Every Christopher Nolan Movie Ranked

so to conclude this video it's time to

take you to court Mr Nolan you stand

here accused of not only theft but

wasting away the audience's Goodwill

with aspects of your confusing nonlinear

time progression how do you

plead not talking huh that makes sense

since you're just a PNG of his head very

well until you can atone for your

transgressions I sentence you to

director jail you shall never work again

due to the consequences of your previous

film's failure take him

away you watching closely wait did that

disembodied PNG head just

speak ooh a map to treasure everybody

wait here while I go pursue this a few

inches later all right let's see what I

can

find huh it can't be that madman what

has he

done fun for shaper Alys is provided by

Squarespace the sponsor of today's video

it's the all-in-one platform for

entrepreneurs to create beautiful

websites engage with their audience and

sell anything from products to content

to time so let's talk about Academy

Award winner Christopher Nolan god it

feels good to say that Nolan is a

filmmaker I've respected for quite a

while because he's basically the perfect

midpoint between a blockbuster filmmaker

and a prestigious filmmaker he's one of

the most widely respected and popular

directors across General audiences I

don't think your average Joe Schmo in

the street knows the names of too many

directors but if you ask them who's the

guy that made the Dark Knight Inception

or Oppenheimer they'll probably know

that it was Christopher Nolan and the

cool thing about him is that not only

are his movies popular but in my opinion

most of them really have the substance

to justify their insane Commercial

Success he proved to the world that

superheroes could be taken somewhat

seriously

he crafted some truly mind-bending and

creative stories that got audiences

thinking far more than your average

Blockbuster would and now he's finally

achieved the recognition he's deserved

for so long from the academy now is as

good a time as any to rank all of his

films throughout the course of watching

his entire back catalog I honestly

became an even bigger fan of his than I

already was the way he plays with time

and nonlinearity in his stories is so

engaging while not everything about his

film making style works for me the parts

that do work wonders but on the other

hand he has made a couple stinkers in my

opinion so if you're a mega fan of his I

hope you'll bear with me because it

won't be long at all before we get to

the really great stuff with that said

why don't we jump on into it disappoint

in The Game of Life all right let's cut

the [ __ ] you know exactly what the

bottom slot is tenet is not good I

hesitate to say it's an awful movie even

though I would certainly not argue with

anyone who thinks that way I just think

it's a frustratingly mediocre and not

wellth thought out film it central

conceit of time moving backwards for

certain objects and certain people just

isn't nearly as engaging of a hook as

Nolan thinks it is it feels like this

movie is trying to capture a similar

Vibe as Inception telling this thrilling

story and utilizing a unique sci-fi

twist to enhance the tension but not

only is the Sci-Fi Concept in Inception

way easier to understand but the stakes

are more well defined and the central

character has an engaging person Al

story line nobody in tenant has an

engaging personal story line of any kind

the closest thing would be Elizabeth the

Becky's character caring about her son

but she's just kind of a standard abused

damsel for most of the film the

protagonist I'm sorry I should probably

use his actual name the protagonist is

an entirely unengaging character who I

never felt had much stake in anything

going on I like John David Washington's

performance and while we're at it Robert

patson is also good in this movie but

these characters don't really have

traits to latch on to they're just

vessels to get from one action scene or

expository conversation about how the

time travel [ __ ] Works to the next it

makes for a really boring movie The

Action is kind of cool and the

performances all work but I had no

investment in anything going on an issue

that was compounded as the film trudged

along to its rather underwhelming climax

I should also say that this movie is not

nearly as clever as it thinks it is one

of Christopher Nolan's best attributes

as a Storyteller is how he uses

nonlinear storytelling for cool dramatic

reveals as we'll see when we talk about

the good movies on this list but when

your entire film is built around the

concept of nonlinear time progression

well yeah I pretty much immediately

guessed that the two guys the

protagonist and Rob Pat were fighting

were themselves I immediately guessed

that the lady Elizabeth de Becky saw

jumping off the boat was herself

literally anything else would have been

more shocking and subversive in general

while I can admire how ambitious this

movie was in theory in execution I think

it might be Christopher Nolan's most

pedestrian film to date hidden behind

all the pseudo cleverness is an

incredibly standard story with

undercooked characters that I have no

desire to ever watch again the only time

any bit of dialogue in this film made me

perk up was when they mentioned

Oppenheimer cuz that made me say oh [ __ ]

