As many reviews have already made clear, The Dark Knight sets the new gold standard for comic book movies. I think a big reason for that lies in the casting of a new heroine for Batman, Gotham City. Dark Knight evokes adjectives like epic and edgy. It feels like something is really at stake, but what? Writer/director Christopher Nolan crafts a handful of brilliant characters, but the one we’re really gunning for is Gotham City herself.

While it’s easy to say Gotham City is an allegory for society as a whole, in The Dark Knight Nolan intentionally paints a unique urban environment. The film opens with stunning aerial shots of Gotham City (played beautifully by Chicago). A lot has been said about Nolan’s choice to shoot certain scenes of the film in IMAX, and it’s no coincidence that nearly all of them fill the frame with an urban landscape. There is something truly breathtaking about seeing Batman leap from the roof a building and spread his wing-like cape in IMAX, but what’s equally important is what’s below him: an endless grid of streets, buildings, and people.

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