Hmm. Gotta disagree with you. After watching the Animated Series as a kid, “Forever” is low on my list for how shabbily it treated characters that the animated show put real life into.

I’d go: Batman Begins, Batman ’89, Batman ’66 (that movie is a lot of fun), Returns (Tim Burton’s dawn of excess), Forever, and Batman and Robin last as usual. Thankfully I saw B&R in a dollar theater. Just two of us laughing like hyenas.

I guess you like Kilmer’s interpretation quite a bit- what’s your reasoning there? I thought Keaton did as good a job. Both were miscast, just not as bad as Clooney.

I’ll have to disagree with both yours as well as Tommy’s lists.

I haven’t watched the ’66 Batman, and don’t intend to anytime soon. My favourite list, in order of preference, is as follows:

1. Batman (’89) – I love dark, dark Batman movies, just like it is in the comic strips. And this one is dark without any of the excesses. And boy, Nicholson was incredible, maniacal, creepy and unforgettable as Joker. I’m sorry to say this, but i find it very unlikely that the late Heath Ledger will be able to better that.

2. Batman Returns (’92) – Again a very dark batman movie, & like the above movie, is true to the atmosphere of the comic strips. The chemistry between Micheal Keaton’s sedate batman, Michelle Pfieffer’s femme fatale Cat Woman, and the terrific Danny De Vito’s psychotic Penguin Man was fantastic.

3. Batman Begins (’05) – Even though this has been the favourite batman movie of most critics, I had to keep it at 3 simply because Liam Neeson is nowhere close to the imperious Nicholson or the creepy De Vito as a villain. Gary And batman movies are watched essentially for the bad guy. Gary Oldman would have been a better villain. It also lacked the comic-book feel. A very good movie nonetheless. The first half of the movie was wonderful.

4. Batman Forever (’95) – A very comical, loud and over-the-top movie. However, I managed to like the movie chiefly because of the villain duo of Jim Carrey & Tommy Lee Jones – two excellent but heavily underrated actors. What a one-two sucker punch that was!!!

5. Batman & Robin (’97) – Despite the huge starcast – Arnold, Clooney in the same film – this was a bad, bad laugh-riot of a movie. In fact Arnold was the only saving grace for the film.