How Fans Of The Batman Really Felt About Its Gotham City

Easily one of the most anticipated movies of 2022 would have to be Matt Reeves' "The Batman," and finally, on Friday, March 4, it was released in theaters. In the latest adaptation of the famous Caped Crusader's story, Robert Pattinson dons the black cape and cowl in his mission to exact vengeance in Gotham City. Instead of delving into Bruce Wayne's backstory like previous iterations, Reeves' version of the character is already fleshed out. In the opening scenes, we learn Bruce has been fighting crime for about two years as Batman. While still learning how to be a masked vigilante, Bruce is tasked with solving a string of murders and puzzles from the cunning criminal The Riddler (Paul Dano).

Unlike the campy Tim Burton versions of the "Batman" story or the action-packed Christopher Nolan trilogy, Reeves went the more psychological route on his take on the iconic superhero. This new  Batman is more like a loner detective rather than a confident, highly-skilled hero, but that's not to say the film doesn't have its fair share of action.

In addition to a new angle on Batman, Reeves' latest feature presents audiences with a different kind of Gotham City. In past movies, visions of the bustling, crime-ridden metropolis have varied from the deeply theatrical, as we saw through Burton and Joel Schumacher's respective lenses, to the ultra-realistic, as was the case with Nolan's tendency to use real-world locales like Chicago and Pittsburgh for Gotham. However, Reeves' take on Gotham is one that fans are eating up, as exhibited by the reactions online. 

Just like his Batmobile and signature black suit, Batman would be nothing without his beloved home Gotham City. So, a director's vision of Gotham is just as important as their vision of Batman himself. For Matt Reeves' version, Gotham is made up of cities around the world, including Chicago, London, Glasgow, and more to create Batman's dark, moody, almost Gothic world. This decision seems to have paid off because fans think it's the best version yet.

The consensus among fans and critics alike is that Gotham feels like an incredibly real and fleshed-out setting in "The Batman." One Twitter user who shares this sentiment wrote, "Gotham in live-action has never felt like a living and breathing character to the extent that it does in 'The Batman.'" Another Twitter user, @3CFilmss, agreed and similarly wrote, "Matt Reeves crafts a brilliant & immersive Gotham I didn't want to leave."

Reeves' Gotham City was praised on Reddit for its realism as well. In a "The Batman" discussion thread, u/Nathan84 wrote, "I loved Gotham City in this movie. Visually, it mixed elements of Gothic, industrial, and [c]yberpunk aspects. Below the surface, it was corrupt and dirty. Just how it should be." Additionally, Redditor u/AndrewSaliba wrote, "Collin Farrell [sic] killed it as the Penguin. But the best casting was Gotham itself. Best Gotham I've ever seen."

Per these fan comments, it would seem Reeves accomplished exactly what he set out to do when he said, "I wanted you to feel like, 'Wow, this is a place we've never been before,' but it feels absolutely like an iconic American city, a corrupt, messed up place, but I wanted it to be much of our world" (via Collider).