With Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy now in our rear-view mirrors, it’s safe to say that interest in the Caped Crusader’s ongoing war with the criminal element of Gotham City has never been higher. It’s a good thing that Batman is getting so much press (he deserves it after Batman and Robin nearly relegated him to pop-culture limbo), but the problem is that a majority of movie-goers and television fans think that they know everything about the Dark Knight because they’ve watched The Dark Knight, and that is simply untrue. As good as Christopher Nolan’s trilogy is, the truth is that we have yet to see a Batman movie that honestly succeeds in capturing the true feel of Gotham City’s obsessive guardian (outside of Bruce Timm’s brilliant animated universe). Throughout the decades, Batman has undergone many changes as many different writers have taken on the character, but the essential themes of loss, obsession, justice and vengeance remain constant. These ten gems, birthed from the graphic novels, are not only the single best examples of great Batman stories, but also happen to provide the source material for many moments and set pieces that were blatantly ripped off in Nolan’s films.

Note: Quite a few of these stories have been adapted into DC animated features, so if you absolutely must, you can check those out instead.

“We are going where no man has gone before…to unlock the secrets of the universe! It’s pretty cool!”

 

The Scoop: 1985 PG, directed by Joe Dante and starring Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix, Jason Presson, Amanda Peterson, Dick Miller and Robert Picardo

Tagline: The adventure begins in your own back yard.

Summary Capsule: Three middle-schoolers build a space ship in the back yard and proceed to make a close encounter of the weird kind. Think of it as The Goonies in space.

In the never-ending struggle of good versus evil, an eternal balance must be constantly maintained… at least as far as fiction is concerned. Conflict is the essence of drama, so for every power-hungry evil genius, there must be a muscle-bound monosyllabic gun-toting hero with a mysterious past to foil his elaborate plans. But in this miasma of heroes and villains, it’s the mirror image counterparts that stand out; the evil versions of our favorite heroes, possessed of all the abilities and strengths, but without the things like a sense of responsibility or compassion to balance them out. In a heroes world there’s nothing more disconcerting than to watch a darker version of yourself; the villain you might have become had you made different choices, wreaking havoc on the populace…but darned if it doesn’t make for some awesome stories.

“I don’t think you should go around blaming the time machine for all your problems.”

 

The Scoop: 2005 unrated, Directed by David Ray and starring Jay Baruchel, Sarah Lind and Jim Byrnes.

Tagline:  Time travel ain’t what it used to be.

Summary Capsule: A drug dealer travels back in time using an ugly recliner wrapped in Christmas lights in an attempt to prevent his girlfriend falling into a coma from a heroin overdose.

“You came to me in order to be strong. I have made you the strongest.”

The Scoop: 2010 R, Directed by Sngmoo Lee and Starring Jang Dong Gun, Kate Bosworth and Geoffrey Rush

Tagline: The way of honor. The way of courage.  The way of survival.

Summary Capsule: Steampunk outlaw cowboys take on mortal kombat ninjas when a lone swordsman goes rogue to defend a baby from his murderous clan.

“If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”

The Scoop: 2011 PG13, Directed by Zack Snyder & starring Emily Browning, Carla Gugino, and Scott Glenn

Tagline: You will be unprepared.

Summary Capsule: A young girl is committed to an asylum, and retreats into various levels of fantasy to cope. And then there’s a thirty-foot demon samurai with a chaingun.

“Best embrace the suck.”

The Scoop: 2011 PG-13 , Directed by Daniel Barnz and starring Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Hudgens and Mary Kate Olsen.

Tagline: Love is never ugly.

Summary Capsule: Popular, good-looking kid gets cursed with ugliness, and nothing else interesting happens for two hours.

For those who aren’t familiar with Neverwhere, or who haven’t read our review, it’s the story of a Richard Mayhew, a Scottish man living in London who helps out an injured girl on the street and ends up trapped in “London Below” for his troubles. The story chronicles Richard’s travels and misadventures through the long forgotten tunnels and subways as he tries to get home.

Since its airing on the BBC in 1996, Neil Gaiman’s fantasy miniseries has been re-published in almost every format available. It’s been made into a novel, (also written by Gaiman) a comic book series, and a stage play, and while it’s been adapted into a script which the Weinstein Company currently owns the rights to, a director has yet to be found and a motion picture adaptation remains tantalizingly out of reach. Even so, hope springs eternal. So in the spirit of trying to grease the wheels, we at MRFH have decided to get the casting of said film out of the way. You listening hollywood? Get on the ball. We can’t do *all* the work.

“You are really messing with my zen thing, man!”

The Scoop: 2010 PG, Directed by Joseph Kosinski and starring Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Bruce Boxleitner and Jeff Bridges

Tagline: The Game has Changed.

Summary Capsule: Young man gets zapped into a digital world where everything is apparently made of glass while looking for his long-lost father, and Disney finally gets around to realizing the potential of the Tron franchise…sort of.

“Scott, if your life had a face, I would punch it.”

The Scoop: 2010, PG-13, Directed by Edgar Wright and starring Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Jason Schwartzman

Tagline: An epic of epic epicness.

Summary Capsule: Boy meets girl, boy dates girl, boy battles girl’s seven evil exes in increasingly awesome duels to the death.