Batman Returns

If there is one lesson to be learned from Christopher Nolan and Tim Burton's artistically successful Batman pictures, it is that these movies are at their finest when filmmakers are given the freedom to imbue the character with their own tone. This also applies to Batman comics - not every interpretation must be the same; what matters is that it excites the viewer.

That is why Batman Returns arrives at number seven. It's half a Batman villains film and half a Tim Burton gloomy fairy tale. The backgrounds of Catwoman and the Penguin are more akin to Edward Scissorhands’ style than a true comic book adaptation - which is precisely what makes this masterpiece so brilliant. The adversaries completely dominate the film, though, led by Devito's Oswald Cooblepot and Michelle Pfeiffer's Selina Kyle. Keaton’s Batman ended up being the third lead.

Batman Returns brilliantly conveys the notion that the hero's greatest adversaries are always underdogs of some kind. However, at the time, this movie was criticized for being too dark, which resulted in two substandard sequels that shamelessly pandered to the younger demographic.

Release year: 1992

Stars: Michael Keaton, Danny Devito

IMDB Score: 7.1/10