Is it just me or is Batman not a great hand-to-hand fighter in the Burtonverse?

[Skipper]

Taking advantage of Black Friday I bought the 4K collection of the 4 "Burtonverse" films and yesterday I saw the first one.

What I noticed was that more than "Batman," it was "Gadgetman." He won practically every single fight thanks to a Bat-thing. Only at the very end did he face one of Joker's henchmen barehanded, and after a lot of fighting, he narrowly won.

I know the IRL reason is that the costume didn't allow for much movement and that Keaton certainly didn't give the impression of an invincible martial artist, but it struck me, especially compared to the later films.

I have to say that in Flash, when they bring back this version of Batman, they make him much more capable in combat.

 

[Set Harth]

The fight against the 'karate guy' wasn't bad.

 

[theenglish]

It was a good Burton movie, but Burton's movie wasn't really a Batman movie. Being a fan of Batman in the comics at the time, I left that movie very disappointed, primarily because of the reasons you mention above. I felt like I still had not seen Batman on screen.