I could be watching that movie instead

don't watch tennet you are not missing

out on anything I should take

Christopher Nolan to court for wasting

away the audience his Goodwill with his

confusing nonlinear time progression but

I'm not going to do that he's made good

movies with nonlinear progression before

I'll talk about them soon but first we

got to cover his other biggest failure

you're a big guy so I grew up watching

Chris duckman's reviews and I remember

he had a certain term called Phantom

menacing where you're anticipating a

movie more than anything you're just so

hyped for it and then you see it and it

wasn't that good but you just try and

convince yourself that it was so you

don't have to submit to the overwhelming

disappointment to this day I've only

done this Phantom menacing technique

with one film and that is The Dark

Knight Rises I was 14 and coming off the

insane four-year Dark Knight hype a

movie that amazing just had to have an

even better followup right so I saw it

with my family opening weekend and uh

yeah it was fantastic why do you ask it

made sense it wasn't horribly stupid and

contrived Nolan's a Visionary damn it

yeah as much as I didn't want to admit

it there is too much working against

this movie for me to call it good and to

be fair there are a lot of good elements

it's not awful but as the years went on

its problems became more and more

apparent to me I mean a lot of online

reviewers pointed them out for me as

well but enough of all this that's a

cute opinion did a YouTuber give it to

you stuff I'm My Own YouTuber and it's

been since I've seen this film so I went

into it with an open mind free of anyone

else's opinion influencing me except

cosm not Marcus since his video just

came out and damn it made some good

points but whatever I still have my own

reasons for disliking this film and

let's get into

it uh just as a reminder this is an

official disclaimer that you can enjoy

this film and my takes on it or just

from my perspective and you should not

decide to dislike it based on anyone

else's takes unless you thoroughly think

their take through and decide that you

agree with it based on your own

standards for judging films uh back to

the video I think the biggest problem

with this film is that I just never felt

threatened by Bane his plan to enact

martial law in Gotham before blowing it

up 5 months later with a nuclear bomb is

just really roundabout and stupid but at

least he has an intimidating presence

for you oh no oh dear look I can live

with Batman's ridiculous voice but like

who thought this was intimidating The

Fire Rises I'm sorry that is the

goofiest [ __ ] he's not an awful villain

or anything he has some effective

moments of physical violence and to his

credit he does bring the city to its

knees adding some Stakes to the final

film of this trilogy but it really is so

hard to take him seriously and I think

this problem is especially compounded by

The Twist villain reveal yes this movie

came out one year before Frozen and it

kind of has an equally bad twist villain

as Hans calligan and bellweather

something was in the water during this

era I'm telling you as soon as Talia a

character we barely know anything about

is revealed to be the true Mastermind

behind this plot the main villain we've

been building up for 2 and 1/2 hours is

kind of just disposed of within the

narrative he's completely subservient to

her whims and then after like a minute

Catwoman just shows up and shoots him

that was the death scene of the main

villain of this movie he's just picked

off like he was any old henchman oh well

at least talas will be better oh truth

be told I can't even begin to understand

her motivation for wanting to destroy

Gotham oh I hated my father but then you

killed him Batman and I was like hey you

know what he made some good points

actually actually let me adopt his

entire ideology and destroy this city

with a nuclear bomb by the way am I

stupid or is the bomb not far enough

away from the city when it detonates

like would this cause radiation damage

or something come on Nolan you made

Oppenheimer 11 years after this movie

you should know this I also hate how the

movie has a really good setup with Bane

finding Jim Gordon speech unmasking the

true nature of Harvey Dent and then it

just doesn't show the impact of that

Bane is like aha Gotham your peace is

predicated on lies Harvey s was evil and

[ __ ] and then we don't see any citizens

reaction to this news I mean I guess

they do have bigger things to worry

about but given how much this movie

presents dense reputation as this

shining Beacon of Hope for the city that

completely wiped out organized crime

