masterpiece some of the best in cinematic history (this is my personal opinion but I always feel I’m right so I stand by this). 

The Dark Knight with Christian Bale as Batman and Heath Ledger as the Joker is another one of the best good versus evil stories out there. Don't get me wrong, Pattinson did his best but when you’re living up to a legend like the many great actors that played Batman, it’s incredibly hard to be the best.

And I will always entertain the argument that Bale and Michael Keaton are the best to play Batman. But if you ever bring up the words Ben Affleck, good, and Batman in the same sentence, prepare for the argument of your life. 

So I did enjoy the film overall. I thought its diversity was great. I loved Zoe in it and thought she was incredibly hot and powerful as Catwoman and loved her independence throughout the film. I also loved how dark they made the film, Batman has always been a dark story, Roberts reminds us that at the root of Batman, is darkness, not light. And that is okay. Because sometimes, the darkness can produce good, and that shows in this film, 

I look forward to seeing what the future holds for the Batman series and hopefully, they can further develop these characters in a way where we feel that emotional connection to them like we have in the previous series. But until then to me, the film felt like it was Edward playing Batman, not Robert.