Here's my point.
Weaving did a fabulous job. A FABULOUS job. And we didn't see HIS face one single time. Just a cgi/mask/whatever. Never his face.
Bale is good, his Batman Begins role not-withstanding, but as great as he was in The Machinist, he could not have carried off the role of a masked man with aplomb like Weaving did.
Batman Begins was a good pop-corn flick, he wore a mask but he did not come close to conveying even half the emotion that Weaving did w/o showing any of his face.