Not counting ensemble team-ups, there’s been a grand total of 10 live-action Batman movies over the years. Across seven different Batmen and six different directors, these films have a wide variety of tones and styles, from campy comedy to grisly horror to action-packed neo-noir.
The movies also have varying degrees of quality and, as a result, varying degrees of rewatchability. For example, it’s hard to sit through even a single viewing of Batman & Robin, whereas a masterpiece like The Dark Knight will never get old.
Batman & Robin (1997)
The movie that almost killed the franchise for good in the ‘90s, Batman & Robin, is tough to get through once, let alone multiple rewatches. According to Vulture, George Clooney has apologized for this movie time and time again.
Joel Schumacher’s second Batman film harks back to the campy tone of the Adam West series, but it goes way overboard with Bat-lips, Bat-nipples, and a Bat-Credit Card.
Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice (2016)
The bloated runtime of Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman hurts its rewatchability. Snyder crammed a bunch of movies’ worth of stories into one giant, muddled, overstuffed movie. BvS is a Batman reboot, a sequel to Man of Steel, and a precursor to Justice League all rolled into one. It also combines elements of The Death of Superman and The Dark Knight Returns, skipping to the end of each flagship hero’s story right at the beginning of the cinematic universe.
The Bruce Wayne in this movie is woefully mischaracterized as a gun-toting killer, but he’s redeemed with a great performance by Ben Affleck that captures the character’s rage perfectly.
Batman Forever (1995)
Joel Schumacher’s first Batman movie is marginally more enjoyable than his second. Batman Forever marked a radical tonal departure from the Burton/Keaton movies.
Val Kilmer is a delightfully understated Batman opposite Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones’ hilariously bonkers villain acting in the roles of the Riddler and Two-Face, respectively.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Christopher Nolan’s Bat-finale, The Dark Knight Rises, is too big for its own good. The overstuffed threequel attempted the impossible feat of topping the scale and spectacle of The Dark Knight. Bruce Wayne spends most of the movie in a hole in the ground with a broken back. Meanwhile, Bane stages the French Revolution on the streets of Gotham.
The Dark Knight Rises has a few saving graces. The opening plane extraction is a standout sequence that gets the movie off to a thrilling start and Tom Hardy gives an undeniably iconic turn as Bane.
Batman Begins (2005)
Nolan’s first Batman movie, aptly titled Batman Begins, explored the Bat’s origin story in more depth than any previous movie. Origin movies are inherently less rewatchable than their more action-packed sequels that can dive into the superhero spectacle from the outset.
But Batman Begins is a solid comic book movie with a clear “hero’s journey” for Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne. Nolan’s reboot inspired a wave of gritty realism in the genre (with mixed results).
Batman: The Movie (1966)
1966’s delightfully camp Batman: The Movie is even zanier than the classic TV show upon which it was based. Its tone borders on psychedelic. The Bat fends off a shark attack with the Bat-shark repellent. The villains all team up to achieve world domination with a “dehydrator” that turns people to dust.
Arriving in theaters after the first season of the show finished airing, Batman: The Movie brings back most of Adam West’s equally iconic co-stars from the TV series: Burt Ward as Robin, Cesar Romero as the Joker, Burgess Meredith as the Penguin, etc.
Batman Returns (1992)
Tim Burton’s second Bat-movie, Batman Returns, is even darker, gloomier, and creepier than the first one. It’s less of a superhero movie and more of a horror movie.
The sequel is full of iconic performances: Michael Keaton is as comfortable as ever in the role of Bruce Wayne, Michelle Pfeiffer is the definitive Catwoman, and Danny DeVito gives a wonderfully unnerving turn as the Penguin.
The Batman (2022)
Robert Pattinson recently introduced audiences to his dark, brooding, painfully awkward take on Bruce Wayne in Matt Reeves’ action-packed neo-noir epic The Batman. It’s a Se7en-style serial killer thriller starring Batman and Jim Gordon on the trail of a Zodiac-inspired Riddler.
It’s a whopping three hours long, but Greig Fraser’s cinematography is atmospheric and immersive, bringing a rain-and-neon-soaked Gotham City to life, so it’s easy to sit back and enjoy the ride, in spite of the taxing runtime. The Batman has mind-blowing action scenes, genuinely effective jump scares, and a palpable sense of Hitchcockian tension that make it endlessly enjoyable.
Batman (1989)
Tim Burton made Batman cool again two decades after the West heyday with his groundbreaking 1989 Batman movie, one of the early blockbusters that established the popularity of the superhero genre.
Batman ‘89 avoids the usual rewatchability problem with origin movies. It doesn’t take a deep dive into Bruce’s childhood and combat training like Batman Begins; it jumps from the murder of the Waynes to the vigilante crusade of a Batman in his prime.
The Dark Knight (2008)
The middle chapter of Nolan’s Bat-trilogy, The Dark Knight, has been universally praised as one of the greatest movies ever made. Nolan set the sprawling metropolitan action of Michael Mann’s Heat against the fictitious backdrop of Gotham City.
Thanks to Heath Ledger’s mesmerizing Joker performance, a character study that tests Batman’s moral code, and thrilling IMAX action sequences like the opening bank heist, the truck flip, and the brawl in the interrogation room, The Dark Knight never gets old.