10 Best Opening Credits Sequences In Movie History
8. Batman (1989)
Nobody really talks about the opening credits of Tim Burton's 1989 Bat-flick, but their importance to the rest of the film cannot be understated. Besides serving as an introduction to that epic Danny Elfman score, this sequence introduced audiences to a much darker tone and a much darker Batman universe, setting itself far, far apart from the camp, vibrant Adam West outings of the 1960's.
Without these credits, we'd have been flung right into a Batman movie that - at the time - would've felt incredibly jarring and unusual. The titles gave audiences a few minutes to adjust to an unfamiliar, sombre superhero-tone, using slow, swooping camera movements and shadowed environments to reflect the way this new Batman stalks his prey and strikes fear into the hearts of Gotham's criminals.
The sequence concludes by zooming out and revealing that the structure we've been gliding through is a Bat-symbol, with Elfman's accompanying score swelling to a grand conclusion - a perfect illustration of Burton's movie as a whole, which was both a personal tale detailing Batman's vendetta against crime and an epic, sweeping story about an entire city coming under fire.