“The Batman” has opened to generally positive feedback and appears highly likely to produce a sequel or two. However, for right his second, it’s a provisionally standalone film whose identity within Batman’s film oeuvre has yet to fully take shape. We’re marking it as the final film in our list essentially because it’s the most recent, but a Bat-fan in the midst of a Bat-movie marathon has a few different options for placement of “The Batman.”
From the standpoint of its central character’s evolution, “The Batman” could fit before the Burton/Schumacher series. Though “The Batman” is not an origin story in the traditional sense, Robert Pattinson’s depiction of Bruce Wayne begins the film a little underbaked. He only starts growing into a hyper-competent crime smasher resembling the guy from 1989’s “Batman,” at the movie’s conclusion.
Then again, since culture and world events of the 2000s heavily inform Nolan’s trilogy, while director Matt Reeves’s infused sentiments of the 2010s and early 2020s into his Gotham City saga, maybe it makes more sense to watch them in their real-world release order.
We do not recommend watching “The Batman” immediately before or after “Batman: The Movie,” because the tonal clash between Paul Dano and Frank Gorshin’s interpretations of the Riddler may cause the viewer some internal whiplash or psychic damage. Gorshin’s Riddler never successfully kills anybody, while Dano’s Riddler kills a whole score of folks in nasty ways.