20 best and 20 most embarassing moments in Nolan's Batman movies so far.

As much as I think both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are fine films, the amount of things that are great in them are equal to the amount of times I either rolled my eyes or thought "oh, balls!". Those are films that could have had much better scripts but their execution is fantastic. If there ever were films that truly benefited from watching them on the huge screen - well those are Nolan's Batman movies.

Neither of them holds up too good on rewatch - the novelty and the epic factor works the first time, but then it wears off and you are stuck with moments that either feel out of place or silly. Thankfully, there are two things that will continue making me rewatch these two films - first there is excellent score by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard that really adds a lot to the movies. What I love is that the main theme is present throughout both films, yet the soundtracks are very different as the composers used new theme for the Joker. While Danny Elfman's scores for Tim Burton's Batmans are fantastic, Zimmer and Howard really brought their A game here and I think this main theme will ultimately be more memorable than Elfman's one.

Then there is the Joker. As I was rewatching both movies yesterday I couldn't help but think that while Batman Begins is overall a bit better constructed film in the sense that its weakest act is the first one, so it only get better from there and with TDK the longer the film goes, the worse the plot gets., TDK still wins but that is solely Heath Ledger's doing. While I think Hong Kong scenes are a total bore and the sonar, Two Face, bullet and fingertips experiment and ferries are moronic, I still give this movie 9/10 because with all honesty what Ledger created in TDK is legendary. It's probably in my top 5 best performances in the history of cinema.

I was trying not to fill up whole "the best" list with just his scenes and it was tough. Ledger is so good that ironically it weakens the movie - you simply wait for him to appear and when he is not on the screen with his fascinating delivery of lines, charisma and maniacal laughter something is visibly missing.

So here, on the heels of me watching The Dark Knight Rises, are some of the moments from BB and TDK I consider the worst and then some I simply love.

 The most embarassing:

20. Christian Bale's haircut as young Bruce

19. "Mind your surroundings" line being spoken at least 3 times in this movie.

18. Rattle their cages!

17. "Rachel...it's not who I am" aka Bruce making an ass out of himself

16. Droopy dog

15. The editing that comes right after the Joker finishes his story. He has a knife stuck in this dude's mouth then quick cut to other dude being scared and then we see the dude the Joker was threatening collapse. wait, huh? What, did he die in matter of seconds from having a cut in his mouth?

14. Excruciatingly long, boring and pointless Hong Kong sequence.

13. Sometimes Batman just feels out of place. Like in this scene.

12.Harvey Dent being all wounded, hurt and having his face muscles out having the greatest idea in the World - let's start doing shots.

11. No more dead cops!

10. Dent missing half of his face is not only running around - he also becomes invincible as he comes out of this little event with a car below without a scratch. It got to the point I was sure he will rise up in the end after his fall, even if his spine would be sticking out.

9. The whole cliche ridden silly ending scenes that instead of focusing on the greatest villain - The Joker - used Two Face losing his shit in really boring and annoying matter. And we obviously have the standard prop in such scenes - frightened child.

8. Batman's voice in his last conversation with the Joker - it's like he has some sort of mutated version of TB and he is smoking 5 packs a day, while doing shots along with Dent who is missing half of his face. Maybe they are playing a game - Batman wants to sound more ridiculous and Dent wants his wounds to sting more.

7. Batman sure knows how to calm women down. "Stay calm....you were POISONED"

6. Two Face's make up. Apart from few shots of Batman everything in Nolan's movies looks realistic. But this was just stupid. If half of his face burnt I'm pretty sure the eyeball would go too. But since it didn't...Dent would basically need eye drops every 3 seconds.

5. Batman jumps out to save Rachel and leaves The Joker and his psycho sidekicks with entire penthouse filled with innocent people. And it's not like he is in the rush to help them after he saves her. They chat on the roof of the car. After all who the fuck cares about some innocent people. Certainly not Batman and the attorney.

4. Fingerprint-off-bullet nonsense. Even James Bond would do face palm.

3. "I won't kill you...but I don't need to save you". In other words Nolan did sneak in some of Batman's psychological issues here because the whole "I won't kill anyone, hug me Alfred" business is nonsense. When you push someone you kill him. But when you let him fall you kill him too. Batman and his antagonists should differ in their goals - it doesn't matter if he kills. If he killed the Joker so many people would be saved and wouldn't die in vein. But no. Bruce would probably never recovered from trauma no matter how many deep monologues from Alfred he would hear after offing some psycho monster.

2. How did Batman beat the Joker? The sonar! I cannot believe people complain about cloning device in the Prestige but the sonar they have no problem with. Even Morgan fuckin' Freeman had problem with it!

1. And of course the ferry sequence. Two ferries - one has criminals, another has ordinary citizens. Both have bombs on them. People are given detonators and if they blow up another boat the Joker tells them they will survive. In real life those criminals would go sky high. In summer blockbuster happily reformed black dude throws detonator over the window and then he sits down and looks all melancholic and shit.

The best:

20. "It's a black...tank!"

19. Alfred's tears as he is rescuing poisoned Bruce

18.Quick moment when we see the peeler among Joker's knives.

17. The first time we see Joker's face

16. Alfred and Russian ballerinas

 15. Silent moment when the Joker sticks out his head out the window like a dog.

14. Awkward "Hi" and subsequent conversation with Harvey adorned with moment where the Joker cannot remember Rachel's name, though he just killed her.

 13. "Charming!"

12. The montage with the judge's car bomb, commissioner's acid glass and the Joker crashing the party.

11. The video the Joker sends where he is questioning Batman copycat which incidentally features insanely creepy moment when he shouts "LOOK AT ME!"

10. Bruce rising while the swarm of bats is flying around.

 9. The biggest "Nolan has balls!" moment is the way the Joker switched addresses making Batman think he is saving Rachel while in actuality he saved Dent and Rachel was blown sky high. Mid-sentance too.

8. The way camera frantically turns around when the Joker is telling Rachel how he got his scars.

 7. -Name? - Um....Bruce Wayne.

 6. The Joker dealing with mobsters with his quick wit, accurate and sarcastic way of describing the events and the pencil trick.

5. The Joker blowing up the hospital.

4. The Joker being nonchalant as he is locked up with the cop whose friends he killed.

3. "Why so serious?!" story

2. The Joker's sadomasochism clashed with Batman's inability to kill - Hit me, come on, hit me!

 1. The interrogation scene with the Joker describing the world to Batman and then collapsing with laughter as he makes Batman realize that he doesn't care about anything and because of that Batman will never win with him. "You have nothing, nothing to threaten me with. Nothing to do with all your strength"is always the moment when my jaw drops.

To them, you're just a freak, like me! They need you right now, but when they don't, they'll cast you out, like a leper! You see, their morals, their code, it's a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you. When the chips are down, these... these civilized people, they'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve.