The best Batman movies, ranked from worst to best: The Dark Knight, The Batman, and more

These are the best Batman movies ranked from worst to best, including The Dark Knight trilogy and 2022’s The Batman

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The best Batman movies are a perfect mix of excellent casting, mesmerizing and menacing villains and a director that nails the vibe, whether it’s Christopher Nolan’s gritty Dark Knight trilogy or Tim Burton’s weird and wonderfulBatman Returns.The Batman character has been around since 1939, which means there’s been ample opportunity to reshape his superhero story. We think that’s why the caped crusader has remained such a beloved character on the big screen for 85 years.

In our guide below, we’ve ranked the best live-action Batman movies from the worst to the best, based on the TechRadar team’s votes. We left out the 1966Batmanmovie because most of the team hadn’t seen it. We also kept the list strictly live-action, although many of the Batman animated movies are brilliant and well worth your time. We made the decision not to include the team-up movies, includingJustice LeagueandSuicide Squad.This is all about Bats doing his big, bad thing alone. The good news is that most of the bestBatmanmovies in this list are available to watch on thebest streaming servicesright now. Let’s swoop into it.

9. Batman and Robin

Release date:June 20, 1997Runtime:125 minutesAge rating:PG-13 (US) / PG (UK) / PG (Aus)Director:Joel SchumacherCast:Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Clooney, Chris O’Donnell, and Uma ThurmanWhere to stream:Max (US) / Available to rent/buy digitally (UK) / Binge (Aus)

You can’t even enjoy the late Joel Schumacher’s second Batman movie ironically – which is an argument you can at least make in defense ofBatman Forever.Batman and Robinseems okay on paper: George Clooney as Bruce Wayne before he became a red-hot credible actor, Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl after a wonderful turn inClueless, the man dubbed ‘Arnie’ as Mr Freeze, and a post-Pulp FictionUma Thurman.

Unfortunately, it has the tone of a bad episode ofPower Rangers, with the finished product being a dumpster fire that’s clearly designed to sell toys to children. Tired jokes about nipples on its suits aside, it’s just joyless and clocks in at a blatantly overlong 125 minutes. How did Tim Burton’s vision of Gotham get mangled into this eight years later? Still, without this terrible movie, you’d probably never have gotten Christopher Nolan’s take on the character. So maybe we should be thanking Schumacher.

8. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Release date:March 25, 2016Runtime:152 minutesAge rating:R (US) / 12 (UK) / M (Aus)Director:Zack SnyderCast:Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, and Jesse EisenbergWhere to stream:Max(US) / Sky (UK) / Binge (Aus)

Zack Snyder’s second DC Extended Universe (DCEU) movie – we’re not countingWatchmen– has its fans, but there are also plenty who don’t like itat all. That basically sums up the overall sentiment towards Snyder’s superhero movies – a collective of fans who clearly click with his take on these characters versus people who outright reject it.

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It’s hard to argue thatBatman v Supermanis a great film. Yes, the big turning point of this movie – we won’t spoil it here – is such a weak, unconvincing pivot point of an overly long movie that it deflates the final act. Still, there are things to like, here: Ben Affleck was a fine Batman, Jesse Eisenberg plays a memorably unhinged Lex Luthor, and it’s nonetheless pretty to look at.Dawn of Justiceis pretty disjointed generally, though it is helped by a somewhat better Ultimate Edition that gives Henry Cavill a little more screen time, and fills in a few of the plot holes. But, compared to many of the other best Batman movies higher on this list, it’s hard to argueBatman v Supermanis anywhere near as entertaining.

7. Batman Forever

Release date:July 14, 1995Runtime:121 minutesAge rating:PG-13 (US) / 12 (UK) / PG (Aus)Director:Joel SchumacherCast:Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey, and Nicole KidmanWhere to stream:Max (US) / Available to rent/buy digitally (UK) / Binge (Aus)

Joel Schumacher’s first effort at Batman stripped away the fairytale-infused nastiness ofBatman Returnsin favor of a more family-friendly and conventional 1990s blockbuster. Even with Kilmer’s very lifeless Batman and Chris O’Donnell’s Dick Grayson being a vanilla addition, though, it’s notsobad, thanks in part to the dual pantomime-style performances of Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face and Jim Carrey as Riddler that make it pretty entertaining to watch.

The weak links don’t just stop with Kilmer and O’Donnell inBatman Forever, however. Nicole Kidman’s Dr Chase Meridian has big early CD-ROM game FMV energy and doesn’t bring much and, generally speaking, it’s not great. It just about stops short of becoming the campy disaster thatBatman and Robinis, though, despite some gaudy color choices – and, hey, can we really hold too much of a grudge against the movie that gave us Seal’s ‘Kiss From A Rose’?

