Who made the best Batman movies?

[Georgy Zhukov]

Val Kilmer was an underrated Bruce/Batman.

[Rovim]

Burton. Jack as The Joker, Prince soundtrack, even Keaton Batman was better than Bale. I did like Heath and Bane. Just feel like Nolan trilogy is long winded for no pay off.

Was it Jack as The Joker, or Jack as Jack? Keaton was an interesting Batman. A weird casting choice, but his emanating humanity gave him something that worked.

Mike was a great Bruce Wayne and decent Batman, not overacting. Jack is always playing Jack but he got across a lot of the twisted insanity of the Joker. I feel like the Burton movies still got more of the balance between camp and dark, Nolan just made a tough almost ordinary movie. they are a bit dour. The last one was more fun but only because it lost it.

But when you take everything that worked in Nolan's version, especially the first 2 parts, it's far more consistent imo. Yeah, Nolan takes shit way too seriously, and some of the Batman vibe from the comics was lost, but the trade off was good enough for me, cause we had so many comic like Batman movies before Nolan came along, and they've all failed in the places Nolan succeeded.

Edited August 23, 2014 by Rovim

[Georgy Zhukov]

The 3rd Nolan film was for shock value at first. I thought It was amazing the first time I watched it then after a few hundred times it started to lose its impressiveness. The Dark Knight is my all time favorite film tho and it never gets old. I do however prefer the 3rd film over the 1st one.

The first one would have been the best one out of the three if it wasn't for Heath as the Joker imo. He made that fuckin' movie.

He created an actual villain.

What is amazing is that no one saw it coming. No one thought Heath Ledger would unleash such psychotic. He unhinged his mind and destroyed himself.

[RandallFlagg]

Nolan - Begins - 9/10, The Dark Knight - 10/10, Rises - 8/10

[Rovim]

Nolan - Begins - 9/10, The Dark Knight - 10/10, Rises - 8/10

Boo. Boo, Randall.

[DR DOOM]

1989- 9/10

Returns- 8/10

Forever- 5/10

...and Robin- 4/10

Begins- 5/10

TDK- 7/10

TDKR- 5/10

[Rovim]

1989- 9/10

Returns- 8/10

Forever- 5/10

...and Robin- 4/10

Begins- 5/10

TDK- 7/10

TDKR- 5/10

The fellow in your avatar, Frank. Frank was scary. Compare him to Jack as the Joker lol.

[DR DOOM]

1989- 9/10

Returns- 8/10

Forever- 5/10

...and Robin- 4/10

Begins- 5/10

TDK- 7/10

TDKR- 5/10

The fellow in your avatar, Frank. Frank was scary. Compare him to Jack as the Joker lol.

Frank Booth is a loveable larrikin, misunderstood is all.

Dude I think we have polar opposite views on this, I think Jack is ten times the Joker Heath was and personifies a fucking psycho and somehow you don't, that's cool.

I think the Nolan films are the equivalent of the Star Wars prequels, a whole lot of flashy shit and borrowing off what came before but somehow getting it wrong and suffering from a dose of the Emperor's new clothes.

Better special effects and fight scenes= better movie?

[Rovim]

1989- 9/10

Returns- 8/10

Forever- 5/10

...and Robin- 4/10

Begins- 5/10

TDK- 7/10

TDKR- 5/10

The fellow in your avatar, Frank. Frank was scary. Compare him to Jack as the Joker lol.

Frank Booth is a loveable larrikin, misunderstood is all.

Dude I think we have polar opposite views on this, I think Jack is ten times the Joker Heath was and personifies a fucking psycho and somehow you don't, that's cool.

I think the Nolan films are the equivalent of the Star Wars prequels, a whole lot of flashy shit and borrowing off what came before but somehow getting it wrong and suffering from a dose of the Emperor's new clothes.

Better special effects and fight scenes= better movie?

Of course not. I don't really give a shit about fight scenes and special effects. It's just a nice bonus in most cases. But different people find different shit to be scary, or good, which really, is based on how you're wired genetically and what your life was like since you were a kid until now. But Heath was the first time I've seen a villan played like that.

Edited August 22, 2014 by Rovim

[DR DOOM]

I should post the picture I have of me in my batman shirt, proudly standing next to the Batmobile in 1989

As far as films go, I'd put my money on non comic book/Batman/art/critic types preferring Burton's films- they're a lot more engaging.

Lol, this is getting serious- you and me, batarangs at dawn...hang on, does Bale use batarangs?

[Rovim]

I should post the picture I have of me in my batman shirt, proudly standing next to the Batmobile in 1989

As far as films go, I'd put my money on non comic book/Batman/art/critic types preferring Burton's films- they're a lot more engaging.

Lol, this is getting serious- you and me, batarangs at dawn...hang on, does Bale use batarangs?

