Best Batman Movies, Ranked

Key Takeaways

Batman has been in numerous movies, some are hits, while others are misses, but every Batman film is worth a watch.
The Lego Batman Movie is a fun and humorous take on the Caped Crusader, providing laughs for kids and adults alike.
The Dark Knight Rises is a gripping conclusion to Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, with intense drama and action.

Batman is an undisputed icon in pop culture, and not only is he DC Comics’ favorite hero, but he also seems to be the favorite of creators and audiences alike. Batman has featured in a multitude of movies, whether that’s animated or live-action. Batman is extremely popular, and every Batman movie deserves a watch, even if they aren’t exactly the greatest movies put to screen.

There’s something in every depiction of Batman, and whether it’s all live-action Batman movies or the infinite library of animated movies, audiences can always sit down and enjoy the brooding presence of the Caped Crusader and his mission against villainy in Gotham City.

11 Batman & Robin

A Campy Batman Flick That Gets Too Silly

Release Date: 27 June 1997
Director: Joel Schumacher
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score: 12%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 16%

Batman and Robin fight for Gotham City, but they often become divided in their methods, leading to confrontations that thwart the hero’s attempts at stopping more villains that have popped up on the scene. Poison Ivy and her seduced lackey Bane make for quite the troublesome duo, all whilst Mister Freeze tries to bring Gotham City into a new ice age.

Batman & Robin is not exactly the best Batman film ever, and its overreliance on the campy aspects of the character’s story just leaves audiences cringing. The lack of care in the mythos makes Batman and his rogues gallery somewhat of a joke, leading to a wild ride for kids, but a puzzling piece for adults.

10 Batman Forever

A Batman With Potential, But Plagued By Camp Villains and Choppy Editing

Release Date: 14 July 1995
Director: Joel Schumacher
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score: 41%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 32%

Batman continues his fight against Gotham City’s criminals, where this time he has to face up against the likes of Two-Face and the Riddler, two criminal masterminds who will stop at nothing to turn Gotham City against the Batman and force it into chaos through their own equally devious desires.

Whilst Val Kilmer’s stint as Batman and Bruce Wayne was one that shouldn’t be overlooked, Batman Forever doesn’t exactly work as a follow-up to the dark aspects of the character that audiences had expected. Batman Forever can be fun in a campy way, and the much-desired Joel Schumacher cut of Batman Forever will forever remain a desire for those wanting a more intricate epic.

9 The Lego Batman Movie

A Funny Animated Movie That Makes Fun of Batman in the Right Ways

Release Date: 4 February 2017
Director: Chris McKay
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score: 90%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 80%

Enter into a world of plastic, where the LEGO world has its own Gotham City, filled with iconic Batman villains, and a Caped Crusader who works alone. The Lego Batman Movie pokes fun at Batman in all the right ways, providing audiences with ways to laugh with and at Batman without the jokes going too far to insult the mythology of the character.

The Lego Batman Movie is a lot of fun for kids and adults, and Will Arnett’s Batman voice is great to listen to as he tries to reheat lobster and figure out what to do in a Gotham City that has been essentially cured of crime, all whilst trying to manage an orphan he didn’t even want.

8 Batman Returns

A Broody Batman Saves A Gloomy Gotham City

Release Date: 10 July 1992
Director: Tim Burton
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score: 82%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 73%

Gotham City is threatened once more, but this time, the threat comes from the sewers, where a disfigured man known as the Penguin attempts to take control of Gotham City through political means. All the while, Batman must stop the Penguin and thwart the seductive Catwoman’s own agenda through Gotham.

Batman Returns is far more broody and dark than its predecessor, but it does a lot of things right. Gotham is as dark as ever, and Michael Keaton and Michelle Pfeiffer’s chemistry as Batman and Catwoman is perfect for the relationship of the characters, leading to an exciting Batman adventure.

7 Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

An Animated Retelling of Batman’s Early Days and His Hunt for a Murderer

Release Date: 25 December 1993
Director: Eric Radomski, Bruce Timm
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score: 83%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 88%

The Batman’s image is threatened, as the vigilante is framed for being a cold-blooded killer. Accused of several murders across Gotham City, Bruce Wayne must reconcile with his past and handle the burden of being Batman to uncover the murders and the former girlfriend who may be the prime suspect. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is gorgeously animated and wonderfully brooding in all the right ways.

The art style for Batman: Mask of the Phantasm proves how this titanic character works in animated format and live-action, and the dramatic voice of Kevin Conroy makes for the perfect Batman. The movie itself involves drama, action, romance, and tragedy that befalls the Dark Knight audiences know and love.

