2. The Ending
One of the things that has earned Nolan a hefty chunk of praise is his franchise-closing ending, which supposedly brought the franchise around full circle and summarized it's themes perfectly. Nolans ending poses that Bruce Wayne, realising that he dehumanises himself each time he dons the cape and cowl, decides to hang up his boots. Faking his death, he leaves the Bat-mantle to another, John Blake, despite the fact that hes just a rookie cop and he met him literally two or three times in his life. So this is the perfect ending? I am going to have to call major bullshit on that right now. As Batman jets off in his latest military grade craft The Bat- for the horizon, nuclear explosive in tow, he manages to save Gotham just before the mushroom cloud announces his supposed death to the world. But what about the hundreds of Blackgate escapees that he left behind to begin what would certainly be Gothams worst crime wave to date? Were just forgetting about them are we? Batman would never abandon Gotham if he lived for a million years and hed certainly never sign over the rights to the mantle to some young upstart he didnt even know properly. Alright, Nolan has re-envisioned the character for a modern world, fair enough, but in deciding to have Batman give up the mission he has unequivocally abandoned the very core trait of the character. A big no-no in this writer's opinion when adapting from source material. Far from this perfect, beautiful ending that I keep hearing people talk about, I felt Nolans closing statement to his Batman franchise was nothing short of a cop out. How do you stop Batman pursuing the chaos that claimed his parents without killing him off? You cant. Its as simple as that. It doesnt matter how realistic the take on the world, if you defy this tenet of the character it only serves as a frustrating misrepresentation of his most inspirational characteristic: that the mission is never over.