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Home > Blogs > Sir Critic on Cinema > Archives > 2008 > July > 21 > Entry
Ranking the Batman movies
Nice box-office opening for The Dark Knight, huh?
Now that the dust has settled and every interested party has seen the film at least once, it’s time to take stock of where the Batman films rank.
The Dark Knight: Yes, it really is that great. There’s some debate about whether the movie actually broke Spider-Man 3’s record at the box office , but that’s all academic, because unlike Spider-Man 3, The Dark Knight has not severely disappointed people.
Batman Begins: Watched it again over the weekend, and as you might expect, it holds up incredibly well. I was struck by just how different in tone and style Christopher Nolan’s two Batman films are, which makes the achievement of The Dark Knight all the more impressive. Still, this movie is almost as good.
Batman Returns: Some might be surprised to see me rank Tim Burton’s second Batman movie this high. It’s flawed to be sure. It suffers from the “too many villains” syndrome, and Danny DeVito’s Penguin is more gross than threatening. But Burton’s first Batman movie never came alive the way this one did when Michelle Pfeiffer said but one word: “Meow.”
Batman Forever: Contrary to popular belief, Joel Schumacher is not QUITE the devil incarnate when it comes to Batman movies. Yes, he sank the franchise with Batman and Robin, but people seem to forget he directed this movie too, and it’s one of his better efforts. Val Kilmer made a good Batman, Jim Carrey was a fun riddler, and Nicole Kidman ate Kim Basinger for breakfast. And who would have guessed that Carrey would come off better than Tommy Lee Jones’ Two-Face?
Batman (1989): Yes, it’s down this low. I never understood why everyone went SO nuts over this movie. I thought Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was the best movie that summer. Sure, Nicholson was fun, Keaton was better than people gave him credit for, and the movie looked great, but it felt awfully restrained compared to Tim Burton’s other work. Batman Returns had more of his distinct style. Kim Basinger was a washout, and the ending in the tower was a lumbering, badly staged mess.
Batman (1966): Hey, we can’t forget the Adam West movie! Besides, none of the other movies could get away with a line like “Robin- hand me the shark repellent bat spray!” - which, of course, was right next to the Manta-Ray repellent Bat spray.
Batman and Robin: In the immortal words of the screenplay for this movie: “BOMB!!!!! BOMB!!!!!!!”
So how would you rank the Batman movies? Feel free to use this space to talk more about The Dark Knight too.
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By SRCputt
July 22, 2008 9:53 AM | Link to this
Leaving out 1966 (because I haven’t seen it), I go: 1. The Dark Knight 2. Batman Begins 3. Batman Returns 4. Batman 5. Batman Forever 11,653,429: Batman and RobinBy Allie D.
July 21, 2008 1:11 PM | Link to this
My order is slightly different mostly because I am of the Schumacher hate camp, at least in my adult years. I thought Batman Forever was quite good when I was fifteen years old. It has not held up well for me, however. The first is The Dark Knight, of course. I saw it for the second time this weekend and found it to bear even better on repeat viewing, mostly because I was able to soak in the little details and enjoy Ledger’s performance a even more. I also was able to more appreciate Harvey Dent’s character and felt more emotional impact from it. I think it helped that I had a MUCH better audience for the Sunday matinee screening than the Friday night one. Batman Begins is next, though I am surprised with how very simple this film is in comparison to Nolan’s latest film. Not that that’s a bad thing. He struck the perfect tone here, and as “origin stories” go, it was smart, engrossing, and still the second-best superhero movie ever made next to Spiderman 2. Next is Batman Returns as well. I agree with you that Burton did a better job on this one, and if given the choice between either Burton film, I’d choose this one. Next on the list is Burton’s first Batman. I think that anyone who held that this movie was some sort of cinematic canon for Batman just because Jack Nicholson stole a few scenes has lost their marbles. It was decent, sure, but the only Batman motion picture we had to compare it against previously was the Adam West film, which I thought was a joke even when I was a kid. I mean, wasn’t that movie laughing at itself? Bat Shark Repellant? I still love watching it. I should have ranked it above this one. The Schumacher films fall dead last, I’m afraid. The order should be obvious. Certainly, I would watch Forever any day before Batman and Robin (which I actually walked out of without regret about 2/3 through—one of three movies I ever did that with), but I think Schumacher’s first film benefited from following what most people thought was Burton’s too-grim effort, so it was refreshing in that respect to see pretty colors. But the films completely lacked emotional impact and reinforced the concept that “comic book movies” are goofy by nature and shouldn’t be taken seriously. I’m glad to see this trend reversing.