The Top 10 Superhero Films

1. The Dark Knight (2008)
Call it continued hype, but The Dark Knight is possibly the most phenomenal – and possibly most important – superhero film ever made. Continuing Christopher Nolan's realistic and groundbreaking superhero debut with Batman Begins, The Dark Knight managed to live up to the hype as well as its unorthodox title – it is a more serious, thoughtful, and all together more sinister depiction of the world Nolan’s Batman exists in. It's not content to just rest on the audience's familiarity with the characters to drive the film. Christopher and his brother, co-writer Jonathan Nolan, have created a fascinating and disturbing character study that matches the quality of the action scenes within the same film, and the backlash the Academy received after its snubbing at the Oscars ultimately even led to their decision to expand the Best Picture category to include ten films instead of five.

Rarely will you ever see dramatic beats, character development, and action so evenly and neatly balanced as in this film, and the two and a half hour running time feels like it flies by thanks to the brisk pacing. Christian Bale continues his admirable dual performance as the playboy Bruce Wayne and his gravel-voiced interpretation of a far more rage-filled Batman, and Gary Oldman is also given a lot more to do as Jim Gordon, a character who was sadly stripped of his dignity and shoved into the background in the previous series of films. Oldman’s Gordon shines as one of the few bright lights in a very bleak city. Maggie Gyllenhaal also amends past misfires, replacing the unintrusive but rather inconsequential Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes, a professional, headstrong woman torn between a longstanding friendship and a future love. Aaron Eckhart is also genuinely good as Gotham's celebrated Harvey Dent, who, as we all surely know, will turn into the scarred "Two-Face." He wasn’t given enough credit for his tragic performance here. This is the Two-Face we should've gotten in Batman Forever, not Tommy Lee Jones doing his best Joker impersonation. However it’s almost understandable given that, yet again, another performer managed to steal the show from the Dark Knight as his most famous villain, the Joker.

Unlike with Two-Face, Jack Nicholson's work as the Joker in the previous Batman film series has actually long been considered the gold standard to which all future portrayals of the character have been held. With one unorthodox casting decision, however, Nolan showed us just how much higher the bar could be set. Heath Ledger's Oscar-winning work here will forever replace Nicholson's as the pinnacle of comic book villainy. The nervous, sporadic lashing of his tongue between his lacerated lips and the oily tentacles of sewage green hair became instantly iconic trademarks of the character. Ledger’s Joker was conservative in his use of laughter, preferring to deadpan his delivery rather than become a giggling lunatic. Unlike Burton’s Joker, this Joker had a suit that was seemingly slapped together, rather than neatly tailored, symbolic of his chaotic, destructive nature. All these features combine to suggest that this isn't just some madman who simply had one bad day that turned him. This man is simply pure evil and chaos. No Prince songs and slapstick here... unless your definition of "slapstick" is a nifty "pencil trick." It's a shame that we won't be able to see Ledger’s portrayal in a third movie, though it was certainly in the cards. Consequently, it may not be fair to hold a third movie to the standards this movie has set. It will likely be a long time before another superhero film comes along to achieve even half of what The Dark Knight has achieved: widespread and nearly universal respect.