The Best DC Movies Of All Time

DC Comics’ characters, while well-known, have burst into the cinematic universe more than ever as of late. So much so, that, at this point, they’re so recognisable outside the world of comics that they have instilled themselves as part of mainstream pop-culture.

That said, DC has always lagged a little behind Marvel as of late in terms of big-screen fandom, but the latest slate of releases produced by DC Films and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures are starting to carve a new era of success for the comic house. Part of its success has been linked to the Batman character. Hence, the films featuring him as one of its protagonists have been among the most popular and profitable ones in recent years.

Examples to support this can be found in films such as The Dark Knight (2008). With a score of 9 according to IMDb’s rating, this movie holds the lead among the best DC movies. IMDb, which aggregates the critical scores of media and fans, has only two films that have each surpassed the threshold of two million votes: one of them being The Dark Knight. In this case, the critics and the public unanimously agree on the quality of Christopher Nolan’s epic.

Another recent fact that reiterates the popularity of the Caped Crusader and Gotham’s villains is the new version of The Batman, also rated 8 on IMDB. With two hours and 55 minutes, it has become the longest movie in the Batman’s franchise, and now one of the highest-rated in DC’s catalogue.

In the latest iteration, Bruce Wayne/Batman is played by Robert Pattinson. The plot features a young Bruce Wayne who has only been fighting crime in Gotham for a couple of years, and he has to investigate the city’s hidden corruption and even question his own family’s involvement in it while facing multiple threats. Some of Batman’s most famous villains are illustrated in this infographic on Batman’s villains, which provides details on characters such as Edward Nygma (Riddler), Oswald Cobblepot (Penguin), and Selina Kyle (Catwoman), who all appear in The Batman, among many others.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League, which with a score of 8 remains at the top of IMDb’s ratings, also confirms that DC’s formula for success is in the hands of the Caped Crusader. This film, which was preceded by a cinematic milestone with Batman, played by Ben Affleck, and Superman, played by Henry Cavill, meeting for the first time on the big screen in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, brings us the story of a broken but determined Bruce Wayne set on ensuring that Superman’s final sacrifice was not in vain. To do so, he aligns his forces with Diana Prince, aka Wonder Woman, to recruit a team of metahumans in order to protect the world from an approaching threat of catastrophic proportions.

Two other very successful DC movies are that of Man of Steel and Wonder Woman, with these two solo films receiving more than 600 thousand user votes for a rating above 7.4, according to IMDb,

Man of Steel, acting as an origin movie of sorts for the Superman in this DCEU, tells the story of the alien child, who was evacuated from his dying world and sent to Earth to live among humans, won over fans when it released in 2013. In 2017, we finally saw the first solo adventures of Diana of Themyscira, AKA Wonder Woman, played by Gal Gadot, who leaves her home to fight in a war, leading to her discovering all her powers and her true destiny.

Another character who was also linked to Batman in the Justice League film franchise is Aquaman. This film, the first solo film featuring Jason Momoa, came as a breath of fresh air in 2018 and showed us the aquatic world of the Lord of Atlantis and a more mystical side of the DCEU. Aquaman was met with some mixed reviews, but does hold a 6.9 rating by IMDb.

It’s less likely that it’s a coincidence that all the projects surrounding or featuring Batman have performed the best, and more likely to do with his popularity and fanbase. While the boy in red and blue often gets the kudos for being DC’s flagship character, it appears that the Dark Knight is the one holding together the cinematic destiny for DC and its studio partners.