![]() Almost all of the original cast appeared in the film, most crucially Adam West as Batman, Burt Ward as Robin, Cesar Romero as the Joker, Alan Napier as Alfred, and Neil Hamilton as Commissioner Gordon. ![]() "Batman: The Movie" was released in theaters just two months after the first season finale of the ABC series. Silver Screen Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images While we consider The Batman to be a masterpiece in its own right, it wound up as number two on our list after a lengthy debate because it stands on the shoulders of another masterpiece that came out in 2008.Adam West as Bruce Wayne/Batman and Burt Ward as Dick Grayson/Robin. The Batman goes even darker and more grounded than Christopher Nolan’s trilogy did, giving us a seedy Gotham that few people would choose to live in, aided by Greg Fraiser’s grimly gorgeous cinematography and Michael Giacchino’s sweeping score. Robert Pattinson set himself apart by playing a Dark Knight that feels much more at ease in the Batsuit than he does as Bruce Wayne, matched by Zoe Kravitz’s beautifully layered performance as Selina Kyle and Paul Dano’s terrifyingly unhinged Riddler. One part psychological thriller, another part detective noir, and another part superhero action movie, The Batman is blockbuster filmmaking at its boldest. With The Batman, director Matt Reeves more than earned his place in Batman canon with his dark, twisty, often scary take on the Caped Crusader, one that looks more like Se7en and Chinatown than any comic-book movie that came before it. Ultimately it is a sincere attempt to explore Bruce Wayne as a character, even if its end result is a confounding plot that involves Bruce kind of forgetting why he became the Dark Knight to begin with. We got a little of that, but it’s more memorable for a peak Jim Carrey performance and Tommy Lee Jones doing his best Jack Nicholson impression.Īt least Joel Schumacher took a big glow-in-the-dark, campy swing with Batman Forever and it gets bonus points for doing it more skillfully than his follow up. Batman Forever is strange in today’s Hollywood it would be considered a reboot, but back in 1995 it was expected to be the continuation of Tim Burton’s dark exploration of Gotham City and its inhabitants. Gotham became less gothic and more like a perpetual nightclub, Val Kilmer put on the cape and cowl, and Robin was thrown in for good measure. Batman ForeverĪfter Tim Burton left the Batman franchise following two wildly successful movies, Joel Schumacher took over, along with a new Dark Knight and a new direction–Batman Forever. ![]() Read our review of The Dark Knight Rises. The Dark Knight Rises should be considered a great feat despite its shortcomings if only for being the first wildly connective Batman tale ever told on screen, working in tandem with its two predecessors to tell the story of Bruce Wayne’s time as the Dark Knight from beginning to end, while still reinforcing Nolan’s idea of Batman in the first place – to be a symbol of Gotham City, no matter who is under the mask. In a lot of ways, The Dark Knight Rises is more Batman Begins than it is The Dark Knight, bringing back a lot of elements from the first movie and making loads of callbacks. We get to see him do what his father had always told him he could – learn to pick himself up – and save the city he loves. ![]() While reactions were mixed to some of the choices in the movie, on a psychological level The Dark Knight Rises shows the resolve of the Bruce Wayne character on screen like never before. The ridiculously anticipated finale to Christopher Nolan’s massively popular Dark Knight Trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises shot for the stars with a larger scope than any Batman movie before it. Read our review of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. But for watching Batman himself, it’s a purely joyless experience that leans into the biggest problems of its predecessor Man of Steel instead of course-correcting them. Even some of the heavy-handed Justice League cameos are a blast. It’s a better movie, technically speaking, than Justice League, and it does lots of things right: Wonder Woman’s introduction is fun and there are some interesting questions raised about Superman’s place in the world. Except where Joel Schumacher went with camp and bat-nipples, Zack Snyder went grimdark with a Batman out for blood. Like B&R, Dawn of Justice is a gross miscalculation of what most viewers wanted from the Dark Knight on the big screen (it received the same audience-awarded CinemaScore as the Catwoman and Green Lantern movies). In many ways, Batman v Superman has a direct correlation to the movie that nearly killed big-screen Batman 20 years before it, Batman & Robin.
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