The Dark Knight The New Gotham City

[The Stranger]

The Dark Knight didn't really feel like a sequel to Batman Begins to me. It just had a different atmosphere, and Gotham didn't seem as dark.

 

[Paradyme]

The Dark Knight didn't really feel like a sequel to Batman Begins to me. It just had a different atmosphere, and Gotham didn't seem as dark.

I understand what you are saying here but I think Nolan is trying to point out that Batman's fight is a continuous cycle. He helped clean up Gotham and it felt more like a real city instead of a crapshoot and then when Joker came he threw a monkey wrench into it which shot Batman back down to the bottom. I bet in the third film Batman will be hated in the beginning but be loved again at the end of the movie.

 

[tekken]

i don't think batman will ever be loved. he'll be respected and feared maybe. but i have a feeling batman will forever be hated by people except the people within his circle. i mean as of now, the only people who actually like batman are gordon and his family and alfred...and maybe some others.

batman's gonna need an ally in the next movie. whether it be robin, jason bard, or whatever..gordon's job keeps him from being able to be batman's friend.

and about gotham, i think it's fine the way it is. it could have been cool if there was a scene with batman doing a cool pose over a gargoyle though. hahaha, not realistic enough i guess.

 

[hatebox]

The idea that Gotham looks like a real city is intentional - we're meant to watch everything that's going on thinking 'wow, imagine if this happened in my city', rather than view it as events happening in a magical, far-away place that a more outrageous Gotham would feel like.

 

[mavsmaniac21]

You are right. For consistencies sake, they should have had some Wayne-monorail shots, at the least. Or Wayne tower.

I'm glad they left out the "Narrows" and the streets looked more like a stage set than an actual street in Begins.

agreed except they did show the monorail

 

[mavsmaniac21]

I understand what you are saying here but I think Nolan is trying to point out that Batman's fight is a continuous cycle. He helped clean up Gotham and it felt more like a real city instead of a crapshoot and then when Joker came he threw a monkey wrench into it which shot Batman back down to the bottom. I bet in the third film Batman will be hated in the beginning but be loved again at the end of the movie.

absoultely. if they do it right that ending could be very gratifying. its hard to imagine nolan not wanting to tell that story that he set up.

 

[WBNinja]

Batman Begins is set in downtown Gotham whereas the Dark Knight is set a little further away in the financial sector.

Think Bronx and Manhattan; Tower Hamlets and Canary Wharf.

 

[I Am The Knight]

batman's gonna need an ally in the next movie. whether it be robin, jason bard, or whatever..gordon's job keeps him from being able to be batman's friend.

I'd love a Batman/Jason Bourne team-up

 

[TheBat812]

I didn't even notice

Me neither. I was too involved with the film every time.

 

[the_monk]

I think the new version of Gotham is way better. It felt huge. I especially love the first shot of the movie. Every time I watch it I try to remember which window will pop, but I can never quite remember because it gets lost in the anonymity of a building with 1000 windows.

 

[the GRIN Reaper]

I understand that Nolan's going for a real city. But I would be completely distracted if I could recognize minor landmarks and locations. It would take me out of the experience and I'm grateful I'm not a Chicago resident for the reason that I can't recognize most of the locations.

See I'm from Chicago, and I think it adds to the experience. I know this is Gotham and not Chicago, but the fact that I recognize and have been on those same gritty city streets makes the film even all the more real to me. And more enjoyable.

 

[the GRIN Reaper]

I understand that Nolan's going for a real city. But I would be completely distracted if I could recognize minor landmarks and locations. It would take me out of the experience and I'm grateful I'm not a Chicago resident for the reason that I can't recognize most of the locations.

See I'm from Chicago, and I think it adds to the experience. I know this is Gotham and not Chicago, but the fact that I recognize and have been on those same gritty city streets makes the film even all the more real to me. And more enjoyable.

 

[DesertBat86]

Nolan should use the Tribune Tower more often. This building and many others in Chicago screams Gotham City

 

[the GRIN Reaper]

The city very much kept in line with the first one while also expanding and making things larger. Remember the shot of Gotham from BEGINS in Bruce's plane? This city is HUGE. There are different districts and looks ... this film while keeping in line visually with the first expanded and went to show you different parts of the city.

 

[Shane Diesel]

See I'm from Chicago, and I think it adds to the experience. I know this is Gotham and not Chicago, but the fact that I recognize and have been on those same gritty city streets makes the film even all the more real to me. And more enjoyable.

Well then you're a lot better than me. I'd still enjoy it if I knew where everything was but not as much as if I had no clue what the landmarks/locations were. It would take me out of the experience.

Nolan should use the Tribune Tower more often. This building and many others in Chicago screams Gotham City

I think Nolan's trying to distance himself as much as possible from the gothic architecture. His Gotham has an abundance of modern looking architecture (windowed building in the beginning) with old school elements sprinkled in (Maroni's bar). But nothing Gothic.