6. The Dark Knight Rises

Release date:July 20, 2012Runtime:164 minutesAge rating:PG-13 (US) / 12 (UK) / M (Aus)Director:Christopher NolanCast:Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, and Gary OldmanWhere to stream:Max (US) / Sky (UK) / Binge/Netflix (Aus)

Christopher Nolan’s third and final movie about one ofDC’s legendary supes is wildly uneven – its unsettling first act, which culminates in a brutal sequence where Bane (Tom Hardy) breaks Batman’s back as he assumes control of Gotham City, is wonderful. Bane feels like a true (if incoherent) threat, while an underpowered Bruce Wayne finds himself truly out of his depth.

From there, things only get wonkier. We get long, dull sequences in Gotham as Bane inexplicably waits for a bomb to go off, while Wayne’s broken back is healed by a man literally punching him in the spine while he’s hanging from a rope. It’swild, but the closing race to save Gotham is thrilling – and it’s a shame you only got one movie of Anne Hathaway’s Selina Kyle, because she’s a brilliant foil to Bruce and the pair have plenty of chemistry.

There are some parts that haven’t aged wonderfully: Bane’s intention to strip wealthy people of their riches and power would actually have dated reasonably well as his (initial) motivation, if only he didn’t spend most of this movie killing loads of people. The idea, too, that Gotham’s bloated police force is its ultimate savior definitely reads differently in recent times than it did in 2012 – though the movie does make the point that the police only accumulated the power it did because Jim Gordon lied about Harvey Dent’s death inThe Dark Knight.

Ultimately, Nolan didn’t close his trilogy as strongly as we expected, which leaves the muddledThe Dark Knight Risesin the fifth spot of our best Batman movies. See where it ranks in ourbest Christopher Nolan moviesguide while you’re here, too.

5. Batman

Release date:June 23, 1989Runtime:126 minutesAge rating:PG-13 (US) / 15 (UK) / PG (Aus)Director:Tim BurtonCast:Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, and Robert WuhlWhere to stream:Max (US) / Available to rent/buy digitally(UK) / Binge (Aus)

Batman was fighting a bit of a perception battle before 1989, with the 1960s Adam West series casting a long shadow over the character. That was in spite ofThe Dark Knight Returnsmaking huge waves in the comic book scene.

Even thoughBatman(1989) marked a sea change in the visual style of Dark Knight media – the movie’s astonishing art deco-infused Gotham City was the work of production design master Anton Furst – this is still a veryfunmovie. You can tell Burton was a fan of the West-led TV show, even if he wanted to do something new and fresh, too. His Bruce Wayne, played by Michael Keaton, is a charismatic but eccentric billionaire. His Joker, played by a scenery-chewing and wonderful Jack Nicholson, is hilariously theatrical. Keaton manages to match Nicholson in his relatively understated performance, despite the latter’s clear star power of the moment back then – no wonder people still adore Keaton’s Batman so many years later.

4. Batman Returns

Release date:June 19, 1992Runtime:126 minutesAge rating:PG-13 (US) / 12 (UK) / M (Aus)Director:Tim BurtonCast:Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Christopher WalkenWhere to stream:Max (US) / Available to rent/buy digitally (UK) / Binge (Aus)

If there’s one lesson to take from how creatively successful Burton and Nolan’s movies were, it’s that these films are at their best when directors can put their own tonal stamp on the character.

That’s whyBatman Returnsgets so high a position on our best Batman movies list. It’s 50% a Batman villains movie, and 50% a Tim Burton dark fairytale. The origins of the Penguin and Catwoman are closer to Edward Scissorhands in their telling than a comic book adaptation – and that’s exactly what’s great about this flick. The Caped Crusader’s foes take over proceedings, with dominating performances from Michelle Pfeiffer as Selina Kyle and Danny DeVito as Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin.

Batman Returnssuccessfully captures the idea that the hero’s best villains always start out as victims of some kind. This movie was called out for being too grim for its time – leading to two far inferior movies that would cynically pander to children – but it’s actually pretty awesome thatBatman Returnsgot away with Cobblepot almost biting a guy’s nose off.

3. Batman Begins

Release date:June 15, 2005Runtime:140 minutesAge rating:PG-13 (US) / 12 (UK) / M (Aus)Director:Christopher NolanCast:Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Ken Watanabe, and Katie HolmesWhere to stream:Max (US) / Sky (UK) / Foxtel/Netflix (Aus)

AfterBatman and Robin, DC’s hero sat on the shelf until Nolan, director of moody crime thrillersMementoandInsomnia, won out with a back-to-basics take on Batman that tapped into the vibe of classic graphic novels likeBatman: Year OneandThe Long Halloween.

