10 Rushed Movie Deaths That Had No Emotional Impact

10. Talia Al Ghul - The Dark Knight Rises

Say what you will about Christopher Nolan's propensity for the deaths of women in his films as a source of narrative progression, at least in most of his other films, it seems to mean something. The death of Rachel Dawes in The Dark Knight, the spectre of Mal Cobb in Inception, even the lingering absence of Leonard Shelby's wife in Memento, these all feel important and are boosted by their leading actor's selling of anguish.

While the death of Talia (also known as Miranda Tate for the majority of the film) serves a different purpose in the story than in those examples, the relationship that she had with Bruce Wayne and the subsequent betrayal should matter a lot more than it did.

Bruce's character in this sequel is more distant and broken, even before the literal decimation of his mind and body by Bane, his intimacy is stunted by his failings as Batman and the loss of his love Rachel in The Dark Knight. He is struggling emotionally so badly that even his father figure Alfred cannot bear to watch him break himself anymore. So his romantic tryst with Marion Cotillard's character should mean something, the betrayal and reveal of her relationship to a former enemy and her death in front of him should all have an impact..

However, the emotions of the coda are limited by a clustered finale and infamous overacting from Cotillard's part at the moment of death. Bale is an incredible actor but other Nolan films have relied on their lead's anguish to make it feel like it matters, but he doesn't sell the betrayal or the conflicting feelings of loss at all. Even as just a villain death, it comes quickly out of nowhere and lacks the impact it should have.