I always though that John Malkovich would make a good Ra's. Of course, Malkovich turned down the role as Green Goblin in the first "Spider-Man," so I wouldn't expect him to have actually accepted the role as Ra's Al Ghul, if offered to him.

Good idea, but he looks a bit like Jim Carrey does in A Series of Unfortunate Events in that pic.

Here's my actual first choice, though he's been a villain in a "Batman" pic before. He certainly has the eyes for Ra's.

Greg McPhee wrote: That actually is pretty weird and scary.

That's what I love about Christopher Walken: He's scary-looking, almost no matter what role he plays. Ra's Al Ghul always seems to have that killer-like gaze (especially when drwan by Neal Adams), and Walken can do that look with ease.

As much as I hate to disagree with anything regarding Christopher Walken, in my opinion, he's too talky for Ras.

Walken is at his best when he's playing a cool operator with that hint of madness and/or sadism just below the surface but underneath a bombastic personality. Ras, on the other hand, is basically Osama bin Laden. He's not 'talky' at all. Ras is the world's worst nightmare. He's not over the top so much as he is a serious killer. You have to remember that, in comics, everyone is 'talky' because of the medium but Ras, if translated well to film in my opinion, is NOT a 'Take five minutes to tell you about it' kinda guy. Ras is a scary, world dominator. I agree with our favorite robot wrangler in that Jeremy Irons can pull off the cold "You better listen to me because every word counts..." persona. Walken bludgeons you with words as he chews up the scenes. He throws off too many to be anything but over the top as Ras. Jeremy, on the other hand, can deliver in 1/5 of the dialogue more chill as Ras.

Of course, I am holding Batman 635 in my hands AND a fellow by the name of Black Mask has the following dialogue:

(when told the Red Hood is consolidating drug dealers under his command)

Black Mask: "I heard. It's just the street stuff. It's not worth my time."

(underling): "Still. Where there's smoke, there's fire."

Black Mask: "No. Where's there fire, there's fire and, at the moment, I have all the gasoline."

"If some idiot wants to pick up the parking meter change by running the corners, I've got no problem with that."

"Let them dart around the bases for a while then if they're actually doing a halfway decent job, we'll either fold them in or kill them...depends on my mood."

"I really prefer burning a whole house down rather than trying to root out a few rats. It's extreme but y'know, I'm not a very nice person."

(End dialogue)

That's Christopher Walken! As Black Mask, he'd be perfect as a slick operator running the city while impressing everyone with his style.

Greg McPhee wrote: A shame his chance as a Batman bad guy was wasted on the Max Schreck character.

I agree. 

I would prefer Chris as Commissioner Gordon.

Pat Hingle was wrong for the role.

Chris would have been a better Harvey Dent/ Two-Face than Token player Billy Dee Williams and the ugly on both sides of his face Tommy Lee Jones.

I could see Chris as Mr. Freeze than that horrible actor who became useless when he became old.  His acting only got better when he became a politician.

Without question Chris would have supremely been better than Jim Carrey... In any role Jim tries to act in which is basically himself.

Glenn Greenberg wrote: The pre-Crisis Batman had a mentor, a police detective named Harvey Harris, so I never had a problem with the idea of the post-Crisis version of Batman having teachers who helped him along the way.

That's RIGHT! And I believe he dressed in a Robin-type outfit to keep his identity hidden from Harvey.

I think there was a post-crisis version as well, with Harvey being an Alabama officer and instead of dressing like a superhero, Bruce just gave him a false name. But Harvey figured out who he was anyway.

WOLVERINE!  After Singer leaves X-Men you show your face now? 

My hopes for the film diminished once I saw that the costume was essentially the same as in the previous films.  Putting Batman in armor is a mistake; it shifts the emphasis on the gadgets and not the man.  This is supposed to be Batman, not Iron Man.