Now That “The Batman” Is Out, I Ranked All The Movies In The Franchise

With the release of Matt Reeves’ The Batman, Gotham City and its inhabitants are once again reinvented. Much like James Bond movies, every few years or so the franchise is revamped with a different director, a fresh visual palette, and a new leading man. It seems like a good time to take a look at the franchise and see how things stack up.

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Criteria for ranking: Movies will be graded based on their story and overall quality, the specific performance/ interpretation of the actors' portrayal of Batman/Bruce Wayne, and of course, the villains and the actors bringing them to life.

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Disclaimer: Not included are the 1940s Batman serials; Technically they are serialized shorts edited together to create a feature length narrative. Also omitted from this list are cameos (like Suicide Squad), and any animated films, though Honorable Mention goes to the excellent The Lego Batman Movie!

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Leave now if you must, obvious SPOILERS ahead:

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11.Batman & Robin (1997)

George Clooney as Batman and Chris O'Donnell as Robin hold an enormous diamond

10.Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

Ben Affleck as Batman in an armored suit faces off with Henry Cavill as Superman

9.Justice League (2017) & Zach Snyder’s Justice League (2021)

Cyborg, The Flash, Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman all stand tall

8.Batman Forever (1995)

Val Kilmer as Batman looks up. Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face and Jim Carrey as The Riddler look at a newspaper

7.Batman: The Movie (1966)

Burgess Meredith as The Peguin, Rank Gorshin as The Riddler, Lee Meriwether as Catwoman and Cesar Romero as The Joker stand ready for action

6.The Batman (2022)

Robert Pattinson as The Batman and Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman approach each other for a kiss

It hasn’t been that long since we were treated to some wonderful Batman movies, most notably Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, so many will ask, do we even need a new Batman at this point in time? The answer is not really, but Reeves does a good job of making it his own, even though he could have easily shaved 20 minutes off the 3-hour epic. Holy Runtime!

Catwoman looks on

5.Batman Returns (1992)

Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman straddles Michael Keaton as Batman

4.The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Tom Hardy as Bane and Christian Bale as Batman struggle in hand to hand combat

3.Batman (1989)

Michael Keaton as Batman and Jack Nicholson as The Joker

2.Batman Begins (2005)

Christian Bale as Batman walks down a hall filled with bats

1.The Dark Knight (2008)

Heather Ledger and Christian Bale face off as The Joker and Batman

So, Bat-fans, how did this list match up to yours? Signal us in the comments below.

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