"Fix" the film!

[Grissom]

You guys are awesome to come up with these ideas, I for one really enjoyed the film, I thought it was a solid end to the trilogy and it had strong emotional resonance and it was truly Bruce's story as Nolan stated. Great performances and very formidable villains. Funny thing is I'm thinking of Bane and actually quoting Bane more than Ledger's Joker, he was very memorable with a wonderful performance behind the mask by Hardy.

Here's hoping the reboot is excellent!

[BatmAngelus]

If I could alter one thing about The Dark Knight Rises, I'd change the spelling of "hiest" to "heist", thereby convincing the audience that the filmmakers weren't totally illiterate.

How no one involved in the production caught this before it made it in is beyond me...

Some other ideas:

- Cut Alfred being an exposition machine in the Batcave about Bane's background.  Alfred already has the "he's more dangerous than the ordinary criminal" beat when overlooking the security footage from the stock exchange heist later.  This also avoids the awkwardness of Alfred conveniently finding out such information and it makes Bane more mysterious for the first act.

It also makes the first fight between Batman and Bane more dramatic as Batman will discover here, instead, that Bane was part of the League when Bane says, "Theatricality and deception are powerful agents to the uninitiated.  But we are initiated."  That line would hit a lot harder, in my opinion, as a dramatic reveal and not just Bane paraphrasing what Ra's said in the first movie.

- A small thing in the scheme of things, but it'd be nice if Gordon reunited with his family at the end.  To me, it's implied that a huge part of the falling out between him and his wife was over him covering up for Dent's crimes, since the man who nearly killed his family.  So, with Gordon being the one confessing the truth (and shown beaten and in danger on live television) in my version, that would change the game and his wife and children would naturally be frightened for him.  When the bridges to Gotham get repaired, his family's able to return to the city and we see hope that he'll be able to reconcile with them.

[johnnygobbs]

If I could alter one thing about The Dark Knight Rises, I'd change the spelling of "hiest" to "heist", thereby convincing the audience that the filmmakers weren't totally illiterate.

This is genius.  I thought this was meant to be the 'realistic' Batman.  No way would a paper allow such a mistake in the 'real world'.

[thecolorsblend]

This is genius.  I thought this was meant to be the 'realistic' Batman.  No way would a paper allow such a mistake in the 'real world'.

[Edd Grayson]

Harry truman really human serves two terms and when he's done it's Eisenhower who's got the power from '53 to '61

[thecolorsblend]

One fix I'd like to throw in is that idiotic "anybody can be Batman" stuff. Nolan himself doesn't even believe that and neither does Bruce.

[The Laughing Fish]

Reading all these comments just goes to show that Nolan isn't anywhere near as good as people make him out to be. Far from it actually.

I've found his trilogy to be marred with too many out of character moments because of a lack of character development, awkward acting and action (the fight scenes, specifically) and being a case of 'having your cake and eating it too' as far trying to be realistic and being a comic book movie at the same time. It's one to make changes for trying something different and not copying what came before, but Nolan's sense of realism makes me question his logic. I mean, it's apparently too unrealistic for Batman to become part-detective, part-scientist, all-round genius...but it's okay for him to become a member of a ninja terrorist clan who were responsible for the destruction of many civilizations for centuries? The Joker resembling anything like an actual clown or have bleached white skin with green hair is too unrealistic. But not only can Two-Face survive a deadly burn disfigurement, he can still talk, see and move his head without any discomfort despite the gaping wounds on the left of his face are so severe to the point that his teeth, eyeball and parts of his jaw are fully exposed. And yet in the third film, it only takes a rope, a punch in the vertebra and some exercises to get back to peak health again? 

Love this idea, Doc.  To add to that, in my version, Bane doesn't read off from a letter-conveniently-found-in-Gordon's-coat to Gotham.  Instead, he brings out the captured, beaten Gordon and makes HIM confess the truth about Harvey Dent.  This gives some actual weight to that scene, especially with Gordon built up as a hero to the city in the previous scenes.  It's big for Gordon's character since he couldn't bring himself to confess during Harvey Dent Day and now he HAS to do it.  Plus, on a believability scale, Gordon's words would be much more trusted by the people than Bane reading off a piece of paper.

I'd say Batman covering up the deaths and taking the blame for them is just as unbelievable and just as flawed to begin with. I know that I always comment about Batman's reckless approach to human life (which is similar for many people complaining about Man of Steel), but it was common knowledge in the movies that he was fighting crime. I mean, if everybody knew that he saved the city at the end of the first film, spends his time fighting criminals which includes fighting the psychotic Joker and saving Rachel in public - and most importantly - saved Dent from being killed twice (not to mention bringing back an accountant from Asia which helped Dent's case against the mob) - then why the hell would anybody believe that Batman suddenly became cold-blooded murderer?

