The cinematic style known as noir cinema is characterized by dark settings, sinister villains, moral ambiguity, cynicism, fatality, low key lighting and other such elements.

The contrast and dichotomy between light and shadow is a key part in setting the tone for noir cinema as the style by nature harbours a darkness to it. Neo-noir harbours consists of much of the same, though with updated themes, styles and visuals.

Batman as a character has always been represented as a creature of the night who is the guardian of a city which can best be called a cesspool of crime and villainy, and whose residents seem to only get by with the hope of a better tomorrow awaiting them.

The element of criminal darkness and the hope of the people of Gotham for a better future is a key theme to Batman, who as a guardian of Gotham is not only its protector, but also a symbol of both vengeance and justice.

However, before being a billionaire vigilante, Bruce Wayne is the superhero equivalent of Sherlock Holmes. As such, given the detective element of Batman and the dark settings that he lives in, a noir element is best suited to represent him accurately.

While Tim Burton, Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder represented the superhero side of him extremely well, they put little focus on the investigator side to him and that is something Matt Reeves has done a great job with.

Using a neo-noir setting in The Batman, he brought back the Dark Knight to his old comic roots where he was a detective more than a superhero with great gadgets.

Even much of Batman’s art style and its themes seem to revolve around a noir inspired setting while the character also has some strong black and white era noir cinema inspirations.

Also, much of Batman’s strategic nature comes from him primarily being an investigator and as such, a return to noir or incorporating noir elements in live action Batman cinema works for the best because this is extremely natural and captures everything about Batman from the plot, characters, environment, colour and tone.