I'm okay with Gotham being an NY analog, and not needing to look like NY. They've not drawn it recently looking like NY, have they? So why should the movie be bound?

I do like what I found while googling:

Gotham has also been, since the mid-15th century, a term for a place with foolish inhabitants. Whether this usage actually stemmed from the real village, or was just a name randomly adopted for the purpose is not known.

It's not so much that it doesn't look like NY, and more that it looks really explicitly like Chicago. (Which I don't think is intentional, just that filmmakers tend to assume that audiences won't recognize places unless they're told to, which is why so many movies that take place in NYC have the CN tower in them.)

If Gotham is explicitly any real-world city, it's NYC. If it's not NYC, then it shouldn't be any real place.

(And I said it was irrational. So there.)

filmmakers tend to assume that audiences won't recognize places unless they're told to

Filmmakers are really, really stupid. I would be okay if they filmed in Chicago and tricked it up to look like New York; I would be marginally okay if they avowedly decided that Gotham is not New York at all, but some otherworldly city of baroque statuary (as Tim Burton did); but just cutting and pasting together footage from two different cities is called L-A-Z-Y.

Also, foolish. If you're going to tell a whopper, make it an elegant one, you know? Don't just slap "Rockaway" on the front of an Inner Loop train. Yes, Sam Raimi, I am talking to YOU.

Well, I'm pretty sure I'll never know the difference, so I'm okay.

I would be marginally okay if they avowedly decided that Gotham is not New York at all

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't this already been done? Does Gotham have a Statue of Liberty, or a Rockefeller Plaza, or an Empire State Building? Has it been being drawn like NYC this whole time and I'm so metropolis(har) impaired it's gone over my head?

I can see Nutty's point. Specially if you know the geography, it's irrtating. Watching Collateral the other night I knew right where Jamie Foxx was when he stole the cell phone and was running down the street. And it ain't nowhere near the parking garage he ended up on top of.

But, if I don't know, I don't care.

BATMOBILE!!

but just cutting and pasting together footage from two different cities is called L-A-Z-Y.

I disagree. Most movies are not really about what stuff is in what city.

I really only care if they call it New York and it's not New York.

I really only care if they call it New York and it's not New York.

I'm guessing that Rumble In The Bronx doesn't slip by on any technicalities, huh?

I don't care if they call it city A and it's not city A unless they do something dramatic (general geography, or city B's notable landmarks).

but just cutting and pasting together footage from two different cities is called L-A-Z-Y.

I disagree, especially given the money involved.