Batman: The Movie (1966)
The first Batman movie on our list is the one that’s sometimes forgotten. Indeed, for a brief shining moment in 1966, Adam West and Burt Ward’s small screen Batman and Robin got to POW and WHAM! baddies on the big screen. Released in theaters by 20th Century Fox two months after the first season of West’s Batman TV series, the highlights of his colorful rogue’s gallery are all here: Cesar Romero’s Joker, Burgess Meredith’s Penguin, and Frank Gorshin’s Riddler. Lee Meriweather also filled in for Julie Newmar’s Catwoman, but perhaps the greatest fiend of all is the Great White Shark that attacked Batman’s foot!
Batman Returns (1992)
If Batman was Tim Burton’s idea of a blockbuster, then Batman Returns is Burton’s twisted of idea of Batman, period. Owing more to German Expressionism of the 1920s than the Indiana Jones and Amblin template then dominating multiplexes, Batman Returns is a mournful and noirish vision of (anti)-heroism in which all the villains are but fractured reflections of the Dark Knight. Anti-commercialist and still aggressively feminist by our modern standards, Batman Returns would earn Burton a pink slip, but it was worth it to meet Michelle Pfeifer’s Catwoman.
Batman & Robin (1997)
And here we have the big one. That is to say the one that killed the original version of the Batman movie franchise with its indulgent ice puns, wild miscasting that includes Arnold Schwarzenegger as an emotionless scientist, and shameless commercialism. There is crass product placement like the “Bat-Visa” throughout, and every scene acts as a discrete toy commercial. It honestly is entertaining as a kitch novelty for about 10 minutes, but this honestly is an abomination that will pummel you into submission after that. Streamer beware…
The Dark Knight (2008)
Stunning, extraordinary, and elevated are all superlatives that do not feel in the least bit excessive while discussing The Dark Knight. Nolan’s second and best Batman movie, The Dark Knight distills the character and his arch-nemesis, the Joker, down to their essence for a compelling piece of cinema that stands above its entire genre. Working just as well as a crime epic as it does a superhero movie, The Dark Knight turns a hero vs. villain kerfuffle into an existential drama about the fear and paranoia that crippled American life during the 2000s, and an excellent showcase for a cast that included Gary Oldman, Aaron Ekchart, Michael Caine, and most of all Heath Ledger. Ledger’s Joker is and will remain one of the greatest movie villains ever captured on celluloid.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
If you spent your whole life waiting for Batman to be turned into a narcissistic fascist, you’re in luck. Zack Snyder embraces every one of those impulses in his languid and self-important epic. Ostensibly a movie about forces of light and dark, Superman and Batman, squaring off, both characters look awfully beige while drenched in the movie’s overcast grays. Indeed, Batman v Superman is arguably the most humorless superhero movie ever made, but it has its fans due to Ben Affleck’s chiseled melancholy as Bruce Wayne, and the fact he does look just like Frank Miller’s Dark Knight.
Joker (2019)
The origin film for Batman’s greatest villain, Joker has as much to do with Martin Scorsese as it does Batman. An unsubtle homage to the style, themes, and plots of Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy, Todd Phillips’ Joker has one original ace up its sleeve and that’s Joaquin Phoenix’s haunting depiction of the Joker. Or maybe you should call him Arthur, a poor slob suffering from mental illness and a manipulative co-dependent mother. Couple this with a bad Reagan era economy that’s left him behind, he’s ripe for a mental breakdown. Is it thus triumph or tragedy when he starts putting on makeup and killing people? The scary thing about the movie is it asks does it matter? And then there are the animated adventures…
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)
There are some Batman fans who will tell you Mask of the Phantasm is the best Batman movie ever made. While we think they praise too much, there is no denying this theatrically released project from Warner Bros. Animation, and Bruce Timm and Paul Dini’s creative team, is a beautiful realization of Batman: The Animated Series in cinematic form. With a flashback-heavy story structure, it emulates noir and drama classics from Hollywood’s golden age while providing a compellingly tragic vision of Batman’s origin story and a new original villain in the Phantasm. It also gets bonus points for using Mark Hamill’s devilish Joker to creepier effect than he could ever achieve on Saturday morning television.
