There are many reviews available online about this finale to Christopher Nolan’s take on the Batman franchise. Building up my expectations after the superb Batman Begins and epic The Dark Knight, I was eagerly anticipating the finale to this trilogy. Alas, I was a tad disappointed. I watch very few movies at the cinema, due to my lack of patience to watch an entire movie in a single sitting, and normally wait for home releases. I did however get myself to a theatre for this movie, as there was no way I could wait an extra 5 months to see this masterpiece (or so I thought).

*WARNING: This post contains spoilers*

I will confess, this is a fantastic movie in it’s own right. I don’t wish to ramble on and on about the whole movie, so will simply state which points caused me particular disappointment.

1) Low levels of violence. Okay, I am not an advocate of violence, but it would have been nice for some bruising/gore at the cost of the certification of the movie to have been raised. I mean, how can one justify an entire fist fight without a scratch!?

2) Bane being killed(?)/defeated by Selina Kyle. Surely this was a very sad way for Bane to be blown away.

3) A very frail Batman. With no cartilage left in his joints, being out of action for a number of years and mentally depressed, Bruce Wayne was simply no match for Bane. Unfortunately, my hero was portrayed as a weak and sick old man, which was tragic.

4) Puppy Bane. The twist at the end where it is revealed that Bane was really a puppet at the hands of Talia al Ghul was shocking, agreed. But seriously, Bane shedding tears after his portrayal as a ruthless villain?

5) The ending. There was a lot of debate between my friends and I about whether or not Batman died. I proposed that he did not, due to the auto-pilot fix by him, leading to the assumption that he ejected himself from the Bat before it was annihilated with the nuclear core. This raised more questions than it answers (i.e. at what point did Batman jump out), but you get my point. In my opinion, the sacrifice of Batman would have been a more powerful ending and very emotional, rather than seeing Bruce Wayne settle down with an ex(?) cat burglar.

6) Robin taking up Batman’s mantle. I won’t even bother to explain this gripe!

On a positive note, I thoroughly enjoyed the overall direction. There was not a moment where I felt that the story was dragging on and the music was absolutely epic. Unfortunately, this movie could really have been something special. Here’s to hoping the next Batman reboot (whenever it comes) is even darker and more mature.