Ranking All The Batman and Superman Movies

In honor of “the greatest gladiator match in the history of the world” and the first on-screen pairing of the two most iconic comic book characters off all-time, here’s a look at all the movies from the two titans.  I will warn you guys, I am not a big Superman movie fan.  Batman smokes him on this front, so yeah.

 

 

13 – Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (Sidney J. Furie, 1987)

There a two kinds of bad movies.  There are movies that are just bad and there are movies that are so bad, they’re good.  Superman IV is the former.  From it’s horrendous special effects, incredibly stupid plot, and the creation of Nuclear Man, this could be argued as the worst comic book movie of all-time.

 

 

12 – Superman III (Richard Lester, 1983)

After great success with Superman II (1981), the franchise took a meteoric fall with Superman III.  The plot, which is mocked in Office Space (1999), is almost as dumb as Superman IV and we get the pleasure of adding comedic genius Richard Pryor in the film and boy, he is awful.  The Superman franchise had always been cheesy, but this took it to a new level and made it an unfunny, campy mess.

 

 

11 – Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995)

What?  Batman & Robin (1997) not ranked the worst Batman movie of all-time?  That’s right.  I have Batman Forever below it because it could be argued that it is one of the biggest disappointments in recent movie history.  Coming off the very successful Tim Burton films, the world was given this; a brightly colored, comic book rave with horrible casting and acting.  Val Kilmer is decent as Batman, but Chris O’Donnell is just the worst.  At least the villains were fun, as Tommy Lee Jones hams it up like never before as Two Face and Jim Carrey gives an actual good performance as The Riddler.  I don’t hate this movie, but it isn’t good and it doesn’t ride the campy train far enough to be fun.

 

 

10 – Batman & Robin (Joel Schumacher, 1997)

How in the hell could Batman & Robin not be the worst Batman movie?  Because this is one of those so bad its good movies.  I think this movie is hilarious and it is my ultimate guilty pleasure movie.  From the Bat-nips to the never ending ice puns from the perfectly cast Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze, this movie is non-stop comedy and fun.  This movies ridiculousness resembles the classic Adam West Batman films more than anything.  This might be a neon-colored skid mark on the comic book genre, but it is the perfect kind of awesome.

 

 

9 – Man of Steel (Zack Snyder, 2013)

I really wanted to love this movie.  Making a darker Superman sounded like a great idea, and having Christopher Nolan godfather the project was also a smart move.  However, hiring Zack Snyder to direct was not.  Man of Steel suffers from being far too long, overly chaotic, and essentially ruining the mythos of Superman by having him kill Zod (Michael Shannon, far and away the best part of the movie).  It couldn’t decide what kind of origin story it wanted to be, which made the movie muddled and really unenjoyable.

 

 

8 – Superman Returns (Bryan Singer, 2006)

This movie gets a lot of hate that it doesn’t deserve.  Brandon Routh was a perfect replacement for Christopher Reeve and Kevin Spacey was able to chew up the screen as Lex Luthor.  It was also visually stunning, giving us the beautiful shot of Superman looking down on earth.  The real problem with the film was the end, where Superman was stabbed with kryptonite and it didn’t really affect him how it should have.  Otherwise, this is a very safe and entertaining adaptation.

 

 

7 – Superman II (Richard Lester, 1981)

A surprisingly good sequel to the landmark original.  This movie tackled an interesting story, as Superman gives up his powers to live a normal life as Clark Kent.  This added a nice human touch to the Superman mythology.  We also got an excellent performance from Terrance Stamp as Zod.  This has all the fun of the original and then some.

 

 

6 – The Dark Knight Rises (Christopher Nolan, 2012)

The Dark Knight Rises is a very divisive movie.  People either love it or hate it.  I am one who, despite its flaws, loves this movie.  It was epic in scale, but never felt bloated.  Tom Hardy as Bane was terrifyingly awesome and I dug Anne Hathaway as Catwoman.  This also gave Christian Bale a little room to do some actual acting, as we see the broken down Bruce Wayne has to make a comeback.   The fight scene between Bane and Batman is one of my favorite fights ever.  This was a perfect ending to Christopher Nolan’s iconic Dark Knight Trilogy.

 

 

5 – Superman (Richard Donner, 1978)

The O.G. of all comic book films, Superman is a legendary film.  Christopher Reeve is Superman and will forever be Superman.  Casting Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor gave the movie some acting credentials, and the film also features one of John Williams’ most underrated scores.  The effects may not hold up that well and the end might be a little much, but Superman is the blueprint for the comic book films we have today.

 

4 – Batman (Tim Burton, 1989)

Tim Burton reinvented the comic book movie with Batman.  He made a dark, brooding, gritty film that was perfect for fans of the comic and for people who have never read a single one.  Michael Keaton is, for my money, the best Batman of all-time, as he doesn’t sound like a grizzly bear and really brings the caped crusader to life.  And, as expected, Jack Nicholson kills it as The Joker.  Burton perfectly mixes German Expressionism with his now infamous gothic tone and dry humor to put us in a world we’ve never seen before.  Batman is just as important of a comic book film as the original Superman.

 

3 – Batman Begins (Christopher Nolan, 2005)

Batman Begins had to climb a mountain to impress us.  Everyone still had the taste of Batman & Robin in their mouths, and they picked a relatively unknown actor and paired him with a director known more for the indie circuit than big budget blockbusters.  The result was amazing.  Batman Begins is one of the best introductions to comic book character I’ve ever seen.  This movie dives into the whole Batman mythology of who he is and why he is the way that he is.  Nolan gives us fully realized portraits of both Batman and Bruce Wayne, a balance that hadn’t been shown in previous Batman films.  Never has their been an origin movie quite like this one.

 

2 – Batman Returns (Tim Burton, 1992)

Batman Returns took everything that was great about the first film and elevated it to new heights.  It’s a darker, more bizarre, and an overall creepier film than the first one was, which I didn’t think was possible.  We also get some of the greatest comic book casting ever in this movie.  Michelle Pfieffer is the perfect amount of sexy and badass as the best Catwoman to grace the screen and Danny DeVito give the best performance of his career as The Penguin.  Nobody else will ever be able to what he did for that role.  And, we get a wonderfully scummy performance from Christopher Walken.  Batman Returns stands the test of time and is a weird, creepy, oddly sexual, phenomenal movie.

 

1 – The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008)

This one is a no-brainer.  The Dark Knight is far and away the greatest comic book movie of all-time.  Everything about this movie is great.  The action is exhilarating, the plot is enticing, there is a lot of emotion and it is technically amazing, with a great score and dazzling cinematography.  This movie plays out more like a crime thriller in the same vein as Michael Mann’s Heat (1995) than it does a comic book movie.  But, we all know what elevates The Dark Knight to its legendary status and that is the performance of Heath Ledger as the Joker.  It’s an intense, menacing, frightening performance and, not only the best ever in a comic book movie, but one of the best performances I have ever seen on screen.  The Dark Knight is a cinematic masterpiece and one of the greatest movies ever made.

 

So who wins the cinematic battle for you, Batman or Superman?  Comment below or hit me up on Twitter @kevflix or on Facebook at Kevflix.