Batman and Harley Quinn

Batman: Assault on Arkham

Pointless List: Best Batman

Through the years, a lot of men have donned the cape and cowl with varying degrees of success. Since I'm one of those insane people who groan loudly whenever the next Batman is announced, no matter who he is, it should come as no surprise that none of these guys earned my praise easily. Ben Affleck, ugh!!! That said, here are the guys who I think did it best...

5. Bruce Greenwood

(Batman: Under the Red Hood)

4. Michael Keaton

(Batman, Batman Returns)

3. Adam West

(Batman: The Movie)

2. Kevin Conroy

(Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman, Batman: Gotham Knight)

1. Christian Bale

(The Dark Knight Trilogy)

Ranking the Batman Movies: #6

6. Batman: Gotham Knight

(2008)

Directed by Toshi Hiruma and Bruce Timm

Batman…Kevin Conroy

James Gordon…Jim Meskimen

Alfred…David McCallum

Lucius Fox…Kevin Michael Richardson

The Scarecrow/The Russian…Corey Burton

Sal Maroni…Rob Paulsen

And here is the most experimental Batman movie of all. To be honest, that’s probably the reason I like it so much. It’s a unique approach to the character that doesn’t undermine what we know of him, but expands our understanding. To achieve this we don’t follow a single narrative. Instead, there are six vignettes telling different stories involving our hero. They’re not officially part of the Nolan series, they seem to fit snugly in the space between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, referencing events in the former quite often. This also looks different than anything else in the canon. Most of the animated flicks either try to look like the comics or one of the animated series. Gotham Knight does neither. It plays with different styles and color palettes. In a bold move, even Batman himself is rendered in a number of different ways. Understandably, this may be a bit too eclectic for a some folks but to me it’s a magnificent effort.

Ranking the Batman Movies: #8

8. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

(1993)

Directed by Eric Radomski and Bruce Timm

Batman…Kevin Conroy

James Gordon…Bob Hastings

Alfred…Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.

Andrea Beaumont…Dana Delaney

The Joker…Mark Hamill

The Phantasm…Stacey Keach

By now we realize that a generous portion of Gotham’s citizens have ties to organized crime. A mysterious masked and caped figure known as The Phantasm has started killing them off. Of course, Batman has to find out who this is and stop them if, for no other reason, he’s being blamed for the murders. We also get some flashbacks to our hero’s earliest days as a crime-fighter which also coincides with a very serious relationship with Andrea Beaumont. She’s just come back to town and stirs up all sorts of emotions in Bruce. This is probably the best handled love story among any of the features. You can see the twist coming a bit, but the rest of the movie is so enjoyable it doesn’t bother you. Many rank this as the best Batman animated feature and some would put it right at or near the top on this list. I’m not quite in that camp, but it’s quite good.

Ranking the Batman Movies: #10

10. Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero

(1998)

Directed by Boyd Kirkland

Batman…Kevin Conroy

Robin…Loren Lester

James Gordon…Bob Hastings

Batgirl…Mary Kay Bergman

Alfred…Efram Zimbalist Jr.

Mr. Freeze…Michael Ansara

Despite all the damage done by Joel Schumacher and Arnold Schwarzenegger making a mockery of Mr. Freeze just a year earlier, Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero was released direct to video in 1998. It proceeds to tell the story of Victor Fries a thousand times better than Batman & Robin. It treats the story as a serious narrative and ably conveys the desperation and sadness of our villain. In fact, this is more of a Mr. Freeze movie that just happens to include Batman. Still, it doesn’t skimp on the superhero stuff, either. Both Robin and Batgirl get ample opportunity to show their stuff. As viewers, we’re put in the difficult position of deciding whether or not we can sympathize with the bad guy. It’s not as simple as Batman beating up the bad guy then shoving him into Arkham. This is far from it.

Ranking the Batman Movies: #11

11. Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman

(2003)

Directed by Curt Geda and Tim Maltby

Batman…Kevin Conroy

Robin…Eli Marienthal

James Gordon…Bob Hastings

Barbara Gordon…Tara Strong

Alfred…Efram Zimbalist Jr.

