5 Batman movies to watch while waiting for The Batman

4. Batman Begins

Okay, maybe calling the first entry of the best Batman trilogy ever a “forgotten movie” is a stretch, but then again, the fact that it is the first entry of a critically-acclaimed franchise is why it is so forgotten.

The Dark Knight surpassed franchise expectations immensely, thanks in part to an Oscar-winning performance from the late Heath Ledger. The Dark Knight Rises, while divisive in that you either love it or you hate it, is still a film that most audiences feel strongly about when looking back on it.

Meanwhile, in the middle of all this praise, Batman Begins gets lost in the shuffle – when it really shouldn’t. While its sequels continued to get better in terms of quality, we cannot neglect the film that kicked the franchise off in style.

In the director’s chair, Christopher Nolan took the superhero genre as a whole to heights that were previously unimaginable and helped mainstream audiences respect it in a whole new way. If not for what he did with Begins, The Dark Knight may not have been what it was, and Ledger’s iconic performance in the sequel may not have gotten the chance that it did to be appreciated by the masses.

Everybody’s gotta start somewhere, so before we look onwards to The Batman, let’s take the time to appreciate the film that kickstarted Hollywood’s latest obsession with the superhero genre.