bc he IS batman!!! at 6′4″ (193cm) he is the tallest guy to play batman which adds to that looming figure that The Bat is supposed to be. In the comics Batman is 6′2″ (188cm) and around 210lbs (95kg). ben is HUGE, in terms of bulk and width like…look at a photo of BaleBats compared to Batfleck and tell me which one looks more like Batman.
ultimately as well, it comes down to WRITING. Christian bale is a phenomenal actor, but the character he played in TDK trilogy is NOT Batman. that is a “SHELL” of who Batman is supposed to be, more fitting into the persona and life of “Bruce Wayne” the billionaire playboy, than the actual person Bruce is. The richboy shtick has always been a mask for bruce, it was never really him. and the fact that Nolan had to literally and explicitly write a line where Bruce says “I’m not that kind of guy” in reference to the persona, clearly shows that Nolan new jackall about batman.
the ease with which Batfleck is able to go into the richboy persona and for us to /know/ its a persona - for us to know how much he hates it - shows more character depth of who batman is than the stick in the mud playboy that was Balebats. I’m positive if Nolan hadn’t written TDK trilogy, and if someone who actually gave 3 shits about Batman as a character with a deeply compassionate and emotional core wrote those movies, then the TDK trio would’ve been great. But i personally can’t watch the TDK trilogy anymore (esp after watching BvS) and believe that the man in front of me is supposed to be Bruce wayne/Batman. bc he’s definitely not.
over the years, Batman has suffered what i like to dub as “Alpha Male Character Syndrome”, where male heroes with deeply tragic backgrounds and obvious mental illness become conflated into pop culture consciousness as “The Badass Macho Man Who Never Cries” (Batman, Superman, etc) or on the flip side of this coin, someone like Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader who we first see as “The Badass Villain Who Never Cries” before getting his deeply troubling and tragic backstory, which is rejected by the fanboys, mass media, et al. bc apparently badass Villains and Heroes with tragic stories can never shed any tears or show any emotional range deeper than a teaspoon.
ANYWAY
Batfleck is raw, he’s haunted, he’s got his demons, his pain and his mental illnesses are visceral and they run deep. it’s obvious that the Batman persona is a coping mechanism - a way he has dealt with the guilt and death of his family over the lasting years. The symbolism throughout Bruce’s own nightmares that one day “the Bat” might consume him. The fact that it’s been 20 years of him being Batman and yet he can’t stop. He never stopped. (that’s another thing that made Balebats so unbelievable - in what world would bruce wayne selfishly give up being the batman THREE different times??) Batfleck has the emotional core, the compassion, and the burning love for his city and his family that the BEST batman comic arcs all have. Batfleck is all the good parts of batman without taking out the bad ones, without removing his impulsivity and his obsessive nature and ESPECIALLY his mental illnesses.
Batfleck IS Batman. He is everything that Batman represents and everything that Batman should be. I love batfleck and I will die defending him as the BEST iteration of Batman we’ve ever seen in live action movies. Case mf Closed!