Bale's Batman wasn't an idiot or anything. I, personally, just didn't feel like he was as smart as Batman usually is depicted to be. He leaned more towards to the impossible to beat fighter side of Batman than he did to the genius detective side. Ofcourse, this is just because Nolan was depicting a more realistic, human Batman. Still, I prefer my Batman to be less ninja, more genius.

@comicdude23 said:

I watched TDK and he did plenty. He was scanning those bullets and figuring out who Joker's next hit was.

And just how is this considered detective work? Anyone with the same computer Bruce has could do the same.

@comicdude23 said:

He also applied the Sonar concept to very cell-phone in Gotham. Which is quite smart.

IIRC all he came up with was the idea. Lucious built the thing, just like he built everything else for Batman.

Dude don't you ever get tired of posting about Nolan's batman series...

@CrimsonCake : being more realistic means that he cannot be a master of everything. I mean, Nolan's Batman is a master fighter and tactician. He also knows enough of his way around the world/underworld to get back into Gotham, survive as a no-name thug etc etc. Him also being a master detective is not very realistic in terms of the time he had to learn all of this.

Bruce was away for 7 years before becoming Batman. That is already a small amount of time to become the kind of fighter he is portrayed to be (already beating several members of the LoS... each of them having the same training that Bruce was supposed to have). Are we to believe that he also spent this time being the brilliant scientist and detective that we see in the comics? Far too little time in the world of the real. And the one year that he was active as batman before TDK is still too little time. The additional 8 years could fix all that... but he was inactive as batman that entire time, as well as inactive as a human being in general... yet he knows enough to research into Selina and know what she used on the safe and why just be examining it with his eye.

So, yeah, it's kept pretty realistic.

And I'm sure Nolan decided to focus on the fighting-Batman for his trilogy, because that is what made most sense for Bruce. The detective-Batman will be the batman that JGL becomes after the trilogy... since he is an actual detective and all (but we'll never see that).

@ElGUitarist said:

The detective-Batman will be the batman that JGL becomes after the trilogy... since he is an actual detective and all (but we'll never see that).

I never thought of it like that.

This is genius.

@Dark_Slayor said:

@comicdude23: Bale's/Nolan's Batman overall wasn't impressive in any way. He showed no real deduction/detective skills, his fighting was w.e, and above all else he showed no tactical or super genius intellect(which is the most important aspect to Batman imo). IIRC all Batman did in the TDK is was take Fox's idea and expand on it with the Sonar/cell phone machine, I don't think he could even operate it(I could be wrong tho). Also Fox invented every single gadget Batman had in his arsenal. Sadly, Batman didn't make the Nolan Batman trilogy for me.

Exactly.

Batman fought the entire criminal underworld, impossible if it was just using fisticuffs and no investigation.

It was his marked bills and tracking that were used in TDK.

Bruce used his 'detective skills' to find out it was Lao who was laundering the money in TDK (we only see the culmination scene where all he wanted was to look at his books/records up close to be 100% sure... the meeting where Bruce fell asleep).

He found the fingerprint from the shattered bullet.

He found out about and OBTAINED the "clean slate" in the TDKR, something that a pro thief was after for so long and the criminal underworld thought was only a myth.

He found out Selina's identity.. even with the fancy computer it's still not an easy task.

He shows his knowledge of forensics by naming what Selina used and WHY she used the certain dust powders just by looking at it.

He fixes the software patch for the auto pilot on the Bat. SO UNIMPRESSIVE for him to do that while being busy (even Fox said that he couldn't do it without more time... yet Bruce did it with pressed time).

And those are just examples that I can think of on the spot.

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You guys seem to forget that Bruce went to college and all that 'normal' stuff before leaving for 7 years before BatmanBegins. In those 7 years, he learned how criminals work, how to survive, and how to fight, and trained by the LoS. After that, he was only Batman for 1 year between BB and TDK.

That comes to 8 years of survival+Los training+being Batman.

So please tell me how any man, no matter how much money or potential, can train himself to the level of fighter that beats several LoS ninjas AND intellect AND detective skills in 8 years? The other 8 years between TDK and TDKR he spent wallowing in dispare, not being Batman, and not doing a damn thing other than that Energy project.

Again, so many interpretations of Batman; from the ultimate martial artist, to scientist level intellect in most fields of science, to world's greatest detective... and sometimes an amalgamation of everything which is only possible in comicbooks and not a realistic man.

Christian Bale's Batman was the ultimate martial artist and a bit of a science expert (fixing auto pilot, applying the sonar to all cellphones, the energy project he led).

Joseph Gordon Levitt's Batman will be the detective and tactical Batman (he's a detective on a level that gained Gordon's trust and respect quickly, and obviously has formal training (master's degree?) in order to be promoted so quickly).

It only makes sense that Nolan took this route with a more realistic (which is the point of batman) take on what a single man can do. For batman to be everything we see in the comics (which is 62+ years worth of writing and stories and interpretations), Batman has to be more than one person. And it only makes sense that Bruce would have the help from Fox and Gordon that he did; Batman is the symbol, while Bruce, Fox, Gordon and Blake in TDKR are/were the forces behind it.