I mostly watch non comic movies. Very few comedies. Mainly dark shit, drama and all that is fucked up. But if something grabs me in a movie, I'll enjoy it. No matter what genre of movie it is. You took a pic with the Batmobile from the movie? that's cool. (and kinda nerdy)

[DR DOOM]

I should post the picture I have of me in my batman shirt, proudly standing next to the Batmobile in 1989

As far as films go, I'd put my money on non comic book/Batman/art/critic types preferring Burton's films- they're a lot more engaging.

Lol, this is getting serious- you and me, batarangs at dawn...hang on, does Bale use batarangs?

I mostly watch non comic movies. Very few comedies. Mainly dark shit, drama and all that is fucked up. But if something grabs me in a movie, I'll enjoy it. No matter what genre of movie it is. You took a pic with the Batmobile from the movie? that's cool. (and kinda nerdy)

I don't think a 10 year old boy wanting to have his photo taken with the Batmobile is very nerdy...

[RandallFlagg]

Nicholson's Joker worked for the tone and environment Burton set up and Ledger's for Nolan's, I don't know if it's right to compare them without appreciating the utter chasm in approaches the two interpretations take. I do think Nicholson was more or less being another of his crazy extensions, same way Depp seems on autopilot in some roles, Ledger went above and beyond to get into that role. It evoked vibrant memories of DeLarge from A Clockwork Orange, Nicholson himself from The Shining and Willy Wonka to me, his voice is definitely Tom Waits too lol. Bane was also brilliant but understandably had a smaller psychology surface to tread on, Hardy as Bronson showed he'd have also been fully capable of whackjob mode.

[Rovim]

I should post the picture I have of me in my batman shirt, proudly standing next to the Batmobile in 1989

As far as films go, I'd put my money on non comic book/Batman/art/critic types preferring Burton's films- they're a lot more engaging.

Lol, this is getting serious- you and me, batarangs at dawn...hang on, does Bale use batarangs?

I mostly watch non comic movies. Very few comedies. Mainly dark shit, drama and all that is fucked up. But if something grabs me in a movie, I'll enjoy it. No matter what genre of movie it is. You took a pic with the Batmobile from the movie? that's cool. (and kinda nerdy)

I don't think a 10 year old boy wanting to have his photo taken with the Batmobile is very nerdy...

Nah, kinda nerdy. But cool. When I was 10, it would have been awesome to get the chance to take a pic with it, but maybe it's for the best that I didn't. I would have tried to drive it. Wait...did they let you sit in it? Probably not.

Nicholson's Joker worked for the tone and environment Burton set up and Ledger's for Nolan's, I don't know if it's right to compare them without appreciating the utter chasm in approaches the two interpretations take. I do think Nicholson was more or less being another of his crazy extensions, same way Depp seems on autopilot in some roles, Ledger went above and beyond to get into that role. It evoked vibrant memories of DeLarge from A Clockwork Orange, Nicholson himself from The Shining and Willy Wonka to me, his voice is definitely Tom Waits too lol. Bane was also brilliant but understandably had a smaller psychology surface to tread on, Hardy as Bronson showed he'd have also been fully capable of whackjob mode.

But isn't it always better to become the character instead of...not? makes it more believable imo.

Edited August 22, 2014 by Rovim

[DR DOOM]

But Batman is totally unbelievable in the first place, therefore making a "realistic" Batman movie is just as, if not more ridiculous than making a "silly" Batman movie.

[Rovim]

But Batman is totally unbelievable in the first place, therefore making a "realistic" Batman movie is just as, if not more ridiculous than making a "silly" Batman movie.

Suspension of disbelief. Not like it's exclusive just to Batman movies. Part of this whole medium I guess. The realism here is relative to the source material. It wasn't meant to be truly realistic.

[DR DOOM]

I call that "wanky"

[Rovim]

I call that "wanky"

I call that necessary.

[appetite4illusions]

I think the most apt description I ever read about Heath Ledger's Joker was that he wasn't really playing the Joker at all; he was playing the devil.

The devil's ultimate goal is to corrupt purity. To consume the goodness inside and pervert it in such a way that the person makes the ultimate decision to sell their soul. This can best be exemplified in the scene where Joker encourages Harvey Dent to become Two-Face. He does it in such a logical and detached way that it makes total sense to Harvey to give up everything he is to "become chaos."

In that respect, it gives the character of Joker much depth because he really isn't a person at all, he's a force of nature. It was also brilliant of Nolan to completely forego any sort of backstory of Joker and especially, not to kill him. If there had been a Joker corpse, like Tim Burton gave us (complete with laughing-box), it would have solidified that this was a person. By not killing him, it suggested his evil was indestructible, everlasting and omnipresent.

