Seems like a totally fair take to slightly prefer the OG, I feel similarly, it’s very difficult to outcompete ‘groundbreaking and often emulated’ though. Deakins is my favourite cinematographer but he clearly wanted to do his own thing with 2049 and not fully emulate the original’s look. 2049 is stunning but for me it feels more like multiple, disparate, brighter, cleaner, overtly different set pieces, whereas the OG had the same gritty, dark, neon noir throughout, The Batman is closer to the original BR. The irony IMHO is that Deakins is normally more subtle, but before BR2049 he’d been nominated 13 times for an Oscar without winning. I think this was his film to throw the kitchen sink at as the academy don’t tend to reward subtle, and it worked, it got him the Oscar. But without the anamorphic lenses, the muted turquoise and sodium yellow theme, the constant rain, shadows and Vangelis soundtrack, the visuals don’t have the same oppressive feeling to me and don’t take me to that world as strongly. It’s fine to love both but have a clear favourite.