Batman movies always inspire division. Technically, the character has existed on the silver screen since 1943 with film serials that starred Lewis Wilson as the titular crime-fighter. From there, actors ranging from Adam West to Michael Keaton to Ben Affleck (and so many in-between) have inhabited the cape and cowl in live-action. Animated films, both theatrically released and direct-to-video titles, have also dropped starring this character, and have often become fan-favorites. The catalog of Batman movies is dense and spans well over 80 years of cinema history. Naturally, not everyone has the same opinions on this expansive canon of features.
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Some Batman features, like Mask of the Phantasm and The Dark Knight, are universally beloved and considered some of the very best Batman stories ever told in any medium. Others aren’t as lucky and get more toxic responses from critics and general audiences alike. Only two Batman movies, though, currently have 100% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, albeit both have very special circumstances informing their standings on that review aggregate site.
Which Batman Movies Have Perfect Rotten Tomatoes Scores?
In many cases, direct-to-video cinema is thought as a “lesser” artform, a place where restrictive budgets and cynical executive meddling runs rampant. It’s in this domain, though, that the only two Batman movies with perfect Rotten Tomatoes scores exist. 2000’s Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker and 2021’s Batman: The Long Halloween – Part One have secured such esteemed reputations. Both productions bypassed theatrical launch, but that didn’t mean they also eschewed creativity that put big-screen movies anchored by Batman like Batman & Robin and Justice League to shame.
Of course, both projects securing that 100% rating comes with a major caveat. Joker and Halloween each have a small sample size of reviews to draw from. As of this writing, only ten Return of the Joker reviews and 21 The Long Halloween – Part One reviews have been accumulated. Compare that to the 343 reviews informing The Dark Knight’s 94% Rotten Tomatoes critic rating or the staggering 526 reviews comprising The Batman’s 85% Rotten Tomatoes score. Meanwhile, other movies on Rotten Tomatoes with a 100% rating that have more sizeable clusters of reviews include the 146 reviews tracked for All We Imagine as Light or the 82 reviews tracked for Quo Vadis, Aida?.
In other words, with this smaller collection of reviews, there aren’t as many opportunities for a negative review to show up and spoil these two Rotten Tomatoes scores. Still, in the defense of both Joker and Halloween, other DTV Batman movies have lower Rotten Tomatoes scores with similarly restricted clusters of reviewers. Batman: Hush has an 83% score, for instance, amassed from 18 critics. 2017’s Batman and Harley Quinn, meanwhile, has 12 Rotten Tomatoes-approved reviews that amounted to a 50% score. Clearly Return of the Joker and The Long Halloween – Part One did something very right to get their esteemed Rotten Tomatoes statuses.
[RELATED: Batman Movies Don’t Need to Be “Dark and Gritty” Anymore]
These Titles Reflect How Well Batman Works in Animation
One recurring piece of praise binds the various positive reviews for both Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker and Batman: The Long Halloween – Part One. Critics largely lauded both productions for subverting the idea that animation is inherently a medium one that can’t contain sophisticated storytelling aimed at all audiences. Instead, each production embraced striking imagery and thoughtful narratives that dazzled viewers. These weren’t productions looking to talk down to moviegoers, but tremendously involving motion pictures that just happened to be animated.
These two movies with perfect Rotten Tomatoes scores epitomize how often the direct-to-video animated DC Comics adaptations have garnered praise from the general public. However, they also reflect how Batman as a character is just so perfectly suited for the animation form. Don’t forget that two of the best-reviewed theatrical Batman feature films are The LEGO Batman Movie (89% on Rotten Tomatoes) and Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (83% on Rotten Tomatoes). Many live-action Batman titles become too enamored with “gritty reality,” whereas Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker and Batman: The Long Halloween – Part One illustrate the joys of Batman animated cinema that takes the universe’s emotions seriously while embracing its inherent ludicrousness. Why be “so serious” about a land where penguin-themed gangsters run rampant?
All that preposterousness excels in animation, where the only limits are often one’s animation. No wonder Batman’s most acclaimed cinematic stories have tended to be animated works. In the public consciousness, Oscar-winning productions like The Dark Knight or box office titans like 1989’s Batman may be the go-to examples of why Batman is such a cinema icon. However, Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker and Batman: The Long Halloween – Part One are also sublime distillations of the character’s cinematic appeal even beyond their perfect Rotten Tomatoes scores.
Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker and Batman: The Long Halloween – Part One are both now available for rental or purchase from digital retailers.
