Batman (1989) vs Batman Begins (2005) – Face Off

Last Updated on June 23, 2022

Batman will always be the most badass superhero ever; the solemn Dark Knight having perhaps the most compellingly tragic origin story of them all — and that’s including Superman’s home planet of Krypton blowing up. The guy doesn’t even have super powers… unless you count being filthy rich. We’ve seen many iterations of the Caped Crusader over the years, with different actors donning the cape and cowl to answer the Bat-Signal. We could go all-in on a Batman Battle Royale if we had about ten hours to dive deep into every version of Gotham’s beloved and feared savior.

With the Dark Knight’s latest outing in Matt Reeves’ The Batman scoring big with audiences alongside Robert Pattinson receiving rave reviews for his debut appearance as the World’s Greatest Detective, we thought now would be an excellent time to take a look back at a couple of the previous Batmen’s initial instalments within their respective franchises — Michael Keaton in 1989’s BATMAN and Christian Bale in BATMAN BEGINS.

Between Tim Burton’s seminal Batman and Chris Nolan’s brilliant reboot released in 2005, these two might be the most significant films in the character’s cinematic history. The films took separate approaches to reintroduce the character to movie fans; while the bare basics of the superhero are fairly consistent throughout, these are very distinct films and ingenious visions. And while we love them both, it’s about time we tossed Batman into the ring with none other than… himself. Does that make us supervillains? Maybe! So let’s fire up the Batmobile and sharpen some Bat-a-rangs. You know it’s time for… FACE OFF!

This episode of Face Off is written by Eric Walkuski, narrated by Shawn Knippelberg, and edited by Lance Vlcek. Watch other episodes of Face-Off below, and let us know in the comments which of the Dark Knight’s first instalments you prefer — Batman (1989) or Batman Begins!