6 Batman Begins

A More Grounded Take on Batman’s Origin Story

Release Date: 16 June 2005
Director: Christopher Nolan
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score: 85%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 94%

Another reboot of Batman brings further realism into his gritty world, and this younger Bruce Wayne witnesses the murder of his parents, thrusting him into a life of fighting against the criminals of Gotham City for justice. Batman Begins takes Bruce Wayne through the training that would see him engulfed in a life of crime-fighting as Batman.

Batman Begins works as a perfect origin story movie, where audiences can immerse in the youth and tragedy of Bruce Wayne, and learn of how he developed the skills and philosophy to be Batman. Whilst far from perfect, it’s a promising beginning from the iconic vision of Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale as Batman.

5 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (Ultimate Edition)

Release Date: 25 March 2016
Director: Zack Snyder
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score: 29%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 63%

Batman is consumed by a feeling of powerlessness in a world where meta-humans have the ability to destroy cities. Still reeling from the destruction of Metropolis in Superman’s fight against Zod, an older and more experienced Batman believes that Superman must die to save humanity, all whilst Superman must deal with a crisis of identity as the population both worships him and resents him.

The Ultimate Edition of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is far better than the theatrical version, and provides greater context for scenes that were needlessly cut. Batman v Superman is an excellent movie, even if divisive, for its political themes around Superman and the broken philosophy of a Batman who is manipulated into breaking his one rule for the good of humanity.

4 The Dark Knight Rises

Batman Returns After Eight Years to Fight a Terrorist Group For Gotham

Release Date: 20 July 2012
Director: Cristopher Nolan
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score: 87%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 90%

After being framed for the murder of Harvey Dent, Bruce Wayne is forced to retire the Batman persona and wallows in grief after the loss he suffered from the Joker’s reign over Gotham City. Yet, eight years later, Bruce Wayne is forced to don the cape and cowl to save Gotham from a terrorist, Bane, who seeks to engulf Gotham in hellfire.

The Dark Knight Rises is an incredible finale that concludes Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy. Nolan’s realistic Gotham is thrown into a war between cops and criminals, and Christian Bale’s Batman must struggle with mortality which makes for an inspiring and equally intense watch.

3 Batman (1989)

The Blueprint For Future Batman Stories

Release Date: 11 August 1989
Director: Tim Burton
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score: 77%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 84%

The masked vigilante of Gotham City continues his fight against evil, and the worst threat is yet to come with the Joker, the Clown Prince of Crime who threatens to descend Gotham into chaos. Batman’s one-man war on crime is about to hit its hardest night as the crazed and unpredictable nature of the Joker dances with the devil.

4:54

Best Batman Games, Ranked

Outside of maybe Spider-Man, Batman has the greatest video game history of any superhero. Here’s the best Dark Knight games of all time.

Batman (1989) is an iconic classic that brought the dark tones of Batman to the big screen. Doing away with what audiences thought at the time with the campiness of the 60s, 1989’s Batman brought the gothic visions of Tim Burton to life, and Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson’s stint as Batman and Joker is always rewatchable.

2 The Batman

Gritty and Realistic, Batman Investigates a Serial Killer Plot

Release Date: 4 March 2022
Director: Matt Reeves
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score: 85%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 87%

The most recent reboot of the Batman mythos comes from Matt Reeves, who takes Gotham City into a claustrophobic sewage of crime and corruption, where Batman must become more than a symbol of fear if he is to change the city he promises to protect, all whilst he deals with a web of corruption that is unfolded by a masked man killing political figures.

The Batman is intense, with strong thriller hits that bring the World’s Greatest Detective to the big screen with an involving and immersive mystery that is easily rewatchable thanks to the performances of Robert Pattinson as Batman and the entire cast and crew that bring this gritty Gotham to reality.

1 The Dark Knight

Batman Fights Against The Joker’s Chaos in this Grounded Thriller

Release Date: 21 July 2008
Director: Christopher Nolan
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score: 94%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 94%

As criminals continue to suffer under the unwavering might of Batman’s war on crime, they elicit the help of the Joker, a crazed man with no loyalty to anything but chaos who wants to tear Batman apart and bring him into a savage world where Gotham City will eat itself just to survive.

The Dark Knight was a turning point for comic book movies, where superheroes could be dark and thrilling in all the right ways. Christopher Nolan’s Batman epic is undoubtedly The Dark Knight, where stakes are high, tension and unpredictability reign, and captivating performances take hold to make this intense thriller one of the most memorable, and the best Batman movies of all time.