Batman: Gotham Knight (2008)
Gotham Knight is what happens when The Animatrix people try and work in Christopher Nolan’s sandbox. This is six short stories, each with a different anime style, but with many similar voice actors, taking place supposedly in the same universe as Nolan’s Batman movies. None of them are successful. Skip this one.
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (2009)
If you like Ed McGuinness’ art or mindless superhero beat’em ups, Public Enemies will work for you, but only if you can handle the exceptionally mindless. Superman and Batman save the world from a Kryptonite meteor and go on the run from President Lex Luthor’s team of superheroes, including Major Force and Captain Atom. It looks terrific, but it’s very, very dumb.
Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths (2010)
While this film adaptation of Grant Morrison’s JLA: Earth Two graphic novel doesn’t technically have Batman’s name in the title, he’s the main driver of the action, and this counts. Unfortunately, it violates a couple of core tenets of his character in deeply frustrating ways. The League discovers their Earth Two counterparts–the opposite world where the Justice League is the Crime Syndicate. The two worlds come into conflict, and Batman and Owlman match wits to determine who wins. James Woods plays evil Batman, so in retrospect this movie is even worse than it was when it was first released.
Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010)
Jason Todd’s return to superheroing was surprisingly good in comics form, and some stellar voice acting choices make the movie adaptation even better. Bruce Greenwood would be the best Batman voice ever if Kevin Conroy had never existed, and nowhere is that better demonstrated than here. Neil Patrick Harris is also a terrific Nightwing. And when we aren’t treated to excellent voice cast, we get to watch some of the best fight sequences in animated Batman history.
Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (2010)
Apocalypse has all of the problems of Public Enemies–a painfully dumb story–with none of the enjoyable factors of good art. In this movie, Darkseid tries to make Supergirl a Female Fury, which is a very good elevator pitch. Unfortunately, it’s executed incredibly poorly, and the movie manages to also waste Andre Braugher as Darkseid. You can stream this, but the question is how angry you’ll get if you do.
Batman: Year One (2011)
The movie version of Year One is a very compressed version of the classic Frank Miller/David Mazzucchelli classic. Because of that, it does some things well and some things poorly, rushing through the story and skipping some important context in Batman’s first year as a hero. But what saves this movie is the absolutely inspired voice casting of Brian Cranston as Jim Gordon. This is a dream casting for a live-action movie, and it’s none the worse in animated form. He’s stupendous as Gordon, one of the highlights of all the animated films.
Justice League: Doom (2012)
Another Justice League movie that’s actually a Batman movie, but in this case, it’s based on a Justice League comic that was actually a Batman story. “Tower of Babel” is the arc of JLA that saw Batman the Mastermind’s contingency plans to disable his teammates, you know in case the need arises, get stolen and used against them. Indeed, Vandal Savage and the Secret Society of Super-Villains get their hands on the Batman Protocols, and danger ensues. This reunites much of the original Justice League/JLU voice cast and features some wonderful characterization and moments from writer Dwayne McDuffie.
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (2013)
The two-movies-that-are-one adaptation of Frank Miller’s OTHER seminal Batman story, about a depressed, older Bruce Wayne getting back into the cape and cowl to save a collapsing Gotham, is perhaps the most faithful animated adaptation of them all. This movie almost nails Miller’s art style and gives us the hulking brute Batman that is a big part of what made the comic so good. It follows the story of the book pretty closely too. If you liked the comic, you should enjoy this.
Son of Batman (2014)
Son of Batman is the first Batman animated movie to be part of the broader DCAU continuity built since the film adaptation of Flashpoint. It’s a loose adaptation of Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert’s story arc of the same name that introduced Damian Wayne into modern continuity. It is a big fight between Batman and the League of Assassins that needlessly shoehorns Deathstroke in. There are entertaining fights, and some good moments between Batman and Damian, but it’s mostly forgettable.
Batman: Assault on Arkham (2014)
There isn’t much to Assault on Arkham besides its tag line. It’s a Suicide Squad movie set in the universe of the Arkham video games. It’s got fun action sequences, some pretty bad character designs, and King Shark. If any of that appeals to you, check this out.
Batman vs. Robin (2015)
Batman vs. Robin is a clunky adaptation of the Court of Owls storyline from Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s run on Batman. It’s got some of the best animation of any cartoon Batman movie since Mask of the Phantasm, but it tries too hard to be a Court of Owls story that also advances the narrative of the connected DC animated films, and ends up feeling like two movies smushed together into one.
