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

5. The Dark Knight Trilogy

Batman Forever Gotham City
Warner Bros.

The Gotham City of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy is, for better or worse, very much in tune with the tone of those three movies. By that, it means that Nolan's Gotham is extremely real and extremely grounded.

Of course, this Christian Bale-headlined trio of pictures took a more realistic, tangible approach to the Dark Knight. Rather than the fantastical, fantasy or outright cheesy tone of those Batman films that had preceded it, Nolan's trilogy presented itself as showing how Batman could exist in the real world with real gadgets, real vehicles and extremely real villains.

While this approach clearly worked in bringing a sense of validity and authenticity to Gotham City, it also meant that some of the unique charms of the comic-book Gotham were lost. Pulling inspiration from Chicago, New York City, New Jersey and even Tokyo, this Gotham very much felt like a city we could all find ourselves in at some point, but in doing that it lost some of the otherworldly gothic tones so synonymous with the Gotham City of the comics.

For Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, the Gotham seen was perfect. To top this list, though, this Gotham was maybe a little too real for its own good.

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.