[Paul (ral)]

If I could alter one thing about The Dark Knight Rises, I'd change the spelling of "hiest" to "heist", thereby convincing the audience that the filmmakers weren't totally illiterate.

This is genius.  I thought this was meant to be the 'realistic' Batman.  No way would a paper allow such a mistake in the 'real world'.

I work in the newspaper industry...I've seen worse mistakes than that :-)

[The Laughing Fish]

One brave soul has dared to tackle some things that he thought didn't make sense about the trilogy. There is one I think applies to the complaints about Batman's existence was influenced by his love for Rachel, and his moping over her death for years:

As a character, Rachel just doesn't make sense to me, and no it isn't just because Katie Holmes was awful, and then they necessarily replaced her a little bit too late, which in itself was a little jarring, even if Nolan dealt with the situation as best as could be expected.

It is the very foundation of the character that vexes me the most. She was created by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer specifically for these movies, and she was pretty much only used as a moralizer and an extremely blatant Bruce-change-your-views-and-life plot device. She's not a real character, and worse, what she represents turns the very notion of Batman away from what he ought to be.

Because of Rachel's influence over Bruce, her demise (and other tragic events relating to her up to that point) turn the trilogy into a story not of vengeance against murderous criminals, but of tragic love, in which one person dies, and the other must endure the horrible reality of life without them. It's a cable TV movie with a major budget and a big rubber suit.

If you look at the trilogy from this point of view, it becomes clear that Batman's is not a story of a man who wanted to make the world and his city a better place, instead it's the tale of a man who did most of his good deeds to please a woman and prove that he's still that good sincere boy who was once scared of bats. It all feels like a marketing ploy to appeal to the cash-rich and spend-happy female audiences, who like their brooding single guys, whether they wear a cape or not.

Source: http://whatculture.com/film/the-dark-knight-trilogy-10-moments-that-make-no-damn-sense.php/3

[BatmAngelus]

One fix I'd like to throw in is that idiotic "anybody can be Batman" stuff. Nolan himself doesn't even believe that and neither does Bruce.

I think it would've made a huge difference if they cut, or altered, the "Batman could be anyone" line in the car scene between Bruce and Blake.  When I heard that in the theater, followed by Bruce saying,  "That was the point," I thought, "No, it wasn't.  In the first movie, you said it was about inspiring people and in the second, you specifically said you didn't have copycats/other Batmen in mind and that you were working toward a day when Gotham didn't need Batman..."

To me, there's a difference between that line and the "hero can be anyone" line at the end.  The latter is a nice message and speaks to how Bruce wanted to use Batman as a symbol to inspire people to fight for themselves (and, in a way, speaks to how Gordon inspired him through a small act of kindness years ago). 

The "Batman" line in the car feels like it's hitting you on the head with foreshadowing that, if you didn't guess already, JGL is going to take on the mantle by the end of this movie...

I'd say Batman covering up the deaths and taking the blame for them is just as unbelievable and just as flawed to begin with. I know that I always comment about Batman's reckless approach to human life (which is similar for many people complaining about Man of Steel), but it was common knowledge in the movies that he was fighting crime. I mean, if everybody knew that he saved the city at the end of the first film, spends his time fighting criminals which includes fighting the psychotic Joker and saving Rachel in public - and most importantly - saved Dent from being killed twice (not to mention bringing back an accountant from Asia which helped Dent's case against the mob) - then why the hell would anybody believe that Batman suddenly became cold-blooded murderer?

I wouldn't have ended the previous movie like that either, partially for the reasons you said.  Since Doc set the parameters that BB and TDK are to remain intact, I thought the third movie could've at least played with that decision dramatically and in a big way.  Let's actually see the truth come out from Gordon.  Let's see that cause people to lose hope, as he had predicted, at a time when they needed it most, etc.  I would've given the TDK ending a lot more slack if it had lead to something actually interesting, powerful, and/or emotional in the third film.  Instead, all we got was the following:
- the "Harvey Dent Act," which is never specified and seems to magically clean up the streets of Gotham in between movies, so I didn't buy it
- Bane conveniently finding the truth via paper in Gordon's pocket
- Bane reading off said paper to the people...at a time when a) nobody really has a reason to believe Bane 'cause he's taken their city hostage and b) nobody really gives a crap about Harvey Dent at this point 'cause the man's been dead for 8 years and, again, the whole city's been taken hostage!
- JGL shaking his head at Gordon in a living room.

Anticlimactic.