I have been reading Batman comics for a lot of years and I think it is safe to say that no one film has ever really captured the look and feel of Batman properly. There have been allusions and homages and certainly past directors have sought to incorporate iconic images into their films, a young Bruce Wayne kneeling by his parents’ bodies in Begins is taken directly from Batman Year One for example, and of course most recently with Batfleck and his Dark Knight Returns armor in BvS.

The work that Tim Burton did was pretty amazing, classic story telling and it worked in spite of its inaccuracies (Batman is Mr. Mom?!?; the Joker killed the Wayne’s!!!..uuhhh no) because Burton is a master story teller. This is the same reason Schumachers’ films sucked so badly, he is not anywhere near the craftsman Burton is and when he attempted to ape the earlier films, he failed miserably…Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face anyone…

And this is why WB felt like they had to do something 180deg removed from their previous attempts and hire someone who would ground the myth in reality, or as mush reality as possible when trying to make a film about a guy who dresses in his pajamas and fights criminals. So gone were the big sound stages and neon colors, replaced with real life locations and the muted tones of a vigilante who might actually be able to exist somewhere in the world. In my opinion, it is this same realism that caused so many problems for Rises…the myriad of things that failed to live up to that realistic standard could not be overlooked and there the Emperor sat in his new clothes.

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman Begins
The Dark Knight
Batman (1989)
The Dark Knight Rises
Batman Returns
BvS (No Justice Fan edit)
Batman 1966 TV Movie…some days a guy just can’t rid of a bomb