1. The Dark Knight
2. Batman
3. Batman Begins
4. Batman Returns / The Dark Knight Rises
5. Batman Forever
Yeah, I'll be one of those schmucks that loves The Dark Knight the most. The first 3/4 of the most is fantastic and yeah, that last part with the boats does feel a bit tacked on, but it's no worse than some of the stuff in Rises. Both are overly long movies but only Rises feels excessively long.
The Micheal Keaton Batman I think holds up rather well actually. Sure it's not super GRIM and SERIOUS like Nolan's versions, but Burton's take was a logical step from the camp of the 60's era Batman, and for it's time, it was seen as a rather dark movie. I also like Nicholson as the Joker. It's not as iconic or different as Ledgers but it's still quite good.
Begins is almost the perfect intro/origin movie... for the first half or so. Great buildup with Cillian Murphy playing an excellent and sadly completely underused Scarecrow that just absolutely falls apart once the water-vaporiser/mcguffin is introduced in the latter half of the movie. It just becomes almost silly at the end with Gordon driving the bat-tank, the inmates escaping, and Batman righting Ras on the elevated train. It's supposed to epic and climactic but I just don't think it holds up that well on rewatches at all.
Returns and Rises both occupy the same slot relatively but for different reasons. Returns is a fun movie, with Michelle Pfeiffer in her bondage Catwoman outfit being the highlight, but it's just so fucking campy. It almost feels like a complete rejection of the seriousness of the first Keaton movie, but thankfully, Returns kind of embraces the camp so it's just a fun, ridiculous movie that knows it's ridiculous and just goes with it, all out. I enjoy it, but it's definitely not something I'd Return (lol) to often.
Rises is the exact opposite. It revels in how serious it is while filling the plot with a bunch of dumb, nonsensical bullshit that barely makes any sense but it all has to happen because the plot says it must. Most of it would fit perfectly into a movie like Batman Returns, but in a Nolan film, it just sticks out. It certainly doesn't help that I actually really enjoy the first part of the movie, up until Bane's first fight with Batman. That's a great fight scene and far better than anything in the prior movies and Hardy, even with his Darth Connery voice, sells it all fairly well. Bruce Wayne getting his mojo back, anything with Catwoman, and that chase scene with Bane's goons, great stuff. After that, the movie's a mess. Bane breaks Batman's back and somehow ships him out to some random Middle Eastern prison? Batman fixes said back by doing pullups and hanging upside down? Fuck, this is about as realistic as rocket-shooting penguins. Add in some crap about a fusion bomb mcguffin or something and Talia who manages to both completely neuter Bane just by existing and not give us any reason to make us care about her or her goals. Returns is a dumb movie that at least knows it's dumb and accepts it. Rises thinks it's a smart movie, but it really is not.
I think I'd give the edge to Returns but Rises is actually fairly enjoyable on rewatches when I can put aside my expectations and just completely roll with the stupidity. The combination of Bane, Catwoman, and Batman are enough to make me go 'Eh, I guess it's not that bad.'
Forever I've only seen once and I don't remember anything about other than Jim Carrey's terrible, terrible costume and Tommy Lee Jones hamming it up as Two-Face. Maybe I shouldn't rank it then but neither of those memories are positive, so to the bottom this goes!
I've never seen Batman and Robin so I can't rank that one.