Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Turns 17 – But Is It Still The Best-Rated Batman Movie?

We revisit Christopher Nolan’s iconic film The Dark Knight seventeen years later to see if it still holds the crown as the best-rated Batman movie of all time on Rotten Tomatoes.

- July 18, 2025 | 3:40 PM IST

Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Turns 17 — Still the Best-Rated Batman Movie Yet? — Seventeen Years On, The Dark Knight Remains the Highest-Rated Batman Film on Rotten Tomatoes (Photo Credit – Netflix)

Christopher Nolan is currently busy with his next ambitious directorial venture, The Odyssey, which is slated for a theatrical release on July 17, 2026. The acclaimed Hollywood filmmaker began his filmmaking career with films like Following (1998), Memento (2000), Insomnia (2002), and The Prestige (2006). However, the franchise that brought him into the global cinematic limelight was The Dark Knight trilogy. The second and most celebrated installment, The Dark Knight (2008), was released exactly seventeen years ago in the U.S. But does it still hold the crown as the best-rated Batman movie on Rotten Tomatoes? Let’s find out.

The Dark Knight vs Other Batman Movies – Rotten Tomatoes Scores Compared

The Dark Knight, starring Christian Bale as the titular superhero, boasts an impressive 94% critics’ score and 94% audience score on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The site’s critics’ consensus reads, “Dark, complex, and unforgettable, The Dark Knight succeeds not just as an entertaining comic book film, but as a richly thrilling crime saga.”

‘THE DARK KNIGHT’ is the best comic book movie of the 21st Century, according to over 500 actors, directors & other names in Hollywood.

(Source: https://t.co/jpcoLT1is1) pic.twitter.com/06ewkxrvsx

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) June 27, 2025

In comparison, the other two entries in Nolan’s trilogy, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight Rises, hold scores of 85% and 87%, respectively. The well-received 2022 film The Batman, directed by Matt Reeves and starring Robert Pattinson, also stands at 85%. So, all these widely admired Batman movies are still behind The Dark Knight.

Interestingly, the Batman film that comes closest to The Dark Knight in terms of critical acclaim is the 2017 animated comedy The Lego Batman Movie, which has an 89% score. So, seventeen years later, The Dark Knight still holds the crown as the best-rated Batman movie on Rotten Tomatoes.

What Was The Dark Knight About?

In the film, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) joins forces with Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) to take down Gotham City’s criminal underworld. However, their efforts are quickly derailed after the arrival of a sadistic criminal mastermind called the Joker (Heath Ledger). The film also features Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Morgan Freeman in key supporting roles.