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

Much like Tim Burton maintained the same vision for Gotham City across Batman and Batman Returns, Joel Schumacher likewise engrained his own preferences into his Gotham in both Batman Forever and Batman & Robin.

Moving away from the darker tone of the two Burton pictures that had predated it, Schumacher's Batman Forever purposely brightened things up. Rather than atmospheric gargoyles up in the darkened Gotham skyline, the Independence Day helmer opted to embrace a neon palette.

Instead of gargoyles, we had ludicrously-sized statues. Instead of rich, deep visuals, we had garish, luminous light shows. Instead of muted character designs for our villains and their goons, we had eccentric, outlandish cornball get-ups to match the tone of this version of Gotham City.

If anything, Schumacher's duo of Batman films owned more to the likes of Akira and the Golden Age of Comics than to the likes of Tim Burton's Batman and Frank Miller's seminal Batman: Year One graphic novel; a graphic novel that Batman Forever was at one point going to be based upon.

Of course, the light 'n' bright nature of Gotham City was only further amped up by the time Schumacher brought Batman & Robin to the silver screen in 1997.