Not most important, but important. I would put the original Superman and Batman movies up there since they took their source material seriously and treated it with an adult manner while still maintaining the adolescent fun of the characters.

When that movie came out I think many people were sickened by what they saw as a dumbing down of the genre and a lack of respect to characters they loved. That’s when we got more “realistic” takes on series from X-Men to Batman.

Although to be fair I think an argument can be made that Batman and Robin was an attempt to re-inject the series with the campy fun of the old 60s series. The problem is that wasn’t what people wanted. And the other problem was the nipples.

“Superman 4″ anyone? There are so many bad comic book movies out there “Batman & Robin” can’t get all the credit. I think DC got lazy with the titles they owned and let them fall into the wrong hands.

“X-Men,” however, was the blast that blew the sawdust out of everyone’s brains. Marvel was able to capitalize on the fact that their best titles weren’t claimed and they could roll them out. DC was mired in legal problems because people already had their hands on the Superman and Batman titles.

“X-Men” was great because it didn’t touch the campiness that doomed the early DC movies, opting instead to stick with realism. Every comic movie since then followed suit with realistic costumes, real situations, and villains that shadowed the thoughts of the heroes.

“Batman & Robin” and the word “great” don’t belong in the same sentence.

I think calling “Batman & Robin” an “important” movie is kind of silly. Is “Gigli” an “important” film? Are film school professors going to start showing Stephen Sommer’s “Van Helsing” in classes? The fact is being exceptionally bad does not then give a movie imortance. The movie’s impact on the industry and culture is what gives it importance. “Batman & Robin” is a cautionary tale for the superhero movie genre, nothing more.

“Batman Begins” is the most important superhero movie, in my opinion. It was the first to put a well known superhero in the “real” world. No matter how well it’s done, “X-Men” movies will always exist in fantasy simply because of the nature of the characters. “Batman Begins” beautifully illustrated Batman’s most important attribute: his lack of powers. Which is what allows the audience to identify with him more deeply than we will ever will with Wolverine, regardless of his complete awesomness.
In fact, the ridiculous, flamboyant and utterly unbelievable world of “Batman & Robin” was the movie’s single biggest downfall! Plus “Batman Begins” gave us one of the greatest sequels of all time.
Calling “Batman & Robin” important implies that it had a positive influence on the genre, when in fact the genre, and movie goers all over the world, would have been much better off without it.

Two words “Bat Nipples”!
This is one of the worst comic book movies ever, but I think that because people at WB learned their lesson when they allowed Nolan to make a much better reinvention.
However, one year later with the 2006 debacle “Superman Returns”, studios forgot that people did wanted more than kiddy popcorn flick rehashed from 3 decades ago. Christopher Reeve’s movies movies are good because they are classic and a piece of pop culture from the times, not because they would make a good movie now.

This simply isn’t true because 89′s Batman is still to this day the greatest comic book movie of all time, followed closely by 78′s Superman. “Batman & Robin” didn’t influence those movies. In fact, it didn’t do anything but suck. What makes the greats great is their story, dialogue, acting, and lack of CGI, which is still in its infancy, and still ruins all movies that rely on it, Spiderman included. The grit and the grime are what make comic book movies great. In fact, I just finished watching Alien, and was astounded by the model work. It will be many years before CGI can reproduce such realism without getting in the way. If you need further proof, compare Star Wars I to Star Wars IV.