I didn’t hate this movie, but I certainly am having a hard time saying I liked it.
It’s a lot like Prometheus where anything good is pulled down by all of the bad... but in this case I don’t think the good is as good.
A lot of it came down to the accumulation of little things which all added up to a big negative:
1. The plane hijacking was cool. But the CIA guy was really dumb and incompetent to be taken in that way. Also, whoever investigated the crash... The wings and tail were pulled off but the plane didn’t crash for another couple of miles? And a guy (still in a body bag? I don’t remember) whose bloodtype (some of it, anyways) matches a wanted physicis must be the physicist in a plane crash that doesn’t look accidental and probably wasnt’? And no one looks into this?
2. How cowardly/stupid the physicist must have been to willingly go along with the plot, knowing that they would kill him. If he was trying to preserve his own life, he only deferred his execution. Way to go bud, not only do you die but your actions ensure that you take 8 million of your closest friends with you.
3. Let’s talk about the reactor/bomb some more. So, without the core, it will become unstable to the point that it will explode. I’m not a nuclear physicist (but I did stay in a Holiday express last night) but wouldn’t an instability make it more and more likely everyday that it will go off, but with no degree of certainty when that will be? Isn’t that the definition of instability? Is it like a non-licensed electrician putting some faulty wiring in my house that will, without a doubt, someday, given enough time, burn my house down... and then putting a digital countdown timer to the exact second that it will light up? I think a 5 month calculation is fine, but I think you would have a margin of error of no less than a month. Certainly not down to the second. And when you’re getting close to that margin, I think driving it around on a truck would probably be the last thing you’d want to do with it. Strike that... the last thing you’d want to do is detonate an explosive right next to said truck, causing it to violently vere into the railing and drop 30 feet to the street below... with the police commissioner in the trunk with it.
4. Did Talia still have the clicker? Did Batman tape the jammer to the bomb when he flew off with it? I hope against the former, but in its event I hope in favor of the latter.
5. What is Talia’s motivation exactly? She is trying to fulfill her father’s mission or not? Is Gotham still the festering cesspool that concerned the league of shadows? Didn’t Batman/Dent/Gordon clean it up almost completely? Did Talia want revenge on her father’s killer? She said that was just a bonus. Was she concerned about the organized crime and corrupt cops? Or capitalism run wild?
6. I thought Bane was really interesting and scary until Talia appeared holding his leash. This turned him into a petty thug in my mind.
7. How did the Daggett/Bane/Talia thing work anyways. Before the ending, I thought Daggett hired Bane because he was a skilled mercenary, didn’t realize he bit off more than he could chew... and actually thought that Bane would just disappear once the job was done. However Bane saw an opportunity and didn’t want to let it go, so he took advantage of it. Once we learn that Bane and Talia have been working together all along... where does Daggett come in? Did Talia manipulate Daggett to do what he did? How did she put Bane in contact with Daggett? Outwardly Talia and Daggett appear to be bitter rivals. Was this simply a show?
8. If Talia/Bane knew the bomb was going to go off, and this was allegedly what they wanted all along, why give Batman, the cops the chance to stop it? Just click the Button as soon as Batman shows up/the cops riot and make sure your 5 month siege ends with an earth-shattering-kaboom even if it is 10 hours premature.
9. Batman hid “The Bat” on top of a skyscraper with a camo net for six months?
10. How did the occupation work, exactly? Did people still go to work? I don’t think there are any farms in Gotham, so food supplies on the island would be gone within 2-3 days. I saw trucks taking GD Twinkies and pop-tarts to a convenience store... how could a couple hundred thugs manage the herculean effort of feeding 8 million Gothamites everyday. I didn’t see a lot of people in the streets... how were people getting food? How could a single organization provide for that many shut ins? This is something that takes a million people to do, each pursuing their own employment, all day everyday to do, and that’s when people come into their shops with money and trucks bring whatever the people want to buy?
11. John Blake figured Bruce was Batman because he was faking being happy? I think that’s a bridge too far. I think you could fix this with. Blake: All of the orphans idolized you. The Billionaire orphan! We’d come up with elaborate fantasies about you. And what could be better than a billionaire orphan playboy, than a billionaire orphan playboy who was also the Batman? It was ridiculous to be sure, but then it started to make sense. Bruce Wayne came to Gotham the same time Batman did. Batman went into hiding the same time Bruce Wayne became a recluse. Of course, I wasn’t totally sure, until you let me in today.
