I liked Keaton as Batman. I mean, whenever he was Batman, it was his stunt double (for anything acrobatic). I didn't like the choreography in the first movie, but that's just a personal preference. I thought that Keaton did a good job of showing the darkness inherent in Bruce Wayne -- or at least that incarnation of him. He didn't look like a superhero, but that was, I thought, intentional -- underscoring the dichotomy of pampered playboy/ruthless vigilante.
As for the Jack Black news... I'd love to see him in a more serious role -- not completely downer, just serious -- to see if he could handle it. I'd love to see both the joy and excitement and some of the anger and rage that Black can get across sometimes.
But it sounds like they're aiming for "less Spider-man 2, more Bruce Almighty", which is great, except that I didn't think Bruce Almighty did very well.
(By "like Bruce Almighty", I mean that he's going to spend a lot of time doing stupid green-energy tricks. He'll goose women with it. He'll make green Nike shoes that let him fly and beat the local bully in a slam-dunk competition. He'll make a green expensive car (some brand name) and impress the local girl by showing up in it. And then he'll realize that the ring doesn't bring complete happiness, and he'll be sad, and he'll want to throw it away, and then Sinestro will show up for five minutes at the end, played by Morgan Freeman, and Black will whack him with a big green mallet, kiss the girl, and pull down a big green curtain to end the movie.)
