20 Most Rewatchable Movies Of The 21st Century

6. The Dark Knight (2008)

Warner Bros. Pictures

It's a toss-up between The Avengers and The Dark Knight for best comic book movie of the 21st century, but Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight has a vital ingredient keeping it one-up over Marvel's best: Heath Ledger's Joker, an instantly iconic, ludicrously entertaining villain for the ages.

And after darkening the genre with Batman Begins and upping the comic book realism bar set by Bryan Singer's X-Men films, Nolan takes inspiration from crime epics like Heat for The Dark Knight, to bring his caped crusader deeper into the real world. There, Bale's Batman plays games with 'psychopathic clown' The Joker, who has only one ambition: to torture Batman by dismantling his world piece by flammable piece.

Bad news for Bruce Wayne, but good news for us: The Dark Knight moves at a reckless speed for a 152-minute movie, offering up thrilling bank heists, exhilarating chases through the streets of Gotham and sinister Sophie's Choice-on-a-ferry moments. It's a truck flippin', Eckhart-scarrin', world-burnin' two-and-a-half hours of mayhem.

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Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the dashing young princes. Follow Brogan on twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion: @BroganMorris1