12. “Did you come back to die with your city?” “No! I came back... to stop... you!” Really?
13. I know Batman hates guns. But how many innocent lives is he willing to spend to keep this ideal? He fights Bane mano-e-mano and almost loses (twice!) when a well placed bullet to the head could have ended things pretty quickly. 8 million lives are on the line, but Batman still refuses to use a gun. [JohnAdams]Incredible.[/JohnAdams] Henry Jones, Jr. could have ended that fight a lot sooner and wouldn’t have put so many innocent lives on the line.
14. Blake, a trained cop, uses his gun once, looks at it in disgust and then throws it away? I know killing a perp can be very difficult for the most seasoned officers to cope with... but this seemed like a cheap moment to try to make Blake seem like the perfect Batman replacement.
15. I have to agree with Warb- Batman seems to trust Selina much more than he should/would. She was directly responsible, several times over, for what was going on. Once she and Batman established some kind of working relationship, she betrayed him and caused the people of Gotham to suffer for 5 months. If she had a change of heart, she should have had to work much harder to earn Batman's trust back. She should have been trying to convince him... not he her.
16. Bruce is still broken up about Rachel 8 years later? Truth be told, I think Harvey in TDK acts a little too over the top at her passing. Maybe my wife of 10 years, but not a girl I had been dating long enough to be quasi-engaged. Rachel must be some girl that both Harvey and Bruce can't live without her.
17. But then he sleeps with Talia.
18. Why did Bane totally wreck Batman when they first fight, but Batman can easily take him on after a couple months of recovering from a broken back? Was he in better fighting shape after being in the jail.
19. Two minutes until a nuke goes off in downtown Gotham, but Batman stops to makeout with Catwoman, and then give a cryptic hint to Gordon about his real identity (does he think he's the Riddler?). Really? Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!
20. Gordon says "Bruce wayne?!?" to make sure that no one in the audience is thinking, "What is that Bat-Man talking about?!?" after the clue and the flashback. Maybe test audiences still didn't know Bruce's secret identity until they added this clever bit of exposition in.
21. Not that Bruce seemed very concerned about hiding his secret identity in this movie. Again, Bruce and Batman return to the scene on the same day. He shaves the beard and loses the cane (wouldn't these have been good disguises) and expects no one (except John Blake, whose expertly honed orphan skills can't be fooled!) to figure out he's Batman?
22. Wayne Manor was rebuilt and already looked 100 years old and somehow they got the exact same Bed? Hmm... smells more like they just returned to location.
23. I agree with Gaffer that the OWS/99% thing was laid on too thick. Dude, I got it.
24. For the first time, the Batman growl-voice annoyed me. Perhaps everything else above had suspended my suspension of disbelief... Perhaps I have heard too many spoofs of the voice... that Bale's voice sounded a lot like in this movie.
25. Batman's first night back in Gotham- he has about 20 hours to stop the bomb from killing everyone- and he spends the entire night rigging skyscraper windows and the bridge supports to burn a Bat signal when he pushes a button? Was that really the best use of his time? How many people (besides Bane) even saw them? I heard the Bale voice spoof growling- "Look! I... spent all night... rigging those fires... because fires are cool... bats are cool... bats on fire are super cool... except that they're hot... because they're on... fire."
26. I thought the ending was a total cheat. I am so sick of fake deaths in films, and superhero films are some of the worst. I thought Nolan might have been above it. Guess not.
27. Why was this even a Batman movie? He's hardly in it. It's more about Bane and John Blake. Why not just make that movie. It's almost like Nolan made a Batman movie under duress. He was contractually obligated to put Batman in at least 15% of the movie, so he did... but that didn't stop him from making 3 or 4 other characters be more interesting and have more screen time.
28. WaitforthetwisthereitcomesJohnBlake'sfullnameiswaitforitwaitforitwaitforROBINJohnBlake
holycarpyoudidn'tseethatonecomingisn'tthatawesomewetotallyfooledyouandwe'reawesome
becausehisfirstnameisfrinkinROBINhowawesomeisthatitissoawesomeIbetyoycan'tbelievehowawesomeitis
And this is probably the final kicker for me: Bruce was Batman for how long before the end of TDK? 2 years? Can it be that long? Could it be as short as a couple of months? And then he goes into 8 years of retirement. He reappears for a couple of nights and then disappears for 5 months... and is back for one more day before he's "dead" again. There’s no room for any more Batman stories. No other villains. Nothing. I understand that Nolan and company wanted to tell the end of the Batman story