Batman: Every Live-Action Gotham City Ranked Worst To Best

3. The Batman

Batman Forever Gotham City
Warner Bros.

If the Joel Schumacher movies went for neon extravagance, and Tim Burton's pictures went for rich gothic charm, Matt Reeves' The Batman served up its Gotham City as an unsettling, sombre backdrop for Robert Pattinson's Batman to fight the good fight.

Due to the extensive runtime - hey there, three hours! - audiences actually get to see a fair old bit of The Batman's Gotham. Whilst often dark and ominous, this is a city that very much feels alive - even if its alive with all kinds of underhand, nefarious deeds.

Here, Pattinson's Dark Knight doesn't necessarily have a fondness for his home city, but more he's dutybound to crack skulls and stop others from making Gotham even more of a cesspit than it is. Grandiose yet intimate, beautifully lit yet depressingly dim, this is a Gotham City that very much matches its version of Batman.

Tonally, this is a Gotham that feels like it was directly pulled from the pages of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's work on the Bat-books of the past decade or so - and let's face it, that unequivocably is not a bad thing.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.