5. More Bruce Wayne Than Batman Is Good
Nolan's Batman trilogy really brought to focus the story of Bruce Wayne and his journey from Princeton University student to hard-edged vigilante. That journey manifested itself with Batman Begins, giving us a Bruce Wayne that felt grounded and full of moral intrigue. His evolution into becoming Batman was lifted with such deft hands that by the end of the film we were left with a great first chapter that had plenty of Bruce Wayne and plenty of Batman, a perfect balance. With TDK, we were given more of a special treatment of the same journey, this time with much more of the Caped Crusader and less Bruce Wayne. Bruce was still a centrepiece in the story, becoming a political ally to Harvey Dent and a resurfacing love interest with Rachel Dawes. But in the end TDK was more a Batman story rather than Bruce Wayne's. With TDKR we were given yet another special treatment into Bruce's journey. With this film being the epic culmination of Bruce's story, Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer (lead writer for the trilogy) opted to make it more a Bruce Wayne story than the prior two films, with much less Batman and more of the eccentric billionaire playboy looking to become something more than what he already is now: an eccentric billionaire playboy. After taking the fall for Harvey Dent and being branded an outlaw, Bruce must use Batman to save Gotham City from Bane, which ultimately ends with Bruce faking his own death and retiring. This led to one of the chief reasons why some fans tore into TDKR with such hate: they didn't get enough of Batman, but instead more Bruce Wayne. Like all trilogies, the beginning act needs to set the stage with motivation and goals, the middle act needs to balance out those motives and fulfill and add on to those goals, and the final act needs to bring everything full circle. To do that, everything must rest on the shoulders of one character. In this case, Bruce Wayne. In this trilogy it's his journey, his motives, his goals that matter. Gotham City itself and the rest of the supporting cast have their own motives and goals, but it's Bruce's that we want to see brought to fruition. Batman Begins really gave us a young Bruce Wayne that was ready to tackle the troubles of Gotham City and set the stage for things to come. TDK continued that trend and added a huge gap in his morals and brought interesting quandaries thanks to the Joker and Harvey Dent. Finally, TDKR showed his motivations come to a halt and his goals tarnished thanks to the physical damage he brought upon himself, but he pulls through to do what he set out to do: give people hope in times that seem the darkest, and reveal to them that anybody can rise up and be a hero. Thus he retires, his motivations and goals untroubled.