somehow surely they would be a little

horrifying to know that it was all a lie

the speech does at least serve as Bane's

justification for freeing all the

criminals imprisoned without parole

under the dent act but I hate when

movies do this with their villains it's

like hey wait a minute these people went

8 years without parole we don't really

know what their crimes were but surely

some of them deserve parole hearings

right keeping all of them permanently

locked up in the name of Harvey Den's

fake reputation is really messed up and

Bane has a point that this is an

injustice but he also kills people and

he's going to blow up the city with a

bomb so who cares what his thoughts on

prison reform are beat him up Batman

speaking of which I just think it's

really funny how little Batman there is

in this movie he's in about 30 minutes

of the 2H hour and 44-minute run time

but to be fair this is because he spent

the past 8 years moping about Rachel's

death 8 years my guy and EDI remind you

that the last time he lost people really

close to him he channeled that rage into

becoming a crime fighting vigilante but

to be fair again apparently there's been

no major crime in the last 8 years so I

guess it's fine so 45 minutes into this

movie we finally get our first glimpse

of Batman and it's very underwhelming

there really isn't a single action scene

in this film that lives up to the

previous two which sucks cuz some good

action probably could have helped make

up for how childish and simplistic the

plot is every available cop in the

sewers every single one you sent

thousands of them down there and never

once considered that this could be a

trap all right I'm sure you've probably

heard every critique known to man about

this movie and we got a lot of actually

good movies to cover in this vid so let

me wrap up with some stuff I like cuz

this really isn't the worst movie in the

world uh I liked Killian Murphy being a

silly little judge I like when Batman

Catwoman team up for fights wish we got

more of those everyone's performances

are good and I like Joseph Gordon Levitz

especially when he goes to Wayne Manor

to appeal to Bruce I like the stuff in

the prison hole and Bruce finding his

resolve to get out of there the football

scene was cool in spite of his goofy

voice ban has some pretty cool lines

like this one and Gotham is ashes then

you have my permission to die but when

Batman brings that back in the final

battle tell me where the trigger is then

you have my permission to die that's the

rawest line in the entire movie maybe

even the entire Trilogy um I swear there

were other things I like just let me

think um I I like that the plot ties

back to Batman Begins in some admittedly

really stupid ways but it's cool at the

very least that the conclusion to the

trilogy didn't ignore the largely

overshadowed first chapter um it's

watchable it's aggressively long and

drawn out and not particularly well

paced but most scenes in a vacuum are

pretty solid as long as you don't think

about the logistics of the lot and all

the stupid [ __ ] I don't know that's all

I got it's really disappointing that

Nolan didn't stick The Landing with this

trilogy but fortunately I don't think it

undervalues the previous two films at

all you can just end the story on a dark

note with a dark knight you kind of

don't need this one in order to get

closure but to be totally fair once the

stupid plot is resolved I do kind of

like the epilogue this movie gives to

Bruce Wayne as long as you ignore the

logistics of nobody in the entire world

being able to recognize this famous

billionaire you see what I mean when I

say it's hard to like this movie We're

going to wa so I feel like this is going

to be my only real hot take of this

video and I'm going to make it even

hotter I don't like Dunkirk at all to

the point where I'd honestly call it my

least favorite Christopher Nolan film

you know how in some of my rankings I

designate that a movie is my favorite

even if it doesn't rank first place cuz

there are some movies that I just think

are critically better Dunkirk is the

exact opposite for me critically it does

not have the same level of flaws as

tenet or The Dark Knight Rises but I

personally enjoyed watching those two

more solely because as I've stated

numerous times I just cannot stand war

movies it's a personal preference thing

I cannot overcome there are exceptions

like Saving Private Ryan obviously plus

1917 was cool mainly because of the

single shot gimmick and I could get

invested in the two characters it chose

to focus on but most of the time these

types of films are cinematic white noise

to me that don't say anything other than

