Which is the Best Batman Movie so Far & Why?

Batman Returns

And why? In a word ...
Catwoman.

She was visually, very exciting, and emotionally, very moving. Her costume is brilliant and beautiful - a work of art. How she's introduced is completely memorable and it's cute, actually, how Penguin and Batman sort of "compete" for her, right away. Her rooftop encounters with The Dark Knight are utterly fantastic. "How could you? ... I'm a woman!" Haha ... Then under the mistletoe, where she declares Batman to be her "catnip" ... and as they fight over the Ice Princess, "hey, stud - I thought we had something!" The playfulness, the sexiness, the element of danger about her was so right.

Selena Kyle had some wonderful moments as well. Important moments for the character and the movie series. The Masquerade Ball, is a good case-in-point. Everything about it is right on the money. From when Bruce first lays eyes on her coming down the stairwell, to the painful realization that she doesn't know who she is anymore ... this character has layer upon layer, upon layer. You can't help but fall in love with her. Even when Bruce pleads with her to come live with him, her response is compelling and complex.

While Max Shreck and Oswald Cobblepot have their moments, and some memorable one-liners, now and again, it's just not enough, for some reason. The Penguin's so vile and revolting, that his being so desperate for sex plays brilliantly against Catwoman's attractiveness and only amplifies how alluring she is. Max, unfortunately, is fairly one-note with his abuse of power, in all areas, that despite being portrayed by none other than Christopher Walken, he's easily overshadowed, in Batman Returns. Oddly enough, there's a good chunk of the movie that's dominated by these two and Catwoman is nowhere to be found, until her climactic moment. I never understood that and thought it hurt the film.

Despite this, Selena Kyle/Catwoman did a lot to expose to the audience the vulnerability and sadness of Batman, Penguin and herself, especially. "The Holiday Blues" surrounding the Christmas Season for these characters is prevalent and most appropriate. What amazes me about that, though, is how, after everything's said, done and finished, Bruce discovers the joy of the holiday, thanks to Selena's love. It's a great love story! As I understand it, Tim Burton felt very distant from this production and may not have actually directed most of it, himself, because of what he was going through, at the time. But Batman Returns still managed to come together and make a statement that even the latest version of Batman - and Catwoman - has yet to match.

Dark Knight and Batman Begins on a par for me, followed by TDKR. Batman and Batman Returns after that, both good films no question it's just that Nolan's are on a higher level.

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Dark knight hands down and everyone saying negatives abt it is completely wrong this movie is top 15 in empireonline all timr 500 movies this says it all amazing film

Tim Burton's Batman won an Oscar for Anton Furst's Art Direction and it was extremely well-deserved. It's brilliant ... inspired ... just awesome to behold! He was a real artist ... all the way ... and it's a tremendous loss to entertainment that he decided to do a desperate outrage to himself. Gotham City is incredible ... the Batmobile is iconic ... the batsuit looks bad-assed ... even the interior sets are given great attention to detail. I haven't seen anything else like it, save for, perhaps, in The Shadow, starring Alec Baldwin. Batman is so stylized - I deeply admire that. But the thin script ... that awful soundtrack, except for the title theme ... it's like a tossed salad of the really great mixed with garishness, silliness and occasional obviousness. I want to enjoy this movie much more than I do, but its sequel was significantly improved.

Batman Begins and its sequels, though, take themselves far too seriously. I'm just not interested that a man really dresses up as a bat in a way that's "believable," especially with all of these practical military tie-ins ... and so forth. It's absurd, frankly, trying to make it too real. Batman's so much better given that highly stylized, artistic treatment. Like a living work of art, in motion. I kind of cringe, honestly, seeing how desperately these film makers try to make the Batman so plausible. But they are meatier, with more passion than Tim Burton was capable of delivering and that's something.

I would say unequivocally that The Dark Knight is the BEST Batman movie, but personally I would go with Tim Burton's Batman for nostalgic reasons and my love of Michael Keaton. I could even make an argument for Mask of the Phantasm for the best movie, which (in case you haven't heard of it) was a theatrical release spin-off from the 90's animated series. Phantasm had a tremendous voice cast (Mark Hammil might be the definitive voice of the Joker) and the animation style and story are classic Batman and wonderfully done.

But really, there's such a difference in tone and direction between the Batman movies that it's hard to really pick a definitive best due to how different they all are. The '66 movie was campy fun, the Tim Burton duo of films had a unique art style and was dark but still captured some comic fun, Batman Forever was colorful and had some really good actors, and the Nolan trilogy is a grounded, gritty universe with fantastic performances (but I could go either way with Bale's Batman voice). But I think we can all agree that Batman and Robin is pretty terrible.