Batman: Bad Blood (2016)
While Bad Blood is technically an original story, it takes enough from Batman, Inc. to count as an adaptation of that story to us. Batman “dies” early on, and the rest of the extended Batfamily (REALLY extended – Luke Fox’s Batwing is one of the main characters) has to step up to take his place. Eventually, we find out the real plot, and this movie brings to a close most of the story that ran through Son of Batman and Batman vs. Robin.
Batman: The Killing Joke (2016)
Batman: The Killing Joke was the long-awaited adaptation of Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s classic one-shot graphic novel. A character-defining portrait of the Joker, the book is responsible for most modern interpretations of the Clown Prince of Crime, as well as the idea of Barbara Gordon/Batgirl becoming the disabled but still heroic Oracle. However, the film also reminded viewers of the book’s controversial and arguably more dated elements (in which Joker paralyzes and assaults Babs to get at Jim Gordon and Batman) while introducing a whole new can of worms: Yep, this is the movie where someone thought it would be a good idea if Batman slept with his best friend’s school-age daughter.
Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders (2016)
If you enjoyed Batman ‘66, you will adore Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders. You will also probably enjoy it if you didn’t. This movie takes all of the trappings of the original television series and adds in a modern wryness to the humor that smoothes out some of the campier edges. Much of the show’s cast is reunited for this movie, as Batman takes over Gotham City with an army of clones, and Robin and Catwoman have to stop him. It’s light and airy and nostalgic and funny, a movie very worthy your time.
Batman and Harley Quinn (2017)
Casual vulgarity makes a welcome appearance in the DC Animated Universe with Batman and Harley Quinn. This movie takes much of the cast of the beloved, seminal ‘90s animated series and puts them in a raunchy sex comedy. Nothing about this should work on a conceptual level, but the jokes are usually sharp, the timing perfect, the voice cast excellent, and the story, from Batman: TAS legend Bruce Timm, is very good. This movie was a very pleasant surprise.
Batman vs. Two-Face (2017)
Batman vs. Two-Face is every bit as clever and fun as Return of the Caped Crusaders, the previous movie based on the 1966 television show. But it’s also more than a little melancholy, as this was Adam West’s final role before passing away. We see Two-Face for the first time in the Batman ‘66 universe, and he’s played by William Shatner exactly as you’d expect Shatner to play Two-Face: He hams it up to interstellar levels.
Batman: Gotham by Gaslight (2018)
Gotham by Gaslight is an adaptation of a story by legendary comics creator (and mind behind Hellboy), Mike Mignola. It’s basically “steampunk Batman vs. Jack the Ripper.” Unfortunately, the animation doesn’t capture Mignola’s artistic stylishness, and the story makes a couple of changes from the comic that are very bad. You may still enjoy it–Batman’s supporting cast is pretty entertaining here–but it’s skippable.
Batman: Ninja (2018)
Have you ever wondered what an animated film would look like if it was done Marvel Style? If the animators were given a loose plot outline, then the dialogue was written after the visuals were completed? Imagine that, and also imagine that the animators were on a ton of hallucinogens, and you’re most of the way towards imagining Batman: Ninja. We can’t even begin to describe the plot, just stick with the movie until the Joker-piloted mecha-Rogues Gallery castle fights Batman’s gestalt samurai monkey with actual bats as armor. It’s incredible. Available in the UK on: Netflix
Batman: Hush (2019)
Batman: Hush is the first animated film that’s better than its source material. The animated version keeps everything that was cool about the book–the fights, the cast, the inclusion of most of Batman’s major rogues–and pulls out some of the nonsensical twists to give us a good mystery about Batman and Gotham that works surprisingly well.
Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2019)
An adaptation of the James Tynion IV/Freddy Williams II’s comic of the same name, this movie is everything you’d expect from a cross-property mash up. The Ninja Turtles team up with Batman, Ra’s al Ghul and Shredder get together, and a bunch of Bat-villains get smeared with ooze and mutated into anthropmorphized animal versions of themselves. And just like the comic, it’s a ton of fun. Not every movie needs to use Batman to comment on inequality or mental illness. Sometimes you just want to see Hyena Harley Quinn thump Batman a couple of times.
