I like the Burton ones, they're what I grew up with. Even as a kid I never understood why Batman got all colorful in 3 and 4. As an adult...I know why now. I like the Burton ones for what they were to me as a kid. And today I enjoy them...just slightly less at times.

The Joel Schumacher Batman's are pretty bad, in terms of the scripts and obnoxious, annoying, way over the top villains, but are still very well made. Is it outrageous to think the Schumacher Batman's have better directed action scenes than Nolan's?

Yeah Joel's Batman did acrobats and some actual martial arts. Nolan's just does super punches, which as much as I like the new ones, annoys me.

I will fully admit Forever is my favorite of the 4. Val was a great Bruce and Batman, and the way they treated his psychosis is something the new ones haven't touched on much.

I agree. "Campy" and "dark" (both in tone and amount of light) do not belong together.

"Batman Begins" might not been necessary but it was so cool to watch

I agree Forever is good. I remember in the theater thinking how intense it was when Batman was trapped in that capsule in the beginning and had to save that little guy inside.

I once saw somewhere how the movies really parallel different comic book eras.

Burtons-30s/40s era sort of colorful but also serious.
Shumacker's-50s/60s era mostly outlandish and colorful, the Riddler's first appearance was here too.
Nolan's-80s/90s era gritty/serious like the Year One, Killing Joke, etc.

If you have the DVD or Blu-ray releases, that's probably where you saw that, in the multi-part documentary that spanned each movie's extras. It was Executive Producer Michael Uslan who made the comparisons for each film in that documentary.

Batman Begins was totally necessary. There hadn't been a single movie that really showed Batman's origin, loved it!

I loved the original Batman, although even as a kid I could tell that it lacked a plot. Plus Joker taking down the Batplane with a pistol bugged me, and I wanted to slap Robert Wuhl anytime he was on screen.

I found Batman Returns odd. I loved Catwoman and felt that the movie worked any time she/Pfeiffer were on screen. But then Penguin would show up, and the movie would come to a screeching halt. Plus Penguin's whole run for mayor / abduct the children / blow up Gotham ever-changing plan was a mess. Still, it was at least half a good movie.

Then came Batman Forever. To me, this was when the franchise was derailed. This movie was so tonally different than the first two and threw out basically everything that the first two movies actually got right. I was so disappointed by this movie that by the time I saw Batman & Robin, I actually enjoyed it, because I had zero expectations and could laugh at how hideously bad it was from beginning to end.

My perspective on all four movies changed again, though, when Nolan's Batman Begins came out. It has lessened my opinion of all four of the original films considerably. I can't wait to hear which villain(s) has been selected for the third film, because I love what Nolan did with Ra's, Scarecrow, and especially Joker. I'd really love to see his take on Catwoman, but I'm sure he'd do right with just about anyone from Batman's rogues.

I just started watching Batman and Robin again last night, it really is great to watch with the audio commentary. Joel Schumacher discusses everything that went wrong with the movie, and why it sucked so badly.