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

Prior to, and after, its release in 2019, Todd Phillips' Joker was compared to Martin Scorsese offerings such as Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy. While that is indeed a fair comparison in some regards, that also makes Gotham City feel not very, well, Gotham City-like.

Joker's Gotham could well have Travis Bickle parading around in his yellow cab, but this grim, sleezy city doesn't feel all that Batman-esque. Of course, the movie is set at a time when the Dark Knight is merely a young child and at a time before the outrageous capes 'n' tights villains of DC Comics were running roughshod.

On the picture's commentary track, director Phillips even states outright that 1981 New York City was the inspiration for his Gotham City. This very much works for those Taxi Driver vibes, but the end result is a Gotham that doesn't feel particularly familiar. Then again, the original mantra was that Joker was a standalone film that had nothing to do with Batman and absolutely would not be getting a sequel.

Here we are, though, with Joker 2 currently in tentative development. If and when that sequel does arrive, here's hoping that Gotham gets an upgrade to be more in tune with what we know and love from this most infamous of cities.