There are a lot of superheroes out there and Batman is easily one of the most iconic. He's the Caped Crusader, the Dark Knight, the Winged Avenger, the Gotham Guardian; Batman has earned so many of these titles because, whether he is dealing with some low-level crook or a larger-than-life metahuman, he always finds a way to prevail and save the day.
However, though he may be categorized as a superhero, Batman really isn't. He has a unique form of Dissociative Identity Disorder that compels him to unleash his rage on the criminals of Gotham City, he keeps contingencies for killing his friends, and he even views himself as not a good man. Even with that in mind, there are times across his live-action adaptations where Batman's actions step into villainous territory, either purposefully or not.
8 Caused The Death Of Others (Batman Begins)
In the Christopher Nolan movies, Batman proves to be a complete hypocrite when it comes to his rule about no killing multiple times. One of the first examples is when he refuses to kill a man to complete his initiation into The League Of Shadows. So he starts a fire as a means to create enough chaos, allowing for his escape.
This plan proves to be a useless gesture of his sense of morality because the fire that he creates causes a ceiling to collapse and kill Ra's Al Ghul's stand-in. While it may have not been his intention, Bruce Wayne still shows a complete lack of care for breaking his no-kill rule almost instantly.
7 Made Two-Face Kill Himself (Batman Forever)
Hypocrisy strikes yet again because throughout Batman Forever, Val Kilmer's Bruce Wayne tries his hardest to teach Dick Grayson that killing and revenge are wrong. Dick Grayson even learns this lesson when he lets Two-Face, the murderer of his family, live.
However, when Two-Face has a gun on him and Batman in the climax, Batman decides to completely disregard what he had been trying to teach Robin. He throws multiple coins into the air when Two-Face flips his own, causing the villain to scramble before falling to his death. Batman had plenty of time to stop Two-Face and/or save him from the drop but he didn't, making Batman appear less sympathetic.
6 Did Not Save Ra's Al Ghul (Batman Begins)
Apparently, Batman simply doesn't understand how killing works. When the Gotham City monorail is on a course to crash, Ra's Al Ghul asks him if he is willing to do what's necessary. Batman responds with the line, "I won't kill you. But I don't have to save you." Before he escapes the monorail, allowing Ra's Al Ghul to fall to his death.
The idea that Batman has here is that since he doesn't deliver the blow that kills Ra's, he's not the killer. This is completely false because it was still Batman who arranged for the tram to derail in the first place and leaving someone to die is still a form of killing someone. Did Ra's earn his demise? Perhaps, but that still goes against what Batman was so adamant about when he escaped Ra's in the first place.
5 Stalked Selina Kyle (The Batman)
For the most part, Robert Pattinson is one of the more honorable versions of Batman, even if he is brutal and easily the angriest of them all. That doesn't mean he doesn't have the occasional dubious activities such as when he spies on Selina Kyle AKA Catwoman as she returns home from the Iceberg Lounge.
Watching from binoculars, Batman stalks Selina the entire time including when she strips down to almost nothing. If it was simply to help with the case, it would be understandable, but it's clearly shown that he gets as much pleasure out of watching her undress and change into Catwoman as he does information. It makes him seem a bit creepier than usual.
4 Violated People's Privacy (The Dark Knight)
To be fair, this is something that is even pointed out by Lucius Fox to be wrong. Batman uses Fox's sonar program and turns every single cellphone in Gotham City into a sonar, allowing him and Fox to spy on nearly every inch of the city. This could allow Christian Bale's Batman to view everything happening in the city such as what innocent people are up to, making Batman slightly terrifying.
It's meant to show how far Batman is willing to go to stop the Joker and how his hatred for the villain has reached its peak. However, Batman was willing to have the program destroyed right after the Joker was apprehended, so this time even Batman saw the flaw in his methods.
3 The Bat-Brand (Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice)
Afflicted with PTSD after the loss of Robin and witnessing the destruction of Metropolis, Ben Affleck's Batman has spiraled into a villain. It's part of his arc across Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice and Zack Snyder's Justice League as he learns to become the hero that he used to be for Gotham City.
Part of what made Batman into a villain was that now he was using a bat-shaped brand to mark the criminals he left alive. When those criminals are put in prison, they were essentially marked for death, which Batman is shown to know and be glib about, much to Alfred Pennyworth's disapproval.
2 Strapped A Bomb To A Thug (Batman Returns)
As beloved and iconic Michael Keaton's Batman always will be, his version of Batman was a straight-up murderer. He blew up Axis Chemicals knowing fully that there were probably dozens of thugs in there, and he set a member of the Red Triangle Circus on fire in Batman Returns. So Burton's Batman kills, he never even had a no-kill rule, so it's not nearly as egregious.
With that said, Batman shows a slightly sadistic side when he fights a large strongman of the Red Triangle Circus. After distracting him with a punch, the hero straps a live bomb to the strongman's torso. When the henchman notices, Batman creepily smiles before throwing him into a hole to die from an explosion.
1 Tried To Kill Superman (Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice)
It's hard to get more villainous than attempting to murder the symbol of hope. Batman even admits that he was no longer the hero that he once was, his blind hate for Superman reaching such a height that his calculated brain only sees that Superman will bring Earth's destruction.
As epic as it may be to see the two DC titans fighting each other, it's also saddening to see Batman fall so far from grace. That's why his realization that he had become as bad, if not worse, than the man who murdered his parents makes for some of Ben Affleck's strongest acting in the role.