Opinion: There Has Never Been a Great Batman Movie

Why the Caped Crusader is not made for film.

I can already hear the gasps from reading the headline, so let me make my position clear from the start. There has never been a great Batman movie; we have had great movies that feature Batman.

We have had no shortage of Batman. There are currently 10 solo theatrical movies, plus 4 more where he appears in a larger cast, such as Batman v. Superman and Justice League. Over the decades, there are God knows how many video games and animated shows and movies that star or feature the beloved character. Batman appeals across every demographic in Western culture for good reason. He is the superhero version of David, as opposed to the Goliaths like Superman. He is just a man amongst gods, and he can stand toe-to-toe with any of them. He’s dark, mysterious, selfless, and courageous, all the things we admire in our heroes. All this to say it pains me that the best adaptations of the beloved character are in video games and animated properties.

The best Batman movie is The Dark Knight, according to the masses. It is my favorite of Nolan’s movies altogether. However, it’s a great movie that has Batman. I stand by the opinion that Nolan’s trilogy was not Batman-focused. While the trilogy is shot great and is entertaining, it actually changes a lot of what is loved about the character. Batman Begins: great origin, but it creates a shell of Ra’s Al Ghul by removing his supernatural abilities. The Dark Knight is great because of Heath Ledger's performance. Lastly, The Dark Knight Rises is garbage, and I don’t have the energy, at least in this piece, to go down the list of what’s wrong with that movie. There are a lot of things I don’t like about this trilogy, but if I had to pick the biggest problem, it’s the fact that Nolan tries to turn Batman into Spider-Man. Through these 3 films, Batman is always protecting some sort of love interest. Not to say he doesn’t in the comics or other properties, but he does not sacrifice the mission of being Batman to accommodate this desire. From the first film of Nolan’s trilogy, Batman is trying, in the end, not to be Batman anymore. He is never trying to balance the personal/vigilante life like Spider-Man.

Then there is the Snyderverse and Matt Reeves’ separate universe from the current DCU. I think the writing of the Snyderverse and Ben Affleck’s performance is really good, but we never got a Batman-focused property. The same can be said of Robert Pattinson’s movie. They both did two things specifically Nolan got wrong. The first is the action. Batman is a master martial artist, and in all three of Nolan’s movies we rarely see Batman actually fight. The action is filled with shaky cam and quick cuts, which is where Affleck and Pattinson’s properties shine. We get to see the energy, brutality, and combat IQ from these two, and it’s very satisfying. The second is the atmosphere. Snyder focused more on the world of DC, whereas Reeves focused only on Gotham City. These places felt like their own, and not just a wide shot of New York and Chicago. Nolan neglected that Gotham City in itself is a character that elevates where the rest of the characters come from. Lastly, Pattinson's movie is the only one to focus on the actual detective work from the world’s greatest detective. We have gotten a lot of details right about the character but have not had these done right in one specific property.

My favorite Batman movie is The Batman from 2022. Gotham is its own; Pattinson puts in the work for fighting; he actually solves a crime and shows a more practical adaptation to a man who fights crime. The biggest flaw in this movie is the fact that Bruce Wayne is nonexistent. This flaw can be logically corrected in the next film. The Batman ends with the character realizing that he is more than just vengeance and can allow the emergence of the billionaire Bruce Wayne to play a role in Gotham City. This is a tough thing to execute correctly, however—if Matt Reeves decides to focus on the fact that Bruce and Batman are the same character, this will destroy what is done so well in the comics. The reality is Bruce Wayne is the mask that contributes to the Mission of Batman.

In the animated show Batman Beyond, there is a scene that encompasses this idea perfectly. In the episode entitled “Shriek”, Bruce Wayne is institutionalized by the episode’s titular villain. He keeps hearing voices from Shriek that are compelling him to convince himself that he is crazy. After Terry McGinnis defeats the villain Shriek and gets Bruce back his freedom, Terry asks him how he knew he wasn’t crazy. Bruce responds by saying, "First, I know I'm not psychotic. And second, the voice kept calling me Bruce. In my mind, that's not what I call myself." Bruce Wayne is The Batman, and we have yet to receive a live-action representation that shows that idea to its fullest potential.

The best properties of the character have historically been literature, shows, and video games. I think the Arkham Games are the peak of what we have that is Batman. The struggle with adapting this character is that there is so much source material to use. Everyone has their favorite story and version they want to see this character in, which is why I don’t think 3-hour movies are the best or optimal use of him. Matt Reeves and DC do have an opportunity to flip the script down the road if they wish to do so, and that is the use of HBO.

DC has had great success with the limited series The Penguin and the Snyder Cut of the Justice League released on the aforementioned platform. Television is optimal for the character due to the removal of time constraints. There is no need to fill or complete a story in a single three-hour movie or a trilogy of movies. You can spend a dozen hours in a show’s season to do what is needed to develop characters and story, and HBO is the very place to do it. There is no shortage of material; it's grounded, dark, and above all needs a space to cater to an exclusively adult audience. I have had this dream for years that Batman is the perfect character for a platform that has always taken risks.