None of this is new information – but it’s worth remembering just what a game-changerBatman Beginswas. It took superhero fiction seriously, but did so without sapping the joy from the character and his world, which is a mistake that other gritty comic book movies frequently make.

The tone of this film is very down-to-earth. We see a grief-stricken Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) vow to bring justice to Gotham by becoming a symbol – in this case, a bat, something he feared the most as a child. This journey has Wayne trained by the League of Shadows and Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson), before he turns his back on their brutal methods; the League later comes to Gotham to raze the city by poisoning its water supply in conjunction with Dr Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy).

Batman Beginsis markedly different from Nolan’s other Batman movies. In structure, it has similarities to Nolan’sThe PrestigeandMementoin how it weaves flashbacks into its story. In tone, it’s actually a little closer in look to a comic book – particularly in its night-time Gotham scenes in its third act – than the two Dark Knight movies are. This remains the definitive Batman origin story on the big screen.

2. The Batman

Release date:March 4, 2022Runtime:176 minutesAge rating:PG-13 (US) / 15 (UK) / M (Aus)Director:Matt ReevesCast:Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, Paul Dano, and Colin FarrellWhere to stream:Max (US) / Prime Video (UK) / Foxtel Now (Aus)

Behold, we’re coming to the crux of our best Batman movies. Some Batman fans may consider it sacrilegious to separate the best two films in Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy but, if one deserved to do so, Matt Reeves’ inaugural take does. And with good reason –The Batman(portrayed by Robert Pattinson) is a methodically paced, neo-noir flick that heavily leans into the character’s detective side. Its near three-hour runtime makes it something of a slow burn, but that doesn’t make it any less thrilling, dramatic, or at-times frightening than its predecessors.

Set during Bruce Wayne’s second year as a crime fighter – he’s not even assumed the Batman pseudonym yet –The Batmanfocuses on the vigilante’s pursuit of the Riddler (Paul Dano), a serial killer bumping off Gotham City’s elite at an alarming rate. However, as the Wayne family’s legacy becomes entangled in the Riddler’s elaborate masterplan to rid Gotham of its corrupt elements, Bruce is forced to confront his own demons as well as those who prowl the city’s streets.

The hallmarks of any good Batman movie are here: a gritty Gotham, morally gray characters, a compelling plot, and grade A action. What truly makesThe Batmansuch a terrific film, though, is the manner in which it’s presented, and its unique character study of the movie’s eclectic mix of individuals. Batman and Riddler are explored in ways that few (if any) previous live-action or animated offerings have done before, while a pre-Catwoman and Penguin era Selina Kyle and Oswald Cobblepot earn interesting character arcs respectively. If not for one particular Batman film, this would certainly top our list. Read ourreview onThe Batmanto learn more.

1. The Dark Knight

Release date:July 18, 2008Runtime:152 minutesAge rating:PG-13 (US) / 12 (UK) / M (Aus)Director:Christopher NolanCast:Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, and Michael CaineWhere to stream:Max (US) / Sky (UK) / Binge/Netflix (Aus)

The ultimate Caped Crusader movie – and a predictable choice for number one spot on our best Batman movies ranking. Christopher Nolan’s follow-up toBatman Beginswas a serious step up in storytelling ambition. Gotham looks and feels very different – most of the film’s exterior shots are clearly of Chicago – which has led to numerous comparisons to crime thrillers likeHeat, and Nolan uses that influence to create a superhero movie unlike any other.

InThe Dark Knight, District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) stands up to Gotham’s long-festering criminal element. But, along comes Heath Ledger’s Joker, an unknowable and dangerous figure who upends Gotham’s traditional underworld, and sees Batman (Bale) as his twisted equal. The Joker’s war on Gotham is as much about creating raw chaos as it is to prove a point about its citizens – it’s truly riveting stuff. Bale is arguably third lead to both Eckhart and Ledger in one of thebest superhero moviesever made, which also features one of the best vehicle chase sequences ever filmed.

You could argue the movie is a touch long at 152 minutes, and it peaks with a big twist before its final act. This, though, is undoubtedly the best Batman movie, and it will cast a long shadow over all other adaptations that follow.

For more DC and/or Batman coverage, find outhow to watch the Batman movies in orderandhow to watch the DC movies in order. Alternatively, read our guide on all of theDCU Chapter Onefilms and TV shows that are in development, and get the lowdown onJames Gunn’sSupermanmovie, which flies into theaters in July 2025.

The TechRadar hive mind. The Megazord. The Voltron. When our powers combine, we become ‘TECHRADAR TEAM’. You’ll usually see this author name when the entire team has collaborated on a project or an article, whether that’s a run-down ranking of our favorite Marvel films, or a round-up of all the coolest things we’ve collectively seen at annual tech shows like CES and MWC. We are one.

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