Here are Cinephile Corner’s 10 recommendations for movies like Batman Returns:
The Batman
The Batman is a complete reimagining of superhero genre tropes. A moody noir piece backed by a haunting score and Robert Pattinson as the caped crusader, Matt Reeves’ 2022 blockbuster rewrites what’s possible for these genre films.
Superman
I had mixed feelings heading into James Gunn’s 2025 Superman, his latest take on one of the most iconic superheroes in popular culture. Early trailers and previews left me underwhelmed, with so-so CGI and dialogue that didn’t land. Die-hard Superman fans seemed intrigued by Gunn’s approach, especially since this film effectively ends the DCEU and launches a newly defined DCU.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning may be Tom Cruise’s last run as Ethan Hunt, and while it’s far from perfect, it’s also everything that makes this franchise so enduring. Yes, the criticisms are fair: it’s unevenly paced, leans heavily on callbacks, and opens with more exposition and flashbacks than momentum. But once it locks into gear, this is another exhilarating entry in a series that has consistently redefined blockbuster action for nearly 30 years. For all its flaws, The Final Reckoning still delivers the kind of spectacle only Mission: Impossible can.
Read our full review of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
Black Adam
When Black Adam isn’t trying to piece together narrative fragments into a puzzle without any inside pieces, it’s cramming in every genre trope at its disposal. The action is clunky and unengaging and relentless, bludgeoning you with one horribly rendered CGI fighting sequence after another. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson fails to deliver a new hierarchy for the now-defunct DC extended universe.
Venom: The Last Dance
It’s unfortunate to say, but Venom: The Last Dance, the concluding chapter of Sony’s Venom trilogy, feels like a misstep. Stripped of much of the charm and irreverence that made its predecessors enjoyable, this installment doubles down on dense exposition and formulaic storytelling, leaving little of the fun that defined the series’ earlier outings.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania serves as a critical turning point in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The movie simultaneously introduces Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror and tries to steer the inconsistent MCU back on track. It may not entirely succeed, but Paul Rudd‘s latest movie has a few glimmering pieces.
The Gray Man
When The Gray Man is working at its best, it has the wiseass-ery of Chris Evans at the center, even if it takes a decent amount of runtime for him to even enter the fold. Otherwise, Ryan Gosling barely ties this comatose Netflix action movie together.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
I rarely subscribe to the notion that a movie can be “so bad that it’s good,” but there’s a rhythm to Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom that occasionally worked for me. I acknowledge so many of the aspects that cause it to fall short, but in an era of superhero movies (particularly DC superhero movies) that are content with being unadventurous, at least The Lost Kingdom finds some glossy, overly indulgent ways to be weird. It has the usual James Wan touch.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
The Fantastic Four: First Steps makes a case that goopy, comic book looking superhero movies are back. In Superman, it felt like a conscious choice from James Gunn to lean into cartoons and pulp. Here it reads more like a limitation. The visual effects often look unfinished, and the soundstage lighting keeps scenes flat. As a soft reset for Marvel Studios, that is a frustrating place to start, even if the core family arrives with potential.
Madame Web
There might be a fun, oddly interesting, “so bad that it’s good” movie with Madame Web, but it’s marred by so many technical errors and misfires that it makes the film hard to take seriously on any level. Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney are a strange pairing for a superhero movie setting up further adventures down the line.
READ MORE: Batman Returns (1992)
