No Aronofsky!? Damn! I was really lookign foward to that!
Yeah, Bale is a pretty good choice.
As for the previous films, that only decent one was the original "Batman" by Tim Burton. Batman Returns was mediocre. Batman Forever was watchable...but it far too "Hollywood" and "Pop"...where was the darkness? Instead we were given uberly camp performances from Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey reminiscent of the Adam West vesrion of Batman.
As for Batman & Robin...actually no, lets not get into that.
I just hope that this new Batman is as balck as coal.