Batman: Every version of Gotham City ranked from worst to best

3. The Batman

Matt Reeves’ The Batman is a visual masterpiece. It’s one of the most immersive viewing experiences to make its presence felt on the big screen from the last decade, reeling you in with its haunting beauty and refusing to allow you to look away when it shows you its inner darkness. That’s Gotham City in a nutshell.

The 2022 movie was filmed in Glasgow, Scotland, which doubled for the Caped Crusader’s hometown, and that gave it a classic Gothic feel. The architecture was made for Gotham City, and that made it pop on-screen at all times. It was old-fashioned, like a British monster movie of the ’50s or the ’60s, and it was a look that The Batman wore extremely well.

The way that Reeves shot the movie made Gotham alive in a way it had never felt before. From the invasive POV angles of the city we saw through Bruce Wayne’s helmet to the way that the shadows of the buildings caressed everything in sight, this was perhaps the most haunting iteration of Gotham to appear in live-action, and that made it a vivid experience to be part of.

It was an encapsulating watch, because it truly felt like The Riddler could be anywhere – and when that “anywhere” involves a crime-ridden underbelly and locations like The Iceberg Lounge, the threat level was always high in Gotham City. What a place.