‘Batman’ Movies to Watch in Order
Batman: The Movie' (1966) You might have an appreciation of Adam West’s Batman even if you haven’t seen it, just from the numerous present-day cultural references to the campy ‘60s take on the character. You have to trust me when I say it’s even sillier than you think. A far cry from both the character’s origins and its present-day incarnation, West’s Batman is unabashedly goofy and kid-oriented, with toy-like devices and vehicles and simplistic, nutty plotlines. In this feature-length interpretation, West’s Batman takes on a rogue’s gallery of villains, including Cesar Romero as the Joker, Burgess Meredith as the Penguin, and Lee Meriwether as Catwoman. It’s a riot.
'Batman' (1989) If you’ve grown up in this golden age of superhero films, with a fresh, big-budget epic seemingly every month or two, it’s hard to appreciate quite how groundbreaking Tim Burton’s 1989 feature Batman felt. The first serious silver-screen take on the character, it elevated the superhero film in a way that had never been done before, not even by the Superman movies of the previous decade. Burton designed Gotham as a spooky Art Deco nightmare, slick and cool and full of danger, while Michael Keaton infused the role with a quiet seriousness it lacked in West’s days, and Jack Nicholson chewed the scenery as a terrifyingly comic version of the Joker. Today’s superhero epics couldn’t have come without this one paving the way.
'Batman Returns' (1992) If the first Burton Batman movie redefined the genre, this one exploded it into its full franchise potential. Indelibly Burton, it’s comical and weird, powered by the twin villain performances of Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman and Danny Devito as The Penguin, a role he was seemingly born to play. It’s a dark and brooding story, with The Penguin rising from the sewers to avenge his childhood abandonment by kidnapping all of Gotham’s firstborn children. While it might lack the gritty realism of Christopher Nolan’s later movies, it makes up for it with a gothic sensibility and wicked charm.
'Batman Forever' (1995) The ’90s powerhouse started to show some wear by the third film. Tim Burton departed as director, though he was credited as a producer, replaced in the chair by Joel Schumacher. Keaton was gone too, with Val Kilmer donning the cape and cowl instead. And a new pair of classic villains entered, with Tommy Lee Jones playing Harvey Dent, the Gotham District Attorney who would become the villainous Two-Face, and Jim Carrey in full Jim Carrey mode as The Riddler. Did this film have everything? Well, it had Seal singing “Kiss From A Rose” on the soundtrack, so I think that answers that.
'Batman and Robin' (1997) If Batman Forever saw a transition beginning from the moody goth stylings of Tim Burton’s pair of movies, the fourth installation in the 1990s canon saw Joel Schumacher fully take the creative reins. The campiest incarnation since West’s original, Batman & Robin saw George Clooney don a Batsuit with prominent bat-nipples to join Chris O’Donnell’s Robin in battling Poison Ivy (Alicia Silverstone) and Mr. Freeze (Arnold Schwarzenegger, spewing catchphrases like a pull-string toy). The sequel was widely panned by critics and audiences alike, and brought an end to the franchise’s ‘90s incarnation, though it’s received some favorable reappraisal recently in light of Schumacher’s recent passing.
'Batman Begins' (2005) After an eight-year hiatus, it was going to take a fundamental rethinking of the story to bring the franchise back to life, and that’s exactly what Christopher Nolan did in this uncompromisingly dark and gritty origin story for the character. Pulling from several graphic novel sources, most notably Frank Miller’s 1987 comic Batman: Year One, this film stripped out the camp and excess for a dour, grounded sense of realism. Christian Bale plays a young Bruce Wayne as he becomes a costumed avenger in a bleak, horrific version of Gotham terror-stricken at the hands of Cillian Murphy’s mind-altering doctor The Scarecrow. The film would be eclipsed by its immediate successor, but it also made it possible.
'The Dark Knight' (2008) The superhero movie to end all superhero movies. Nolan’s dark vision of Gotham takes full form in this taut psychological thriller, starring Heath Ledger in a performance that would not be released until after his untimely death. Ledger’s Joker was iconic, rendering all previous versions laughable — psychotic, menacing and cruel, in a genuinely terrifying way. It’s not just a paint-by-numbers heroes vs. villain fight: it’s a cleverly crafted epic with brilliant twists and turns throughout. The special effects are tremendous, the stakes are elevated, the performances are stunning — superhero movies simply do not get any better than this epic.
'The Dark Knight Rises' (2012) After Ledger’s passing, some speculated how a sequel in the Nolan series would even be possible, but he delivered with this impossibly bleak finale, which witnesses the entire city of Gotham held hostage under the threat of annihilation at the hands of the diabolical masked villain Bane, who plants a nuclear bomb underneath the city and destroys every route in or out of town. Many thought that it didn’t live up to the heights of its immediate predecessor, but it was a fitting coda to the Nolan trilogy, wrapping things up in a satisfactory, logical and consistent manner, a completed character circle.
'Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice' (2016) Did you ever wonder, “what if Bruce Wayne weren’t from Gotham City, but from South Boston instead?” Neither did I, but we still got the answer when Ben Affleck was cast to be the latest man behind the mask. The plot doesn’t make a great deal of sense, but here goes anyways: after the events of Man of Steel, the DC Extended Universe’s rebooted Superman film, Bruce Wayne sees Superman as a danger to the public, and sets out to stop him. Their rivalry is secretly fostered by the meddling of a Lex Luthor, here portrayed in a younger form by Jesse Eisenberg, one of the few bright spots in the otherwise poorly-received film.
'The Lego Batman Movie' (2017) It might come as a surprise, after the dark turn of Christopher Nolan’s trilogy and the DCEU films, that one of the most beloved entries in the annals of Batman cinema features the hero as a toy. A spinoff of the hugely successful Lego Movie of 2014, this sees Batman (voiced by Will Arnett) taking on, as he is wont to do, the Joker — this time memorably portrayed by Zach Galifianakis. It’s a film that knows its place in history, with in-joke references made to nearly all of the other films on this list — but it’s also a genuinely high-quality episode of the Batman canon, toys or not.
'Joker' (2019) What if you did a Batman movie without Batman, though? If you’ve got Joaquin Phoenix, you might be able to pull it off. Gotham’s always been a flexible place — sometimes it’s an Art Deco dreamscape, sometimes it’s Chicago, sometimes it’s New York City or Pittsburgh — but in Todd Phillips’ villain origin story, it’s indelibly New York City in the late ‘70s. Gotham is broke, trash-filled and edgy, and Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck — a failed comedian struggling with mental illness — becomes its avatar as he evolves into the iconic smiling villain in this mash-up of Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy.
'The Batman' (2022) Another Batman movie may not be what the world needs right now, but perhaps it’s what we deserve. This time around, it’s Robert Pattinson‘s turn to put on the mask, for The Batman (2022).
'The Flash' (2023) No, you’re not reading that wrong: The Flash has not one, not two, but three Batmans in the movie. The first is the final bow (probably) of Ben Affleck, before The Flash (Ezra Miller) travels back in time and erases him from history. The second is the return of Michael Keaton to the role. And the third is the surprise appearance of — spoiler — George Clooney in a cameo. If you want to complete your Batman viewing, The Flash is essential.