Every Batman Movie Ranked Worst To Best
5. The LEGO Batman Movie
Some might baulk at the suggestion that the LEGO Batman movie could ever possibly beat out a Christopher Nolan film, but it cannot be overstated how well put together and how transformative Chris McKay's spin-off is.
The LEGO Batman Movie is a swaggering exercise in the kind of arrogant reinvention that only a film-maker effortlessly well-versed in the mythology of his character could master. What modern "spoof" film-makers miss is that you have to cherish your target, and McKay's film adores Batman as much as it offers parody.
The film also fundamentally explores some of the most welcome ideas that appear in other films: Batman's burning desire for family, the vulnerability under his armour of isolation and performance, the symbiotic dynamic with the Joker... And all of it is precisely lampooned with affection and a slick coating of nostalgia, bolted on to a great story and underpinned by Will Arnett's disarmingly brilliant vocal performance as The Dark Knight.
And by God, it's fun, which is not the dirty word it seems to have become since Nolan's trilogy kicked off the sombre DC universe.