Might be because BB is a smaller, more focused film. I also think Nolan had more freedom, or less pressure to try some new things. It feels more personal. For me it's clearly a superior film, but Ledger's Joker is so great that I'd rank them equally.

I'd put the 5 myself (Burton and Nolan), maybe even throw in Forever because of Kilmer. Not really many great superhero movies out there. Iron Man, X Men 2 and Watchmen probably for the rest. Perhaps Norton's Hulk too.

Been waiting for the torrent too. Going to the movies is not a big thing here in the summer so I actually haven't watched any of them in a theater.

Despite some good stuff I'm pretty disappointed. BB was a small film, but it felt fresh and it had that old Nolan look. TDK wasn't as well directed, but had tons of great characters. This one appears to have lost both.

Bane is very good and the best part about the film, right up until the point we find out he's doing it all for some broad. Gordon Levitt was alright too. Apart from that it doesn't got a whole lot going for it.

I don't feel I'm in Gotham City, I feel like I'm in New York. And the daylight overkill doesn't help it either. Batman is a nighttime character. Most of the focal scenes in this movie take place in daylight, which is ironic, considering it apparently only takes 15 minutes to get dark in NY here. I gotta say I'm starting to appreciate Burton's Gotham a lot more.

Don't buy that Wayne would be that devastated over a girl. Bale has always played him passionate but strong, this just doesn't fit.
I don't buy Kyle either. Who is this woman? Apparently a world class burglar and martial arts fighter. She likes to wear a ridiculous costume on the job though, so of course everybody knows who she is and is out to get her. Her motivation is to find a fantastic deus ex device that will just delete your name from every record on the planet. I guess all those detectives who are on her case right now will just go home when her name mysteriously disappears from their computers. How about just using a fake name? Like normal known criminals do when they apply for a job at a billionaires house. Pfeiffer can continue to sleep easy. Now that's a great performance.

Overall the silliness in this movie was just too much. Police will not care about the money when the stock exchange gets taken over by terrorists. Stock brokers are the real evil. When billionaires go broke they get to keep their house but not enough money to pay the electricity bill. It's seemingly not a huge task for a terrorist to kidnap New York and its 12 million inhabitants for 5 months just because he says he's got a bomb. Batman does have autopilot, but he's going to let the people he care about think he's dead first. Yeah, yeah, we know you did it just to jolt the audience. It's called lazy writing.

That being said it's not terrible. I certainly wasn't bored sitting through it and it's probably the only other blockbuster besides Skyfall that I've enjoyed this year. But compared to BB and TDK it was a huge letdown. And I think it's time to cut the crap about this series being so dark and gritty. Burton's films are far more heavy than this.

Lol, I was thinking the exact same thing.