Batman V Superman: Ranking Every Movie From Worst To Best

10. Batman

Batman 1989 is still regarded with a real air of unquestionable respect. With Reeve's series spluttering to an end, Tim Burton took the superhero baton and showed Richard Donner's big screen realisation of comic books was more than a fluke, defining the Caped Crusader for an entire generation in the process. However, as culturally impactful as it may have been, it doesn't quite hold up as a movie. Some of its choices wouldn't go down very well nowadays - giving the Joker a detailed backstory and working him into the origins of Batman in particular - and other elements simply don't work - I've never got the gallery sequence - but the biggest knock against the movie from the passage of time is that what was once lauded as dark and brooding now comes across a bit silly. Not necessarily in a bad way, and definitely not as much as what followed, but you need thick nostalgia goggles to claim this isn't a bit kitsch. Aside from the casting - we all know Michael Keaton wasn't a popular fan choice to play Batman, but it turned out to be inspired - what really holds up is the design of Gotham. Realised through a mixture of matte paintings and massive sets, the city feels like a living, breathing machine, all sharp-angled buildings bathed in smog. That alone makes it worthwhile.