All 13 Batman movies ranked from worst to best

5. Batman Begins

Left with the uncertainty that the future of the Batman franchise was submerged in, Christopher Nolan stepped up to the plate and did the unthinkable: He brought the franchise back from Batman and Robin and single-handedly made the Dark Knight cool again.

The movie with which he accomplished that was Batman Begins. A movie renowned for setting the stage for two larger, more successful adventures, there’s a quiet brilliance to the 2005 film that often gets overlooked. Like its two successors, it’s gritty, compelling and complex, but Nolan’s affinity for realism hadn’t quite taken over yet, so there is a Gothic, almost supernatural-like aura about this one that the sequels did not boast.

It seems unthinkable that there were a time when Bruce Wayne’s origins wasn’t the only story live-action portrayals wanted to tell, but Batman Begins is the reason that those origins generated such interest. With a well-dramatized beginning for Bruce’s journey to fight injustice and a star-studded ensemble cast consisting of the likes of Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy and Liam Neeson’s formidable Ra’s Al Guhl, Begins is a well-oiled machine that flows beautifully from start to finish. And it’s all capped off by an absolutely enthralling performance from Christian Bale.

With glimpses of the crime dramas that would follow and some eerie visuals to boot, Batman Begins is, in many ways, the perfect mature comic book movie.