10 Reasons You’re Wrong About The Dark Knight Rises

8. Wounded Wayne

As a character Bruce Wayne is always going to be emotionally wounded. His entire adult life is defined by the loss of his parents at a young age after all. But The Dark Knight Rises shows us more than that, pushing the ideas raised in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight to their logical extremes. The Bruce Wayne we open the film on is a recluse, hidden from life as both a playboy and crime-fighter, deeming himself totally unnecessary to Gotham. The notion of a character that has so long been held in high regard as an embodiment of masculinity knocked down to self-doubting level is interesting to see and shows an increasing acceptance of people's perceived weakness against the conventional ideal. Skyfall, which came a few months later, also explored this, working as a solid double-bill with Rises. This idea, of a hero being disenfranchised with their role to the extent of quitting has been explored in other movies - both Spider-Man 2 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 touched on it - but here it's not just a passing phase that's resolved as quickly as it arrives. Bruce's turmoil is the genuine culmination of what being a costume vigilante would be like.