[wasted]

Burton. Jack as The Joker, Prince soundtrack, even Keaton Batman was better than Bale. I did like Heath and Bane. Just feel like Nolan trilogy is long winded for no pay off.

Was it Jack as The Joker, or Jack as Jack? Keaton was an interesting Batman. A weird casting choice, but his emanating humanity gave him something that worked.

Mike was a great Bruce Wayne and decent Batman, not overacting. Jack is always playing Jack but he got across a lot of the twisted insanity of the Joker. I feel like the Burton movies still got more of the balance between camp and dark, Nolan just made a tough almost ordinary movie. they are a bit dour. The last one was more fun but only because it lost it.

But when you take everything that worked in Nolan's version, especially the first 2 parts, it's far more consistent imo. Yeah, Nolan takes shit way too seriously, and some of the Batman vibe from the comics was lost, but the trade off was good enough for me, cause we had so many comic like Batman movies before Nolan came along, and the've all failed in the places Nolan succeeded.

True and the Nolan ones are like the movies we like now. Dark became the new movie star. Nolan is probably the more accomplished movie maker so you've got some great action scenes. It's just I have a problem with each movie. Begins is slow ass. Its Batman, just fight a bad guy! Dark Knight should have been called Dark Joker, it's not rely about Batman. Rises was entertaining but after the first two it was kind of a let down. There's so many cool parts in Batman 87. Basinger and that reporter, Eckhart and Jack Palance. Plus Jack. What I remember of Nolan is cool action, The Joker, Bane and cool action, the nuke in the football stadium was memorable. When Gothan is ashes you have my permission to die.

Michael Bay for the next Batman movie?

[appetite4illusions]

It did amuse me how Nolan paid homage to Burton's first movie in certain places of his trilogy.

The few scenes which stick out most in my mind are:

1. The Joker dares Batman to attack him: In Batman (1989) this comes towards the film's end as the Batwing attacks the 200th anniversary parade Joker has hi-jacked. Joker sees Batman flying in for a showdown "Come on you gruesome son of a bitch, come to me!" In TDK, Joker dares Batman to "Hit me!" with the batpod. In both these films, Joker has a ridiculous sized gun:

2. The Joker's last scene in TDK: He dangles from Batman's propeller gun as the searchlight's from the Gotham PD dance across him and the night sky. Very reminiscent of the end of Burton's Batman, where Joker dangles from the helicopter ladder with the searchlights beneath him:

\

How about the Joker's actual fall? It looks almost identical for a few fleeting frames

3. The BATWING saves the day: Batman grabs the Joker's funky toxic balloon in 1989, dropping them safely away from civilization in the Gotham bay. In TDKR, Batman's Batwing grabs the nuclear device and drops it where?

There's probably way more, but I rest my case...

[love&hates]

Burton, he made two of my favourite batman movies , "Batman" and "Batman returns", actually two of my top movies since i was a kid. Those are the coolest from the saga ...i mean who can forget Jack Nicholson charater?actually the joker is so unforgetable and so amazing that again In The Dark Knight"(another one of my favourites) that charather just steals the show all the time in the movie. Also the penguin ? gosh , just everything about those two movies seem to capture in a perfect way what batman and the gothan city are supose to be .

[Dazey]

Burton. Jack as The Joker, Prince soundtrack, even Keaton Batman was better than Bale. I did like Heath and Bane. Just feel like Nolan trilogy is long winded for no pay off.

Was it Jack as The Joker, or Jack as Jack? Keaton was an interesting Batman. A weird casting choice, but his emanating humanity gave him something that worked.

Jack IS the Joker.

Ledger played a great role and all, but his Joker is just a fruitcake Crow- I guess there's a generation gap between those of us that prefer the Burton films to the Nolan ones but give me atmosphere character over fancy special effects and "gritty realness" anyday.

I think Jack's Joker was way more disturbing, and Bale's Batman is a joke- the Nolan films just take themselves way too seriously IMO.

Couldn't disagree more. I didn't believe Jack's joker. When I saw The Dark Knight, I couldn't believe it was Heath that was in there. It was The Joker personified. Bale did not really work for me as Batman though. Jack's Joker wasn't disturbing at all imo. But you're not supposed to take Burton's version seriously anyway I think. I get a nice nostalgic feeling when I watch that movie, but it doesn't have much substance. The style is cool, like the comics. It's campy in a way, but I prefer Nolan's realism. Much more menacing and dark.

To me I think that the realism of Nolan's universe made the whole thing less believable and Bale's Batman pretty much sucked. Personally I'd take Keaton's Batman with Burton's aesthetic and Ledger's Joker. That would be fuckin' awesome!

[DieselDaisy]

It still does not answer the question, who voted Schumacher? Two of you fuckers did.

[AtariLegend]

Jack IS the Joker.

Mark Hamill > Jack Nicholson

Edited August 23, 2014 by AtariLegend