3. Scale
Christopher Nolans Batman films attempt to keep his world grounded in as much reality as possible. With that said, reaching the scale expected by audiences of a summer blockbuster superhero movie is a difficult task. If he went too big it would defeat the concept he was aiming for. If he was too conservative Gotham would feel very secluded from the rest of the world. With Batman Begins Nolan created the grounded world he was striving for and established what would and what wouldnt work in his Gotham City. While The Dark Knight does expand upon the scale displayed in Batman Begins, it pales in comparison to the new level Nolan has achieved with The Dark Knight Rises. Lets compare how Nolans films managed to show their respective scale levels by using a simple summer blockbuster standard; blowing stuff up! In Batman Begins Nolan burns down Wayne Manor and the League of Shadows temple. He also destroys Gothams mono rail public transportation system. In The Dark Knight he upped the ante by blowing up Gotham General Hospital and has the Joker threaten to blow up two large ferry boats filled to capacity with people, albeit one was full of convicted criminals. In The Dark Knight Rises he takes it to a whole new level. Nolan blows up the Gotham City Rogues football stadium while a game is being played. He destroys every single bridge to the city except the one used to transport goods in for Bane and his followers. He blows up countless other buildings throughout the city using the concrete laced with explosives. And lets not forget that Bane and the League of Shadows have possession of an armed nuclear bomb ready to destroy the entire city at a moments notice! The scale level is raised so much that we see a television broadcast from the President of the United States personally talking to the citizens of Gotham City. We see United States military action. We see Bane and his League of Shadows destroy Blackgate prison and free 1,000 of Gothams worst criminals while arming them with weapons. Nolan has perfectly pushed the scale meter as far as it can go without breaking while still remaining believable in the world he has created. When it comes to the summer blockbuster scale The Dark Knight Rises does just that, rises above The Dark Knight.