Every Batman Movie Ranked

A little while ago, I got an anonymous request to talk about 2022’s “The Batman” … but I wanted to go a step further. I’ve recently (and coincidentally) been in a Batman mood, so I’ve binged all of the major theatrical releases that I could get my hands on. Let’s rank them!

The general rule I’m operating under for this movie ranking is that the title has to have “Batman” (or “The Dark Knight”) in it – so no “Justice League” or “The LEGO Movie”. In other words, Batman needs to be the focal point of the story.

Before we begin, you can check out some of my related blog posts below:

Arkham Trilogy – Every Boss Ranked

EVERY MCU Film Ranked (Up To GOTG: Volume 3)

Top 20 Best Videogame Narratives

Top 20 Videogame Performances Of All Time

Bad

12 – Batman & Robin (1997)

No surprises here. “Batman & Robin” will be at the bottom of any Batman ranking until humanity’s dying breaths, and it’ll be completely deserved.

Joel Schumacher returns from “Batman Forever” to direct an even campier, studio-interfered mess. The story follows Batman and Robin as they try to stop Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy, and Batgirl also shows up to help with the terrible fight scenes.

The biggest problem with “Batman & Robin” (aside from the script and direction) is the casting. I didn’t buy a single actor in their roles. Schwarzenegger and Thurman are uninspiring as the pun-riddled villains, Silverstone and O’Donnell are painfully flat as Batman’s sidekicks, and George Clooney became my least favourite Batman / Bruce Wayne I’ve ever seen. The guy clearly doesn’t want to be there!

Schumacher and the cast have since apologized for this movie, but it’s hard to deny how important “Batman & Robin” was to superhero films. It made Marvel and DC executives rethink how they approached their IPs in the new millennium. In other words, without “Batman & Robin” we may never have gotten Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, Christopher Nolan’s Batman or the MCU as a whole.

Meh

11 – Batman (1966)

This is simply an unfair match-up. The 1966 version of “Batman” is from an era where audiences wanted campy, unserious, family-friendly entertainment. As a result, it pales in comparison to the more serious and bombastic projects we got from the 80’s onwards.

A random assortment of Batman’s villains gather for their generically evil plan, and none of them feel like the villains we’ve since grown to love. All of them have a strange, palatable sheen to them, no doubt to make them harmless for younger audiences. There’s no shame in that, of course, but when I picture this rogues’ gallery I want an edge.

I didn’t mind the silly humour of this movie – in fact, it was probably its saving grace. The scenes like the bomb disposal and the shark-repellent spray have since become the stuff of legend.

Okay

10 – Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice (2016)

I watched “Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice” in cinemas back in 2016. I’ve had no desire to watch it again since.

It’s a run-of-the-mill action flick with two superheroes fighting for contrived reasons. It’s visually cool, and the action set-pieces themselves are fine, but this Snyder era of Batman didn’t do it for me. I think Lex Luthor and Wonder Woman are also in this one? It’s all so forgettable it hurts.

I bet whomever came up with the “Martha!” twist thought they were a genius, but it falls hilariously flat.

9 – Batman Forever (1995)

“Batman Forever” has a bad reputation these days, probably because people lump it together with “Batman & Robin”. I think that’s unfair, as “Forever” is leagues better than its sequel … but this movie is far from perfect.

I’m a bit mixed on the villains. Jim Carrey as The Riddler is fun, but it almost feels like he’s doing too much at points. And Tommy Lee Jones as Two Face is a mis-cast – the guy is super serious, and so he was never going to gel with a campy movie like this.

Where I might catch some heat is my opinion of Val Kilmer as the leading man. I thought he was a surprisingly great Bruce Wayne – and a decent Batman as well. Especially when compared to how Clooney sleep-walked through his part, Kilmer brings a gravitas which grounds the campier aspects of the movie.

I’m not saying “Batman Forever” is underrated, because it isn’t. It was the beginning of the end for Batman’s 90’s stint, but I still think there was material worth praising within it.

Good

8 – The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

I actually dragged my parents to the cinema for “The Dark Knight Rises” back in 2012 … although I don’t think I’d watched either of the other two movies in the Nolan trilogy by that point. Young Matt enjoyed his moviegoing experience, regardless.

This is definitely the weakest of the Nolan Batman trilogy. It feels like a slower-paced plot than the previous two, and the climax – namely the Robin tease, Talia al Ghul twist and the ambiguous ending – didn’t do it for a lot of fans, myself included.

There are moments and scenes of this movie, however, that are incredible. Tom Hardy is terrifying and intimidating as Bane, and the toils he puts Bale’s Batman through are oftentimes tough to watch.

I think if the previous movie hadn’t been so legendary, “The Dark Knight Rises” would have been well-regarded … but, unfortunately, it followed a masterpiece.

7 – The LEGO Batman Movie (2017)

The biggest surprise during my Batman binge was “The LEGO Batman Movie”. I’d never watched a LEGO movie before this as I assumed they’d be childish and bad, but this was one of the smartest, most endearing Batman parodies I’ve seen. So good, in fact, that it made me add the other LEGO movies to my watchlist.

It’s a funny yet loving homage to the Batman canon, and a lot of the jokes and prods at Batman’s silliness work well. My main complaint is that the plot got far too insane by the climax – it was a weird, ten thousand miles-per-hour fanfiction that smushed together a billion franchises. The heart was in it, but it was an overstimulating visual mess.

