10 Movies You Won't Believe Are Turning 20 In 2025

3. Batman Begins

2005 may have been a big year for Marvel Comics with the release of Fantastic Four, but you could argue it was even bigger for DC. It had been eight years since the release of Batman and Robin, one of the most poorly received comic book movies of all time, but now the Caped Crusader was coming back with a bang.

What better way to put nipples on the batsuit to the back of audiences' minds than with the darkest and grittiest take on Batman yet? This was the ultimate gamechanger.

Though Christopher Nolan was far from the household name he is today, his vision of Gotham, paired with Christian Bale's masterful portrayal of both Batman and Bruce Wayne, and two genuinely discomforting villains in Ra's al Ghul (Liam Neeson) and the Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy), gave one of the best comic book movies ever that has stood the test of time.

Even though this film was released 20 years ago, and has seen two more live action Bruce Waynes since (four if you count the returns of Michael Keaton and George Clooney in The Flash), with another on the horizon in Andy Muschietti's The Brave and the Bold, Christian Bale is for many the standard-setter for Batman. This was only the beginning of what is arguably the greatest superhero trilogy of all time.