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Ranking Christopher Nolan Films

Christopher Nolan is one of those polarizing directors for me where some of his films I really like or even love, but some I find truly bad and mediocre. Overall, he’s an overrated director with many of his recent entries being insufferable, but his earlier entries in his filmography showed some true promise. He’s pretentious, but also a very confident director. Without further ado, here is my very personal, very atypical ranking of his filmography.

10. Inception

I absolutely despise this movie. It’s the only film on this list that is truly bad in my opinion with very few redeeming qualities. Those are the special effects and the epic world building. But this is a movie that is pretentious beyond belief. It makes no sense whatsoever how needlessly complicated it is, but it also makes no sense in its dream logic and utilization which is downright stupid and ridiculous. The characters are also beyond forgettable. It is a pinnacle of everything that I find insufferable in Chris’s directing.

9. The Dark Knight

This is it. The most overrated movie that Nolan has ever directed, and by far the most overrated superhero film of all time. People proclaim that this is the pinnacle of the genre when in reality it is mediocre and not even passable how boring, pretentious and failed of an experiment it is. This Joker isn’t my Joker and both the character and the actor are far from good, let alone great. The crime approach bored me to death, the action is so bad and the movie’s slow pace is sleep-inducing.

8. Batman Begins

Everything I said above also applies here with the exception that this is a better film overall given that some scenes and characters are interesting. But it’s still mediocre owing to overlong runtime, bad pacing and it’s simply an origin story that isn’t original or interesting in any differentiating manner possible. I also found Christian Bale very weak. His Batman is so bad here and in the sequel that I really question the casting decision. Although he’s a great actor otherwise, it’s just that here he truly is slim.

7. Dunkirk

Now we get from mediocre movies to the passable territory, but still not by much. Yes, Dunkirk could have been a great movie had it been a documentary as the audio-visuals are terrific and in particular the camera movements are excellent. But it’s a bad narrative film as it has no storyline to it whatsoever and all of the characters are simply there to die and nothing else. There are so many better war movies out there and for this one to make so much money only goes to show how insufferably die-hard Nolan’s fans truly are.

6. The Dark Knight Rises

Yes, The Dark Knight Rises is the only entry in this trilogy which I really appreciate and like to a large degree. It still has the trilogy’s shared problem of slow pacing and a needlessly protracted runtime, but it’s much better executed in its action sequences and Bale himself is much better this time around. I also really liked the twist and though some scenes such as the ending do not work, all the fights were fun for me and Bane is a terrific villain. It’s a less pretentious and more true superhero-approached movie which I embraced.

5. Insomnia

Insomnia is interesting in its setting and thematically speaking of course as it explores guilt really well. It also features one of the finest performances in Al Pacino’s career and he plays the best character in this film without a doubt. But others are forgettable including disappointing Robin Williams, the thriller elements are never particularly memorable and the whole film is just solid and serviceable without ever being truly great. It’s a film that is just solid, but disappointing as it could have been so much greater overall.

4. The Prestige

Though not particularly well developed in its characters and again uneven in pacing and some sequences, The Prestige is easily one of the better Nolan films thanks to a very interesting, at times even intriguing storyline that is engaging from beginning to end. Jackman and Bale both delivered very strong, suave performances and I really liked them together on the screen. The twist is also interesting and well handled as is the film’s overall atmosphere. I wish that Nolan made more fun movies such as this one.

3. Memento

Memento has such an intriguing and very well executed structure with deft editing, terrific pacing and atmosphere, good characters and engaging and thematically rich story, but that story can get too convoluted, especially in the ending, and the movie is emotionally very cold which is unfortunate as the story needed it. It is an intriguing and very original film, but because it is distant and too convoluted, it never achieved true greatness and that is what most Nolan movies suffer from unfortunately. He is just too cold in my opinion.

2. Following

Although you can obviously see how cheap this entire flick was, it’s still truly commendable what Nolan did on such a shoestring budget. In particular, I really liked the second twist, though the first one I’d easily predicted. The two main characters are excellent, especially their twisty dynamic. The noirish atmosphere is fantastic as are the cinematography and the overall interesting storyline and darker feel to the film. It is the director’s first movie where he showed great promise which he unfortunately would rarely meet later on.

1. Interstellar

Yes, I know that this movie is dead last on many people’s rankings, but this is my personal ranking and I say that Interstellar is by a mile Christopher Nolan’s greatest feature so far. Not only is the movie incredibly emotional, a bit to a fault even, but it’s also instantly unforgettable in more than a couple of sequences. Its visuals are mesmerizing, the world building is through the roof and the central father-daughter relationship is heartbreaking. Here, Nolan reached some true SF heights for this particular decade while he also made a movie that isn’t pretentious, but sophisticated, and that isn’t cold, but actually rather sweet. It’s truly his best.