3. Too Many Sub-Plots
Of the many critiques I had about the new Star Wars franchise is that it just had too many different plots which turned the movie into a confusing story soup. When characters separate, their plots drift apart creating the need to dedicate screen-time to separate entities and the constant need to establish, re-establish and shift perspective. When the plot jumps around more than the members of House of Pain as it does in TDKR, the need for establishing shots of the different locations grows exponentially meaning that its difficult - unless youre Peter Jackson and have the epic landscape of New Zealand to point the camera at - to not feel like you're watching a super high budget episode of Friends. We had Batmans three sub-plots (being beaten, escaping from prison and the final show down), Catwomans arc, Banes master-plan, Jim Gordons recovery and adventure, John Blakes originadd to that the extra twist of Talia Al Ghuls involvement and you soon begin to realise why the film ran so long. The over-riding result was that nothing felt fully established; story arcs came and went without full resolutions; characters were here one moment, and there the next without proper explanation and moments that should have been poetically drawn out were quickly brushed over (Batmans second confrontation of Bane during the riots for example should have been much grander. He just sort ofwalked up to him). Dont get me wrong; when the multi-stranded story technique is pulled off it makes for incredibly deep drama (remember Crash?). I just dont think Nolan pulled it off in TDKR to the degree that some reviews insist he has.