war is hell Dunkirk was actually the

movie that made me realize I don't like

War films back when I watched it for the

2017 Oscar season I thought maybe it

would click with me on rewatch and like

I guess I have some compliments the Han

Zimmer score in this is really

exceptional and heightens the dread and

urgency extremely well the

cinematography is gorgeous particularly

in the flying scenes I like the stuff on

the little boat with the Banshees of in

a sharing kid and The BFG and it becomes

especially more grippy when kellian

Murphy comes aboard and we see him

grapple with his PTSD it's an extreme

well-made movie it's hard to argue

against that but it is just not my thing

and I could not get invested in most of

what was going on again it is possible

for me to enjoy a war film but with

those two examples I listed Saving

Private Ryan and 1917 the reasons I got

so into them was because I cared about

the characters and because the craft of

the film was so strong the former had

the most gripping War sequence ever put

on film and the latter had the cool

single shot thing going on Dunkirk is a

well-directed movie but I couldn't latch

on to any of the characters outside of

some mild investment in what was going

on on the boat I don't want to dismiss

what is obviously a very well-made movie

for what it is it's just the fact that

it does not appeal to me and that's

totally fine you can always make your

own list where Dunkirk ranks near the

top if you're a fan of war movies I

think you will get something out of this

it is good by the war movie standard its

low ranking on here is simply due to my

own personal preference I cannot stress

that enough Christopher Nolan did a good

job with this movie I would just

personally sooner rewatch any of his

other films before this yes even tenant

because then I can at least laugh at the

funny I ordered my hot sauce an hour ago

ly Christopher you don't order hot sauce

you [ __ ] [ __ ] why are you following

me following is the first feature film

Nolan ever directed and yeah you can

kind of tell it has a lot of his

Hallmarks like a prominent use of the

score to drive emotions in scenes and a

lot of events being shown in a nonlinear

fashion to make certain reveals hit

harder but it doesn't nearly have the

same filmmaking finesse as a lot of his

future movies the story is pretty

interesting but both that and the

characters aren't nearly as fleshed out

as they could be considering the film is

only 69 minutes this is more of a proof

of concept that he's on to something

with some of these film making

techniques and storytelling Styles it's

impressive for a movie filmed on a Sho

string budget that only made use of

natural lights since he couldn't afford

any professional lighting equipment but

I think I admire its production more

more than I actually enjoy it as a film

it's got an interesting story like I

said and some bits of engaging dialogue

but overall it's just kind of okay cool

piece of History to trace an insanely

impressive career from not much else it

feels like somebody wants to S me

something I told you he was on to us I

need some sleep the first thing that

really struck me as fascinating about

insomnia was when the opening credits

informed me that Christopher Nolan did

not write this film I didn't actually

know there were any movies where this

was the case so I paused the film to

look it up and yeah this is the only

film Christopher Nolan directed but

didn't write and watching it you can

definitely tell because the story is

told in chronological order and there's

a woman with agency and plot relevance

who doesn't die it's pretty fascinating

seeing him tackle someone else's script

and for the first hour or so I was

really gripped by it Al paccino plays a

cop investigating a murder and it's all

pretty straightforward until the twist

comes third 30 minutes in I won't say

what it is but man I didn't see it

coming and my mind started racing

thinking of where this movie was going

to go was the first 30 minutes just kind

of a red herring and this is what the

real focus of the film is well no they

kind of combine the two plot lines and

you know it's not bad it's pretty

interesting on paper but I felt like the

execution left a lot to be desired to be

frank this isn't Nolan's best work

directing wise hell I think it's even a

step behind his previous film momento I

really like how this is set in Alaska

during a time where the Sun never goes

down a perfect visual metaphor for Al

Pacino's insomnia but I feel like there

could have been more creative

directorial ways to show that he's

losing his mind from lack of sleep we

only start to get that in the last 15

