Tom is alright. He's got a good balance of both, I think. The other two were either spectacular in one department and lacking in the other, Andy more than Tobey as far as lacking is concerned, and his Spidey, while awesome, was bogged down by shitty writers and awful video games, so I guess Andy would be out. The real question is how to measure an excellent Peter and a mediocre spidey vs. a Pretty-Good-In-Both-Respects guy. The obvious solution would be to fill in over 100 X-factors in Excel spreadsheets and have them Act to the Death. Well, that, or see how well Tom holds up over the next few sequels, assuming Sony doesn't decide to tell Marvel to spit on it and sit on it for the umpteenth time.
Micheal Keaton vs. George Clooney vs. Christian Bale vs. Adam West vs. Ben Afleck is a less perplexing problem, imo, despite the large number of Batmans that have been brought into the equation.
George Clooney, imho, was a pretty good Bruce, as far as personality and presence is concerned. When he was Bruce Wayne, you believed he was Bruce Wayne. Too bad the movies didn't focus on the Wayne, because his Batman was so unbelievably, indescribably anus that I just felt like he was George Clooney pretending to be Batman, which then ruined his excellent Bruce Wayne because, the more Batman I saw, the more Bruce Wayne started to look like George Clooney playing George Clooney. He's out for being so shitty that it destroys any credit I could be able to give him...
Ben Afleck was alright, but the story built around him was too shitty to even give him a fair judgement on how good he is at being Batman or Bruce. He's out on virtue of being difficult to gauge properly.
Say what you will about his material, but Adam West was the absolute perfect representation of everything good about Silver Age Batman. The puns, the absurdity, everything, he was very excellent. Though I didn't see much of Bruce Wayne in the show and movie, that didn't really matter. He remained just as charming and true to the character as possible, even though Comic Book Characters were becoming increasingly absurd and mercurial back in the day. He was very good at being Batman, and very good at being Bruce, not saying too much, since there wasn't much difference between the man and the alter ego back then, but it was certainly a good performance.
Christian Bale was... Eh... He was very believable, dark, realistic, etc., but, come on, anyone who's ever talked to both of them would be able to figure out pretty quickly that one was the other. Bruce the Millionaire is very fake and absolutely reeks of a man who's hiding something, and Batman disguises his voice and mannerisms so egregiously (and all that other shit that's already been said) that I just don't think anyone with more than two brain cells rubbing together wouldn't know that this Batman is somebody with a dayjob.... While it was very emotional and it made you feel for the character, most of his character establishment comes from monologues and speeches and I don't think there was quite as much substance to his Batman as some others.
Michael Keaton was really good. He was also very believable, emotional, dark, realistic, etc., but in a more stoic, subtle way. You got to see him having all of his feelings, and establishing his character traits, but it wasn't shoved down your throat like Bale's Batman. Batman and Bruce were both very distinct, and you could be well acquainted with both of them and never know that they were the same person. His Batman is very casual, silently threatening, and he establishes himself as a monster that criminals should fear by his presence and attitude rather than yelling in a scary voice and beating the shit out of everyone. I mean, Keaton beats the shit out of everyone too, but you get more of a sense of how he really has become a terrifying creature of the night and that criminals really are as scared as they should be. And then he goes back to being Bruce and keeps his secrets under lock and key pretty well. Kind of like a highly trained individual with a secret alter ego would, honestly. I think he beats Christian due to the above text block, and Adam West just because, while Adam was the perfect embodiment of Silver Age Batman in all his silly glory, he's not exactly a very complex or difficult Batman to portray...
