I saw The Dark Knight for the first time last night and loved it but I just wanted to know the exact order of all the batman films...is The Dark Knight meant to be set after Batman Begins but before the other movies?

Well the newer Batmans could be said to be a certain directors interpretation of Batman, Christopher Nolan updated the series with Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Back in 89 when there was Tim Burtons take on the series he started with Batman with Nicholson as the Joker as the begining of the Batman series rather than the scarecrow (since there are many different batman villains to choose from), his next movie Batman Returns pitted him against catwoman and the Peguin. The next movie was Batman Forever which two Face (Who unfortunately died in the dark knight making it impossible for him to kill robins family as he did in Batman forever) and Edward E Nygma or the riddler (Who is most likely the guy who was going to tell everyone batman's real identity in the dark knight), after that is batman and robin where they introduce Batwoman through Alfreds poor health and his niece becomes Batwoman. The villians are Poison Ivy with her assisstant Bane, and mr. Freeze.

So these different series are different peoples take on the batman universe, and you can't out them in a chronological order per se because different events happened in each limiting that. but If I were to guess, the next movie would go along either continuing with the joker, or starting a new path with the riddler, but since Two face died they would have to have another way of tieing Robin into the story line.

I started with Batman the movie from 89 because that series is the closest comparison to the current Christopher Nolan series.

So in conclusion, this separate series of Batman, will go through a different path then all the other ones and you cannot put it in a certain order that is absolutely correct if I had to try I would say that the Two nolan movies have been a much longer and action packed version of the original batman movie, with some changes, and they will most likely skip the penguin and catwoman as villains.

batman begins is the first one watch that one first then the dark knight. dont get confused with the older movies.

I think at the end of the next batman movie we will see two face wakening up from a coma ready to take on batman,at the end of the dark knight batman and gordon are gonna let the people of gotham believe harvey dent is dead so as not to undo his good work that is why batman takes the blame as he feels guilt over dent and remember batman doesn't kill. and why not have the penguin as a villian he could be a posh murderous bird like disfigured nutcase. angelina jolie has said she would love to play catwoman, I think she would make a good huntress. poison ivy could also be a good villian as a seducer and controller of men through her knowledge of plants and herbs but forget her controlling plants.

Well as for all of the older Batman movies they went up in a row in the right order, from Batman Begins, the Batman Begins movie was the start of another few movies, basically the new first movie and The Dark Knight, the new movie in basically the second movie.

That would be a fail

why would that be a fail?

The old Batman movies are on a different timeline than the Nolan movies (think reboot). The new ones start with Batman Begins, then The Dark Knight, and now The Dark Knight Rises in 2012 and are not tied to the older films in any way.