Every Batman Movie Ranked From Worst To Best

The Dark Knight remains one of the most singular and influential achievements in both superhero movies and blockbuster cinema as a whole - a theoretically ridiculous tentpole film that convincingly styled itself as an elevated crime thriller in the vein of Heat or The Departed.

For all of its jaw-dropping action sequences - most of them achieved with minimal VFX - the most slyly impressive aspect of The Dark Knight might well be Nolan's masterful tonal control.

Despite revolving around a clown-faced terrorist who does battle with a billionaire who dresses up as a bat, the audience is urged to take all of this seriously, and rooted in such a recognisable urban aesthetic, it totally works.

Heath Ledger's Oscar-winning portrayal of The Joker of course speaks for itself, though basically everybody's fantastic here - especially Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent/Two-Face, who doesn't get nearly enough credit.

It's with good reason that so many countless blockbusters have attempted to ape the movie's style in the 15-ish years since - even James Bond did it in Skyfall - because Nolan so ingeniously split the difference between high-wire popcorn thrills and deep-dish character-driven storytelling.

It's nigh-on impossible to consider the sort of Batman movie that could decisively unseat something so brilliant.