The Good: We'll start with this. It leaves a better taste in your mouth to know I didn't hate it. It was a decent film.

Bane - I couldn't get enough of this guy. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Batman is about the villains more than it is the actual hero. The villains in the trilogy are by far the most interesting characters, and Bane's portrayal of the personification of chaos was excellent. I enjoyed his voice, as it added to the manic nature of his actions to have such a hulking beast use such a pleasant tone coupled with a fun accent.

Cast - Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Tom Hardy, this was a studded cast. Gary Oldman steals the show when he is onscreen, and Anne Hathaway was a surprising Selina Kyle. They played down the overt sexuality of her nature, but Bane wasn't a DC version of the Hulk on venom steroids yet both characters worked.

Source Material - The Knightfall story arc in the comics is one of the most famous in our age, and Bane did indeed break the Bat. His romance with Catwoman was a large part of that storyline as well, and it was decently incorporated. The most exciting use of source material had to be the No Man's Land sections of the film. That arc was of special significance to me and still is, and it was portrayed here with the use of the cops as almost an underground gang and the use of 'tagging' to mark territories and truck routes. Catwoman even carved out her own (though we didn't really see this). All-in-all a welcome shout out to one of my favorite stories.


The Bad: Sorry, but you knew this was coming.

Relationships - Did anyone else think he fell in love with Talia Al Ghul a little quickly? I mean, considering they had only met once or twice? At least the Catwoman romance had a bit of a beginning, middle, and end result. I realize the film took place over the course of a year but he barely saw Talia and then was gone for 5 months, so he didn't really have time to develop anything with her. They had sex once, that's about it.

Talia Al Ghul - This was something I knew was coming. The 'twist' wasn't much of a twist to me. You can't cast Marion Cotilliard and then immediately start yelling "She's not Talia! Don't you dare say she is!" and not expect everyone to know automatically. They should have let the fan-boys have their theory, we'd have been happier to be proven right than have a poor attempt at misdirection. And for being a main villain she didn't really have much screen time. It was gutsy to incorporate both of the loves of Batman's life into the same movie, but it wound up giving Talia the short straw as she didn't get much screen time and she felt forced. It was another grand tie-in to the first film but it didn't really work for the whole.

How Did He Escape A Freaking Nuclear Blast? - Seriously, it showed him in the Bat over the water around 5 seconds before the bomb went off. There is absolutely no way that thing went 6 miles in 5 seconds (6 miles was the blast radius) and even if he made it the residual radiation would result in him being rendered sterile for the rest of his life, not to mention probably develop into cancer. Huge plot hole. All they had to do was have him eject when he flew through the building he had just blown up and I would have bought it, but instead they went for the version that made it and I just don't buy it.


The Ugly: You knew there'd be at least one, and yes...there's one.

Robin - I'm sorry but I call bull-crap. John Blake wound up being a composite character of the three Robin's from the comics and while it made for an interesting character having it end up the way it did made no sense. I realize Batman can be anyone and that Bruce had kind of been plugging for him to take over, but it was just a bad plot device to make sure that a sequel could be made if they absolutely had no choice (read: if Nolan changes his mind about returning to the franchise). It was forced, it was uncomfortable, and it bothered me.

I'm up in the air with this movie. It's going to multiple viewings before I know what I think of it... much like The Dark Knight. Batman Begins was the only movie of the three that was love at first sight (For the record I now think TDK is a fantastic film, but I still prefer BB).

I did think the Bruce/Talia relationship seemed forced. He barely met her and then they were sleeping together. I was genuinely surprised to see Bruce with Selina at the end. I thought the Batman/Catwoman kiss was insubstantial flirting. I didn't think it was passionate. Look, I have the same personality type as Bruce Wayne, and I know we don't let go of people easily. I know it's been eight years since Racheal's death, but he went with these two way too easily.

I, too, loved Bane. His voice was perfect. Like you said, it gave a great contrast to his physicality.

Now about that ending... is it certain that Bruce survived the blast? When I saw the Italian resteraunt scene, I immediately though Inception (the famous last scene with the spinning top). It might have been a scene you could take two ways. Could this just be Alfred's wishful thinking? The ending just seemed weak to me (especially considering Nolan's other endings) and this would make the ending a little more thought-provoking.

Another thing is that I seem to remember a misfunctional autopilot in the Bat. Maybe Batman figured out how to fix it and faked his death.

I can't agree about Robin though. I haven't read much of the comics so I can't nitpick as far as adaptation goes, but I thought it was a nice touch. I don't see it as a shameless setup for the reboot (though I'm sure the studio is glad Nolan did it), because it makes sense thematically with the other movies. Batman as a symbol is supposed to be "everlasting", but how can he be when Bruce Wayne is mortal? There was also things in TDK about Batman looking for someone to take up his mantle.

What did you think about the truth being revealed about Harvey Dent? That's one of the biggest issues that I'm wrestling with with this movie. I thought the ending of dark was beautiful, selfless, and noble but in here the whole thing is dealt with in such a negative light.

The Dent thing didn't bother me. I knew that would happen, it had to in order for all hell to break loose. They cast it in a negative light in this movie because while it was the right move it was, in fact, a lie that resulted in 1000 people being imprisoned for 8 years.

On Robin I just didn't like it. It seemed too shameless to me and unnecessary.

On Batman surviving there was a moment where Fox was with 2 techs trying to find out what he could have done better. He said that the auto-pilot wasn't working and the techs pointed out that it had been fixed just prior to Batman's breaking. The autopilot worked and Bruce survived, entering a relationship with Catwoman and using the Clean Slate program to erase them both. The only problem I had was with his proximity to the blast, everything else I'm certain of. I think he survived, I just think they should have been more careful with that moment.