I will never understand how people can love the childish, infantile movies of tim burton more than the mature, philosophical versions of nolan.

tim burton joker's was just a ganster with characteristics of a clown and wired smile, so people would obvious to see it supposed to be the joker.

Nolan's Joker is a truly unique character, the likes of which has never been before..it offers a very interesting discussion on the subject of atheist ethics - the nihilism of the joker aginst batman's anti-nihilism. Basically, Batman agrees with the Joker, only he would not lose hope on the people of Gotham. No matter what.

one of the last lines Batman says to the joker: "Gotham has shown you that it is full of people ready to believe in good." he does'nt say that most of gotham people are good . He doesnt even say that it has lot of good people. all he says is that there are many who are willing to believe in the good. pretty cynical from him, in fact.

I will never understand how people cannot love how people don't love what they love.

It's apples and oranges...some people don't like oranges. There are those that enjoy fruit salad.

The Dark Knight Returns is better than the sum of all the Nolan movies.

It's not apples and oranges. It's tasty apples and tasty oranges, and gross apples and dry oranges.

I wasnt agressive or something.. I genuinely do not understand how an adult man can love those stupid Tim Burton movies more then profound works of Nolan. In my opinion, this is due to nostalgia or nonconformity.

also, i read tdkr (and more other batman comics), it was ok. but nolan movies is another world.

It explores in depth the principles of morality, justice and truth in a symbolic world in ways that comic books and movies about based on it never knew it possible.

Because some people want to watch something entertaining and that happens to entertain them? Not everyone wants to go into a comic book movie in search for moral messages, some just want to be entertained.

Some of it has to do with time frame. In 1989, long before any Nolan films, the Burton Batman was the "greatest" treatment ever given the character (apologies to Adam West fans). In addition, it wasn't a camp treatment and some felt it even addressed the darkness of the original comic book creation.

So, a lot of Bat fans got a good feeling from it that stuck with them through the years and may remain with some despite the Nolan films. It's a sense of nostalgia, just like some people may feel for the Batman of the old TV show - for them, that is the "best" and truest Batman. It's all perspective.

If someone is too much of an "adult" to enjoy Burton's Batman movies, then what are they doing watching any superhero movies?

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I may go back to hating you. It was more fun.

Now now... let's not revert to the pre-modern age thinking that comics (their superheroes and their movies) are JUST for kids!

Although they are.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

Hey, now, don't put words in my mouth. I put "adult" in quotations for a reason.

"They're not 'Comic Books,' they're Graphic Novels."

I just heard that line in a movie somewhere.

I meant to reference the 2012 animated film, not the comic. That's my bad.

It's good that you process this stuff on an advanced level, but these movies aren't high art. Comparing Burton to Nolan is like comparing the Wright Brothers to Boeing. Burton was the first one to really do a proper comic movie.

For me it has to be the Batman(1989). I see that film as a comic book come to life. I have been reading Batman comics for 23 years and I really believe this film was the one to really capture the core of Batman and who he is. I know that majority of people love The Dark Knight, I really don't like the film at all. It's not a Batman film; or a comic book film in my eyes. The reason being is that if you took away the characters of the Dark Knight, and replaced them with just every day people, you would have the same film. If you did that with Tim Burton's Batman, you wouldn't have a film at all.

Btw this post, wasn't meant to offend or upset or piss anyone off, it's just how I feel. But if I had to choose out of the Nolan films, Batman Begins would probably be the strongest.

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Come on Chief, this isn't no boy scout picnic. See ya' got ya' rubbers!

The Dark Knight, and here's why: what is it that makes a superhero appealing to one? It may be its origin, cover personality..etc. But, we can agree that if a superhero didn't have a villain that can challenge him, the story and the superhero himself would suck.


In the Dark Knight, the Joker, in the interrogatory scene, was at Batman's mercy, and still, he would have died, only to get Batman to lose prestige and credibility at the people's eyes. I understand that in the comics (although I never read one), it is really his personality. Now, name me another movie with the Joker where he is played as exquisitely as Ledger's Joker. Not only was Ledger perfect as the Joker, but Bale did a really good job portraying the downfall Wayne started suffering towards half the movie. Caine and Oldman did remarkable jobs also and the soundtrack is fantastic. I haven't seen all the Batman movies ever made, but a few only mix those things perfectly in harmony with each other.


We can label The Dark Knight as a ''superhero-thriller-psychological-action-drama-suspense-crime-mystery-adventure'' movie, however, for me, it was the best Batman movie ever.

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Overall...[Rocket_Sam]

I'll posit that Batman: The Animated Series is the most faithful adaption and that an animated television series is the more appropriate medium for a serialized comic as well. Just give the Wiki page a once over and tell me I'm wrong.

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