12 "Important" Movies That Are Actually Terrible

3. Batman (1989)

There's no denying that Tim Burton's Batman was exactly what the character needed at the time, with the Adam West model still so prevalent in the popular consciousness despite the huge advances made in the comics. Even so, there's also no denying that time has not been kind to Burton's film, and when held up alongside today's superhero movies it simply pales in comparison.

Establishing the key problem that all Bat-movies would take until Christopher Nolan, the villain gets far too much of the spotlight. Jack Nicholson's as entertaining as ever, but he's doing his standard routine of basically playing himself, albeit with more make-up than usual. The new backstory cooked up to accommodate the actor result in a take on the Joker that's considerably less interesting than we've seen since, and the character's evil scheme is always a bit on the vague side.

As for Batman himself: happily, Keaton's interpretation still stands up as one of the best, though by modern standards the fight scenes look very awkward, and - yes, this old chestnut again - the hero seems way too happy to kill his opponents. And of course, there's simply no excusing that ludicrously out-of-character moment when Bruce Wayne screams at the Joker, "do you wanna get nuts?"