minutes of the movie when they could

have spiced up a lot more of the second

half I also cannot stand the way this is

edited like the action in Chase

sequences just have so many Quick Cuts

and it just kind of feels disorienting

and unprofessional and my last major

issue is the fact that while I really

like the performances of Pacino and

Hillary Swank I'm sorry I just can't

take Robin Williams seriously as the

killer I mean it's Robin Williams I'm

all for actors playing against type and

surprising you with what they can do

with a performance but nothing about

this one surprised me I was never

intimidated by him I just kept thinking

oh hey that's Robin Williams he talks in

a funny way I just could not picture him

doing the murder he described I'm sorry

I don't know if that's just a me problem

and I'm sure he did plenty of other

great dramatic roles but this just did

not work for me and it kind of hand

hampered a lot of the second half of the

film with that said the first half

before they meet is pretty airtight and

engaging well aside from the quick

editing but that becomes more prevalent

in the second half overall I'd say the

pros and cons balance this movie out to

be pretty great actually it's very un

Nolan in a lot of ways and it's probably

one of his least talked about films but

I think it's very underrated it's got a

really intriguing story and two out of

three Great lead performances so yeah

I'd very much recommend it yeah

bman I feel like a lot of people just

don't really know what to do with Batman

Begins nowadays I mean it's kind of just

known as the precursor to The Dark

Knight because that movie has hardcore

overshadowed everything about this one

hell The Dark Knight Rises has hardcore

overshadowed it as well for the wrong

reasons mostly it just feels like

whenever people talk about the Dark

Knight trilogy as a whole the discussion

almost always centers on the last two

there's not a whole lot to say about

about the first one and I have to admit

I subscribed to this way of thinking for

a while there you see growing up I loved

Arkham City I played it on the Wii U cuz

I didn't own a non- Nintendo system till

I was like 20 this game was simply the

coolest [ __ ] and I watched YouTube

playthroughs of the game that preceded

it Arkham Asylum just to get an idea of

what the story was before I jumped into

the Masterpiece sequel everyone was

obsessing over finally though once I

grew up and stopped being a Nintendo

baby and got a PlayStation like a real

man I figured what the hell let's

actually play Arkham Asylum now and I

just couldn't get into it it was just a

weaker Arkham City my entire playthrough

I kept thinking why am I not just

playing Arkham City now that's the

downside with really good sequels

sometimes they're just so good that they

completely overshadow their predecessor

and don't give you a reason to revisit

it and that's exactly how I felt about

Batman Begins throughout pretty much my

entire life I saw it as a kid in the

midst of The Dark Night C sweeping the

nation but I never felt any real desire

to rewatch it because like the Dark

Knight is just this but better why do I

need to go back to it so with all that

said finally revisiting it all these

years later I think this movie is

incredibly slept on yeah obviously can't

call it one of Nolan's all-time best

since the Dark Knight exists but I think

because of that movie Batman Begins is

one of Nolan's most underrated works

it's just a cool solid as hell origin

story that adapts nearly everything

about Batman to the real world you got

to remember this was pretty much the

first holy serious film adaptation of

Batman to ever exist well I say wholly

serious but there's still a lot of

pretty silly moments in this I guess

what I mean is that this is the first

one that's trying to be serious it's

trying to take place in reality it's

saying hey here's how Batman would work

in a serious setting and I think it

really pays off they take their time

building up every aspect of him from his

initial origin to him using his fear of

bats against his enemy to every Gadget

he's known for it makes for such a

cathartic feeling when we finally see

him all suited up an hour in I also

think the story is pretty strong and I

love the way all the pieces for the

final battle are strong across the

film's entire runtime Bruce getting

trained by Ral ghoul and then denying

him his chance to destroy Gotham is

seemingly wrapped up in the First Act

but surprise he's the big bad

orchestrating everything in the third

act it's a good twist that works because

we set him up already he's absent from

for a lot of the film but we don't need