Batwoman…Kyra Sedgwick

Carlton Duquesne…Kevin Michael Richardson

The Penguin…David Ogden Stiers

Dr. Roxanne Ballantine…Kelly Ripa

If you couldn’t already tell, the Batman franchise dabbles in a number of genres. Here, we get sort of a whodunit. The question isn’t who the bad guy is, but who is this other good guy? Actually, good girl in this case. Someone calling themselves Batwoman has also taken to the streets of Gotham to fight crime and is effective, but sloppy. Of course, our hero has to get to the bottom of this because Batwoman doesn’t live by the same moral code as he does. Her techniques are dangerous and ruthless. It’s a solid Bat-tale with a terrific twist that we can’t quite see coming. It’s also notable for being the only movie on the list to show Bruce in an interracial relationship. The best part about that is that I make a bigger deal out of it than the movie which never mentions it.

Ranking the Batman Movies: #13

13. Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

(2000)

Directed by Curt Geda

Future Batman/Terry McGinnis…Will Friedle

Bruce Wayne…Kevin Conroy

Young Robin…Matthew Valencia

Young Batgirl…Tara Strong

Barbara Gordon…Angie Harmon

The Joker…Mark Hamill

Harley Quinn…Arlenn Sorkin

Full disclosure: I’m not a big fan of Batman Beyond. For those unfamiliar, the TV series takes place well after Bruce Wayne has retired from crime fighting. In his stead, Terry McGinnis has taken over as Batman and wears a snazzier, sleeker suit while patrolling Gotham. In the movie, old Bruce is trying to help out the young punk because his old nemesis The Joker has apparently returned from the dead after 40 years. Attempting to figure if The Joker is really alive or if this is an imposter is interesting. However, in the end it all comes across a little bland to me. It doesn’t help that massive cuts were made to many of the action scenes due to sensitivity over the then recent Columbine High School Massacre and the amount of violent content in “children’s” programming. That’s not the main problem though. The real deal is I just don’t find the future Batman a compelling one.

Batman: Gotham Knight

Directors: Yasuhiro Aoki, Futoshi Higashide, Toshiyuki Kubooka, Hiroshi Morioka, Shoujiru Nishimi.

2008. Rated PG-13, 76 minutes.
Cast:
Kevin Conroy
Kevin Michael Richardson
Gary Dourdan
David McCallum
Parminder Nagra

Six vignettes on the crime-fighter’s early career in Gotham. Basically, it seems to depict a period of time after Batman Begins but before The Dark Knight and even attempts to fill in the one glaring plot hole from the former.

This is no softening of the legend to make it more palatable for the kiddies. It’s a journey through Gotham’s grimiest streets and even the Caped Crusader takes plenty of lumps. Gotham as a whole is represented as desolate as we’ve ever seen her and everyone in town is in a decidedly somber mood. We get to see Batman (Conroy) try out some new gadgets courtesy of Lucious Fox (Richardson), including one he rejects because it works too well. The scene of this rejection is one of the few that offer any insight into the character. The entire section about him learning to deal with pain does this as well. Surprisingly, the action is more graphic than anything I can recall from the rest of Batsy’s onscreen canon.

The animation can be seen as overly experimental. When used properly, visuals enhance the story being told without becoming the story. Here, because they’re so in-your-face and change from one scene to the next you can’t help but be distracted by them. It may not have been so bad if they hadn’t kept changing Batman’s appearance. Early on, it was okay because the story is being told by some kids who all got a glimpse of him in action but don’t really know how to describe him so they use their imaginations to fill in the blanks. One even describes him as an actual giant bat. However, his look keeps changing even after the story has moved away from that tactic. In one scene he’s kinda fat, in another he’s rather plainly built, looks Japanese in one then finally he looks like the Incredible Hulk squeezed into the cowl and tights. Because this movie seems to heavily favor style over substance, you get the feeling it’s more about perfecting the craft of Batman rather than the character. Of course, the fact that a different director worked on each segment probably has a lot to do with it.

