All 13 Batman movies ranked from worst to best

1. Batman

It’s hard to imagine where the Dark Knight, or comic book movies in general would be, if Tim Burton’s revolutionary Batman never came along in 1989. A movie that was over a decade in the making, it brought Batman into the mainstream for the first time since the Adam West TV series and changed the face of the character forever.

There are many ways to appreciate Batman. You can admire the classic mobster movie aesthetic that it boasts or the unique art deco set design that makes Gotham City look like it was ripped from the pages of a comic book. You can admire the conviction with which it brings these legendary characters into a mostly realistic filmscape, drawing from noir and other familiar tropes to make it appeal to a wider audience. But most of all, you can admire how seamlessly this eclectic mix of styles came together to gift the world with the Batman movie they had been waiting for.

Batman shouldn’t have worked, and some at the time didn’t think it did, but it did and it does. Its plot may not be as complex as some of the cinematic tales that followed but its characters are. Michael Keaton proved the critics wrong with his peculiar and reserved take on Bruce Wayne and not only did he hold his own against a show-stealing Jack Nicholson, he delivered the performance that is held up among fans as the definitive Dark Knight.

Like the artwork in the Flugelheim Museum after The Joker’s attack, Batman is a myriad of mismatched styles that oddly come together to form something else entirely. And that is the real work of art. It just doesn’t get better than Batman.

Which of the Batman movies are your favorites? Did you enjoy The Batman and The Flash?