West, Keaton or Bale

Christian Bale

Partly because he is given much better material to work with and this allows him to display a much wider range of emotions. Bale is simply a far better dramatic actor than Michael Keaton and it is very obvious when watching The Dark Knight trilogy imo.

I like Keaton a lot as Batman, but what is missing is a complexity to his acting when he is in costume. I also like that Bale plays Batman less self-aware cool than Keaton and that makes him feel more reality based. Nolan's Bruce Wayne doesn't enjoy fighting criminals as Batman, while Keaton's Bruce Wayne seems to get a kick out of doing what he does.

I am a huge fan of Bale's choice to give him a monster-like voice that the character partly does to distance the two sides of his personality. It's like watching two completely different characters in one.