1. Double Down
Warner Bros started a money making, albeit annoying, trend when they decided to split the last Harry Potter film into two films. Twilight also chose to torture audiences as well by splitting their last film into two and we can look forward to this trend with tween book series adaptations for the foreseeable future; I have a feeling The Hunger Games: Mockingjay will have the subheading: Part 1 and Part 2 attached to it. I understand the money aspect of splitting a film into two parts; I even understood the last Harry Potter film being split into two because no one really wanted it to end, except Emma Watson. With Twilight and The Hunger Games, one could probably do without the last films in both franchises being split into two; even The Deathly Hallows was pushing it because Part 1 kind of sucked it. However, The Dark Knight Rises would've totally benefited everyone involved if they split the film into two. Producers would've made $2 billion dollars instead of $1 billion dollars, Nolan would've had more leg room to do everything he wanted to conclude the series and, most importantly, the fans would've gotten to see the perfect ending to one of the greatest trilogies in film. Instead of confused faces streaked with tears, there would've been magnanimous applause echoing throughout every theater in America and there would've been Nolan statues raised up in every city. The most important question of how it would benefit film-wise must be addressed in further detail. We can agree that TDKR, even though it was nearly a 3 hour epic, could've used a lot more time because everything in the second half of the movie felt rushed, especially near the end, and the characters were squeezed into the allotted time resulting in glaring inconsistencies. If the film was split into two parts, each running 120 minutes or even 150 minutes each, there would have been more than enough time to set up, execute, and conclude each storyline and plot. We could've used more time when Alfred revealed the truth about Rachel, we could've seen Bruce struggling to accept this secret and even cope with it in unhealthy ways by either embracing his billionaire playboy guise or by nearly killing someone as Batman. This truth would've affected him in many aspects including his relationships with Selina and Miranda Tate and we could've seen more of Bane's Gotham and the hopeless state of the city while Bruce healed and dealt with self-doubt in the pit. It would've made for more of a logical story because we would've followed Bruce's character arc because in the end, it's about Batman rising again as a symbol of hope for Gotham, not just as a man in a mask. I didn't feel that the Dark Knight really rose; he kind of just did what he was expected to. There are a ton of benefits two films could've provided instead of one, but what's done is done. Although The Dark Knight Rises wasn't a perfect ending to an amazing series, it was still an ambitious and overall satisfying ending to, possibly, the greatest superhero film trilogy ever made. For that, I can't help but love Nolan and what he's done for the genre, but for the future Nolans who are yet to "rise," please keep these improvements in mind when making the next great superhero franchise. No pressure though.