Throughout the 24 years since the first Batman film in 1989, the Batman film franchise has seen its share of highs and lows. Most recently, Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy has concluded and has left the franchise in completely different territory than in 1997 after the dismal failure that is known as Batman & Robin. In particular, the previous Batman films prior to the Dark Knight trilogy all have many inconsistencies within the individual plots of each film. In addition, the performances in these four films range quite a bit in terms of their quality and several of the performances do not hold up after several years which affect the films as a whole. With that in mind, here are the 10 worst casting decisions in the Batman film franchise...
10. Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes in Batman Begins
If there is one casting mistake in Christopher Nolan's trio of Batman films, it is the casting of Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes in Batman Begins. Holmes' performance is not entirely bad, in fact, in the beginning of the movie, she is good, specifically when her character is telling Bruce Wayne, played by Christian Bale, how mob boss Carmine Falcone, portrayed by Tom Wilkinson, is destroying the city Bruce's deceased parents were working on changing for the better prior to their deaths. However, as the film continues, Holmes lacks in execution of her role. Granted, in The Dark Knight, the character is written in a way that allows audiences to emotionally invest more in her and the character is portrayed by a different actress in Maggie Gyllenhaal. While the criticisms of Holmes in this film have been well documented and become excessive, it can't be denied that Gyllenhaal outperforms Holmes and leaves many fans of Batman movies wishing the former played the character in both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.