10. It Means We Can Avoid The Inevitable Reboot For A Few More Years
Look, I'll be honest -- at the end of The Dark Knight Rises, I felt torn. Because on the one hand, I loved the movie, loved the ending, loved the fact that we'd gotten a complete trilogy and that the next filmmaker through the door would have carte blanche to do what they wanted. But on the other hand...well, on the other hand, a large part of me felt like "What's wrong with what we got? Do we need a reboot
already?" I know mileage varies for fans, but for me, The Dark Knight Trilogy really did capture everything I'd ever wanted to see about Batman on film. The look, the feel, the tone, the essence of the character...it was all there, at 24 frames per second. It was gonna be a tough act to follow. Who do you bring in to follow up Chris friggin' Nolan? How do you balance still keeping to the basic tenants of Batman --
roughly plausible, dark, operatic -- while still bringing something new to the character? In one sense bringing back Nolan and Bale creates a whole new set of expectations -- can they top themselves? What will they bring this time? -- but in another sense it avoids the very tricky expectations involved in rebooting a character this beloved right after an iteration this successful and (potentially) iconic. The Dark Knight Trilogy has been monstrously successful; maybe it's not such a bad idea to give audiences a few more years away from solo Batman films before we restart the franchise yet again.