5. Honed the Focus
Dont get me wrong, I think there were some incredible moments, both throughout Nolans run with the Dark Knight, and specifically in TDKR even in my most vocal criticisms, Ive always maintained that I dont
hate the final movie, far from it, Im just vaguely disappointed. Part of the reason was that Nolan seemed to be going down such faithful routes with Batman Begins, which is as intimate as it was epic, and really seemed to understand the character. Batman is about character cameos for sure, but in TDKR, Nolan set too many different character focuses for me to ever get fully settled on one. If it was Batman vs. Bane, I argue it should have been just that; not Batman vs. Bane, and Talia Al Ghul, with Selina Kyle and her sidekick, with Alfred, and John Blake, and Jim Gordon too. Dont forget, the comics have had over 70 years to flesh these guys out. Even in just under 3 hours, some of Nolans characters felt thin; I was supposed to give more of a shit about them than I actually did. The problem for me was that spectacle had replaced intimacy and understanding, characters had replaced character, and there was constantly too much happening at any one time to ever stop and take proper stock of what was at stake.