 

[ThePoisonPuppet]

I suppose my biggest complaint is still that Gotham just does not feel unique. If they are going to make it look that much like Chicago they might as well call it that and get it over with. I want Gotham to be a realistic but completely new and unique American city that has its own atmosphere, styles, color scheme, history and geography. I think Begins was much more successful at getting this across, and while Batman 89 did not have a completely realistic Gotham, it a least had its own vibe going and didn't just rip it from somewhere else.

 

[the GRIN Reaper]

It isn't "ripped off" of anything ... it's a recognizable American city. That's all it needs to be. BEGINS and TDK are the same city scape.

 

[ThePoisonPuppet]

Begins portrays it much differently then TDK, the filters and artificial sets they used made it very different looking. Actually a big difference I can tell you right now is that the Wayne Tower from Begins is not just a different building then the one in TDK, but a much older and cooler looking one as well.

And you are assuming I am using ripped in a completely derogatory sense which I am not. I don't mean they "ripped off" anything or anyone, I just meant its an unchanged copy of the original. I mean its not like I hate the new cityscape in TDK, most of the imagery is still excellent and some of the shots in the movie were downright amazing. All I am saying is that I would have preferred some creative changes to Gotham as opposed to a carbon copy of Chicago.

 

[Bim]

Having seen the movie three times now, I have had a chance to focus on some of the less obvious things, like the various sets used in the film, and on that note I have to say I much preferred the versions of Gotham City from Batman Begins and even Batman '89.

I'm with you, i preferred the Gotham City feel from BB... i found it kinda distracting at times in TDK because it just felt like a totally different city than the one in BB for me.

 

[byte19]

I loved Gotham in The Dark Knight. I am from the Chicago area, and I thought it was so cool being able to recognize 90% of the places in the film. I had a band concert in the place where Harvey Dent gave his "a new dawn is coming" speech! The batpod drove through the train station that I used to commute to and from the city every weekday. I ate at the restaurant where Gordon arrested the mob guys (I actually went with my grandpa there for his birthday). In my opinion, watching the Dark Knight and knowing that those scenes were shot in places where you have been thousands of times is a really cool feeling.

I like that gotham looks like a real city. It adds to the more realistic feel of the Nolan Batman universe. Also too, gotham looks a lot more grand in this movie than in batman begins, perhaps hinting at the improvements that were caused by batman, harvey, and gordon ridding the city of crime between the two movies.

same here!!! although my Simeon Wolverines were there in '86!!
look, films in ChicaGotham never deter me from enjoying the film. in fact i go more often to get the right addresses right! like when Backdraft was here, i went to 99% of the locations and talked with firefighters. (i have the utmost respect for them now) same with ferris beuler, all of them. i get a kick outta watching films like these and TDK is soooo no different.

 

[SuperZer0]

Personally, I didn't have a problem with the look of the city, such as the architecture and mood, but I had more of a problem that we didn't see enough of the people of Gotham and not enough people on the streets. It felt like it was just Batman, Joker and the cops on the streets. I think the production team overlooked that aspect. Without seeing the citizens of Gotham and the danger and fear that they sense towards the rise in criminality, then it feels like there's something missing in order to add to the character of Gotham.

 

[antsman41]

when i was at Lollapalooza... Broken Social Scene came out and said "What's up Chicago slash Gotham City!" it was pretty bad ass haha

and yah Gotham rules in TDK

 

[the GRIN Reaper]

Personally, I didn't have a problem with the look of the city, such as the architecture and mood, but I had more of a problem that we didn't see enough of the people of Gotham and not enough people on the streets. It felt like it was just Batman, Joker and the cops on the streets. I think the production team overlooked that aspect. Without seeing the citizens of Gotham and the danger and fear that they sense towards the rise in criminality, then it feels like there's something missing in order to add to the character of Gotham.

The cop parade? the citizens everywhere at the end of the movie? the reason no one was on the streets in the Joker / Batman showdown on lower whacker was because it was late at night and was supposed to have a creepy 3 in the morning type feel. and even then, joker's shooting up civilian cars during that scene

 

[Shane Diesel]

The cop parade? the citizens everywhere at the end of the movie? the reason no one was on the streets in the Joker / Batman showdown on lower whacker was because it was late at night and was supposed to have a creepy 3 in the morning type feel. and even then, joker's shooting up civilian cars during that scene

Not to mention when Dent and Rachel are walking to the SWAT vehicle you can hear one of the cops say "the route has been closed off to public access..." or something to that effect.

 

[SuperZer0]

The cop parade? the citizens everywhere at the end of the movie? the reason no one was on the streets in the Joker / Batman showdown on lower whacker was because it was late at night and was supposed to have a creepy 3 in the morning type feel. and even then, joker's shooting up civilian cars during that scene

You forgot to mention the people in the boat with the bomb.