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

1. Batman & Batman Returns

Batman Forever Gotham City
Warner Bros.

The famed gothic charm that Tim Burton forever brings to his work made him the perfect fit to tackle Gotham City in his pair of Batman pictures in 1989 and 1992. Bringing in Anton Furst to oversee the production design, Burton crafted a Gotham that was beautifully ugly.

This version of Gotham was dominated by crime, with every smoky alley having some goon or wannabe criminal mastermind lurking in the shadows. Of course, all of this played out in front of some utterly stunning architecture that brilliantly captured locales such as Wayne Manor, the Gotham City Police Department, the offices of the Gotham Globe newspaper, the Gotham Cathedral, and the infamous AXIS Chemicals plant.

Burton managed to capture the otherworldly insanity and industry of Gotham City in a way that really did - and still very much does - bring to life the Gotham that had so often been seen within the comic books. Not just did these two films do an excellent job of bringing the streets and skyscrapers of Gotham to live-action life, mind, for '92's Batman Returns also did a wonderful job of taking a peek under the streets of the city when it came to plot points involving Danny DeVito's Penguin.

To this day, Michael Keaton is Batman to many fans. Likewise, for those same fans and beyond, his Gotham City is the Gotham City.

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.