This is pretty much for us jaded fans who like their Batman real gritty. This isn’t for casual fans because it can be cryptic at times and none of the villains people are familiar with are on the loose here, just a few generic bad guys. Don’t get me wrong, they inflict some serious pain on our hero but the charisma that the super villains bring is sorely lacking. It isn’t for most youngsters, either. They’ll either be mortified or confused by it. Or both. Still, it's a look at a part of the character's existence that's not often seen, or truncated to fit into a more traditional narrative. Therefore, leave this for us fanboys.

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

Directed by Eric Radomski and Bruce W. Timm.

1993. Rated PG, 76 minutes.
Cast:
Kevin Conroy
Dana Delaney
Mark Hamill
Efram Zimbalist Jr.
Abe Vigoda
Stacy Keach
Bob Hastings
Dick Miller
Hart Bochner
Robert Costanzo

By now, anyone at all familiar with Batman (Conroy) knows that Bruce Wayne is a troubled billionaire loner who’s parents were shot and killed right in front of him during a robbery attempt when he was very young boy. As the legend goes, he would eventually start dressing up like a bat and take to the streets at night, fighting crime throughout Gotham City. Mask of the Phantasm finds our hero reminiscing about those early days of vigilantism now that his old flame Andrea Beaumont (Delaney) is back in town. Of course, that’s not the only thing on the Caped Crusader’s plate. Another shadowy figure has been murdering Gotham’s mobsters and everyone except Commissioner Gordon (Hastings) and Bruce’s trusty butler Alfred (Zimbalist) seems to think the Dark Knight is responsible. Despite the commish’s objections, the police go on a manhunt for Batman. Not content to let the law handle things, the gangsters hire none other than the Joker to kill his arch nemesis.

As is often the case, Bruce’s love life is the topic of the day. This time around, he pines for the one that got away and what might’ve been. He and Andrea are kindred spirits, of sorts. They both spend an inordinate amount of time at the local cemetery. At least she’s cheery about it, carrying on gleeful conversations with her deceased mother. Bruce, of course, generally carries on as if suicide is his next move. Believe it, or not, of all of his whirlwind romances this might be the most fully realized entry into the canon, live-action movies included. Though it eventually follows a familiar path, it holds up pretty well.

Yes, there is plenty of crime fighting. Batman has a few near misses with Gotham’s mysterious new player and, as mentioned, he himself comes under suspicion. A number of Batfans consider this the finest movie in the franchise. After all, it does pack a lot into barely more than an hour. I won’t go that far, but I’ll certainly put it in the upper echelon.

MY SCORE: 8/10

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies

Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman

Directed by Curt Geda and Tim Maltby.
2003. Rated PG, 75 minutes.
Cast:
Kevin Conroy
Kimberly Brooks
Kelly Ripa
Eli Marienthal
Elisa Gabrielli
David Ogden Stiers
Kyra Sedgwick
Kevin Michael Richardson

Carlton Duquesne (Richardson) is having gangster issues. The Penguin (Stiers) is employing him to supply the muscle that will ensure that a dirty deal gets done. At every turn, Duquesne’s henchmen take a beating at the hands of new Gotham hero, the mysterious Batwoman. Not even the Dark Knight himself knows who she is, where she came from or what she’s up to. With room enough for only one vigilante in town, one and a half if your count Robin (Marienthal), Batman sets out to discover her identity.

Duquesne is also having daughter issues. He and his all grown up little girl just can’t see eye to eye on anything. She also resents the fact that because of his problems in the underworld he insists on sending a couple of goons with her everywhere she goes. Nevertheless, she manages to break loose long enough to start up a romance with Bruce Wayne.

Visually, we get the classic blocky style we’ve come to expect from Batman: The Animated Series. This is no more or less in terms of quality.

The story seems to be moseying along in an easily predictable manner. Thankfully, we get a great twist near the end that really spices things up. It really elevates what was a decent but ho-hum affair to a very nice experience.