3. Batman Should Be A Superhero
The Problem A controversial statement, since this will inevitably, immediately inspire a response in the comments along the lines of "Batman was merely an entitled man with a suit, he had no super powers," and though that is true, it isn't the whole story by any means. Batman is still a superhero, because of his Herculean commitment and his capacity to do what he does in the name of the law, as well as his inbuilt detective skills. He is not a normal man - he grew with a knot of rage inside him and a burning desire to right wrongs, and no amount of gritty realism can stand in for the fact that he remains a superhero. Nolan was very careful not to follow that thread, and the ultimate revelation that Batman was little more than a symbol was the ultimate betrayal of it. While the lore of the Bat was enough to drive a stake of fear through a henchman's heart, neither Ra's Al Ghul, the Scarecrow, Two Face or the Joker were vanquished by the comforting presence of a silhouette in the sky, and the final assertion that Blake was a necessary replacement for Wayne somewhat derailed the entire presence.
How To Fix It Grit and realism is all well and good, but if you go too far the other way, even with a superhero who doesn't quite comply with the usual spandex and supernatural ability model of normal heroes, you forget why Batman is such an enduring character. We might have all been enticed and engaged by Nolan's new, more realistic take on the character and the property, but there was always an undercurrent that Nolan had to retain certain things about the character in order for it to still appeal to core fans. Because it is they who would judge him the most as a Batman film-maker. And now that realism is (apparently) done with, and with Warner looking for yet another new angle on the property, it might be a simple idea to bring back some more of the supernatural elements, and reinforce that Batman is still a superhero. I'm in no way talking about the gruesome, day-glo camp of Batman & Robin by any means, but it would be nice to have a superhero who isn't in some way broken, which seems to be the biggest fascination in comic book movies at the minute.