Batman Films Overview
In anticipation of The Batman, my boyfriend and I decided to watch the past Batman movies before seeing the new one. I have thoughts on all of them but have decided to share a few highlights here. If you’d like to read longer reviews for each film, you can find them here. My review for The Batman will be out soon!
Overall, the Christopher Nolan trilogy of movies was the best iteration of the Batman character and universe. Batman Begins is a fantastic origin story and The Dark Knight capitalizes on the perfectly set-up universe (although The Dark Knight Rises tried to do too much and dropped off a bit for me). Surprisingly, Batman (1989) was significantly better than all of the other older films. The Lego Batman Movie was an unexpected delight and is best enjoyed after watching the other films in order to get the most out of all the references. Despite the fact that Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice is a fairly recent film and had the best special effects technology available, it was the worst movie in my book.
With several actors portraying the famous caped crusader, Christian Bale plays a good Batman and an excellent Bruce Wayne. He looks the part and delivers a high quality performance in all 3 films in which he appears. Val Kilmer’s movie itself was not very good but I did like his performance and again, he fits my vision of Bruce Wayne. Ben Affleck delivered a good acting performance with the direction and script written, but I didn’t enjoy where they took the character in his movie. I like George Clooney but he put literally nothing into this role other than showing up and reading lines. Adam West’s Batman is a product of its time and feels like an extension of the Batman TV series from the 60s.
With tons of famous villains in his Rogues Gallery, Batman faces numerous foes through the various films. It’s been said before but I’ll say it again: Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight is fantastic. His portrayal of the character feels nuanced and believable and he sets the stage for a modern Joker with more depth than previous iterations. Shoutout to Jack Nicholson who also delivers a quality performance as the Joker almost 20 years earlier. The 90s movies are filled with caricatures of the Rogues Gallery and are pretty terrible, with Michelle Pfiffer’s Catwoman in Batman Returns standing out above the rest. By far my least favorite portrayals of Batman movies come from Batman Forever with Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face and Jim Carrey as Riddler. I could not stand watching Carrey’s hideous overacting as the Riddler and Tommy Lee Jones tried to match his energy, making both characters annoying and underdeveloped.
It was fun seeing the evolution of Batman and his villains over several decades, with varying levels of support from law enforcement, different interpretations of key characters, and many stylistic differences. Check out my post with a review of each movie and keep your eyes out for my review of The Batman coming soon!
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