6 – Batman Begins (2005)

In the early 2000’s, after the disaster that was “Batman & Robin”, Batman’s place in the cinematic landscape was uncertain. Along came indie filmmaker Christopher Nolan to reinvent the character and turn him back into a box office juggernaut.

Christian Bale gives a charismatic yet brooding performance as Bruce Wayne, and this Batman origin story goes for feel-good spectacle. The action is all electric, and the build-up of this iconic character feels deliberate and earned.

It wasn’t perfect, however. I found all three villains underwhelming and underdeveloped – if “Spider-Man 3” gets dragged for its rushed villains, why doesn’t “Batman Begins”? Also, and this might’ve just been the version I watched, I found the editing very choppy and too fast. Some scenes cut away before the final syllable had time to fade!

Still, this is a very fun origin story for the Caped Crusader. It certainly has room for improvement – something the sequel would capitalize on fully.

Great

5 – Batman Returns (1992)

One of the complaints I regularly see for “Batman Returns” is that it spends far too much time with its villains and not enough with the Caped Crusader. I for one have no problem with that – Batman’s baddies are the most interesting thing about his universe, so I was fully down for a villain-focused outing.

This movie does an excellent job of building up the world of Gotham, and it makes both of its kooky main villains weirdly human (or all three if you count Christopher Walken’s character … but he’s not as memorable). Danny DeVito as The Penguin, for example, is an absolute freak – and yet you feel oddly sympathetic for this sad, ostracized guy.

And Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman … holy smokes. Later Batman films would fumble the sex appeal, namely both Nicole Kidman in “Batman Forever” and Uma Thurman in “Batman & Robin” felt stiff, but Pfeiffer is a scene-stealer (and heart-stealer) here. She fit the character of Catwoman so well – I don’t think this manic portrayal has ever been topped.

4 – Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm (1993)

The classic Batman (and most superheroes in general) conundrum is “Can Bruce Wayne and Batman coexist?”, or “Who’s wearing the mask: Bruce Wayne or Batman?”. “Mask of the Phantasm”, however, goes for a much simpler, more emotionally evocative question – “Can Batman ever be happy?”

Ghosts of Bruce’s past begin to haunt him, and a new threat is terrifying Gotham. This was just a well-paced, action-packed Batman adventure.

Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill are perfect as Batman and Joker respectively – I’d heard their brilliant work in the Arkham games, but this movie made me want to watch the 90’s animated series.

Amazing

3 – The Batman (2022)

As you can tell by the low placement of “Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice”, I wasn’t a fan of the Zack Snyder Batman era. It felt like a stale fanfiction that lacked depth and colour.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from 2022’s reboot “The Batman”, but I was blown away. This has a far more serious and gritty tone than even the Christopher Nolan movies, and yet this violent version of Batman and Gotham became one of my favourites.

Robert Pattinson makes for a very different Wayne / Batman – he’s a social introvert who looks like he sleeps an hour a day at most, and he’s less of a playboy and more of a repressed loner (a “dismayboy”?) who never quite grew up. These might sound like criticisms but I actually enjoyed this more sombre, traumatized take on the character.

The villains were all excellent, too. This has my favourite versions of Carmine Falcone, The Penguin (although that one’s close with DeVito in “Returns”) and The Riddler. The scariest part about all these villains is that they feel real – we’re not in the realm of campy comic books any more.

I don’t know when “The Batman 2” is coming out, as its production has reportedly been delayed a couple of times, but it’ll have a tough time topping the groundwork Reeves laid here.

2 – Batman (1989)

After 1966’s “Batman”, audiences had to wait twenty-three years for the Caped Crusader to hit their screens once more. Luckily for them, Tim Burton cooked up one of the most iconic versions of the famous hero.

Michael Keaton plays the titular role with consummate ease, bringing a natural, breezy gravitas and dignity to Bruce Wayne and a calm yet ferocious sternness to Batman. All of Burton’s Gotham and Batman-related choices, such as the grotty streets and the slick Batmobile, have become the definitive, “classic” looks.

Where the other Batman films on this list used multiple iconic villains (for better or worse), “Batman ’89” goes for a much more direct, focused approach. This is a tussle between Keaton’s Batman and Jack Nicholson’s Joker, and their conflict is as legendary as their lengthy comic book history would suggest.

This film doesn’t do a whole lot (i.e. it’s not overly bombastic), but that’s because it doesn’t need to. It was a reinvention of the characters, setting and tone for the cinematic stage, and it’s the movie that all subsequent Batman movies were compared to.

All-Time Great

1 – The Dark Knight (2008)

Not only is “The Dark Knight” praised as one of – if not THE – greatest comic book movies of all time, many consider it to be one of the best movies of all time. Period.

After this universe’s origin story in “Batman Begins” got set in stone, Christopher Nolan could move onto a real Batman story. One where the Caped Crusader actually takes a backseat to the villains and action.

Heath Ledger is the best Joker. Aaron Eckhart is the best Harvey Dent / Two Face. This movie has some of the best action set pieces I’ve ever seen – the Tumbler chase and the truck flip both took my breath away.

In the end, it’s Ledger’s performance which takes all the plaudits – and rightly so. His version of the clown prince of crime is gleefully deranged, and he makes every scene an uncomfortable thrill. This iteration of Joker will never be topped.

In fact, I believe this Batman movie will never be topped. It’s the epitome of what makes superhero fiction so entertaining – it’s thrilling, it’s action-packed, and the parallels to our real world make us re-evaluate society around us. “The Dark Knight” is a benchmark in superhero cinema which will no doubt stand the test of time.

Aaaaand that’s my list! You can check out some of my latest blog posts below: