6. Batman Begins
In 2005, Nolan started his Batman trilogy with Batman Begins, delivering Bruce Wayne deeper into the dark Tim Burton conjured in the ‘90s. In Nolan’s hands, Batman is an even more serious creature, unlikely to ever tolerate the fact that the 1989 Joker wears a purple hat. Instead, he trains from childhood to become a weapon, though he ultimately rejects a recruitment opportunity from the League of Shadows when joining would require him to kill.
So Batman Begins is as much about Batman’s creation as it is about his conflicted morality, heightening encounters with Scarecrow (a genuinely frightening Cillian Murphy) and Ra’s al Ghul (Liam Neeson), who come with their own visions of paradise. Moral gray is the bulk of what makes Batman Begins interesting, though, for all its characters’ frowning, it does have some classic superhero fun—Liam Neeson, for example, plans to microwave Gotham’s water supply.
