The movie could have been a classic, definitely had all the makings for it. It just needed a few changes:
1. No John Blake. No one should ever take over for Batman, you could show that the police force has rookies we look up to Gordon and WILL protect Gotham in the future, but either introduce Robin or don't. Screw all that open ending crap
2. No Miranda Tate. Pointless character, wasn't even in the movie long enough for anyone to care about "the twist".
3. Lots more Batman, Catwoman, and Bane. Hathaway was great, Hardy was great, Bale was great, but too much Bruce and not enough Batman. I know this is supposed to be the most emotional/personal story of the trilogy, but still, less pointless shyt (like the orphanage).
4. Bane's reign was never felt at all. There should have been more time devoted to showing how his takeover effected the citizens. They should also have shown more attempts by the government to rescue Gotham. You're telling me a major US city gets taken over for SIX MONTHS and the best the government can send is three special ops agents?
5. The orphanage. Who cares?
6. The plot by Bane doesn't make sense if you think about it. He didn't even know about Harvey Dent before he got to Gotham, what would he have done if he hadn't found Gordon's letter? Why not just blow up Gotham immediately?
while i agree about this film had the potential of being a complete masterpiece and falls short from it, your reasoning i do have to disagree with, especially the one excluding talia then later stating bane's plot doesn't make sense.
1. john blake is needed in more ways than one. he literally was the robin to batman and his entire background is all blends of dikk grayson, jason todd, and tim drake. he's the one that batman been searching for since batman begins, and especially who he hoped would be with harvey dent as someone who is willing to take over so he can live on with his life with peace of mind. he's the closure for bruce wayne to finally fill free and not obligated.
2. i stated this several times before, miranda tate/talia al ghul is the KEY for all of this that happened to bruce and to gotham. she was the mastermind behind it all. saying that she wasn't "needed" then wondering about bane's overall plot doesn't make sense is proof positive that you need to watch it again and realized how she manipulated and moved her chess pieces into play in order for bane to be able to do the things he can do. from learning the location of the nuclear reactor, to taking over the company by forcing bruce's hand financially, to already knowing about his identity, knowing about the R&D department, and even the one that 1st initiated activating the reactor while convincing lucius fox to follow suit. even slept with bruce in order to further disguise her true intentions... she's in fact, more needed than BANE. all bane did was act upon the things she pretty much set up for him!
3.for starters, bruce IS batman where he's wearing the cape & cowl or not. the sage of the trilogy is about BRUCE WAYNE and it must be completed with him finally finding closure. i'm cool with not a lot of batman, because out of the 3 films, TDKR is STILL the most action-packed.
4. again, the focus is about bruce, and this is somewhut a nitpicky gripe considering they HAVE shown how people reacted (the black prision speech with the riots upon the by the "common people") and have at least shown an attempt was made by the U.S. government, but at the same time, which pissed john blake off near the end of the film, the government, the police, and everyone was basically "following orders" and actually compromised with a madman... that's the whole reason john blake tossed his badge into the sea, because he didn't want to be part of that government system...
5. agreed for the most part... they maybe a deeper reason behind it aside from john blake's connection...but yea, pointless.
6. well, bane wouldn't have known a lot of things had it not been for talia providing him the information. as for the letter, that was an extra goodie for him to use, but the plan all along was to make gotham, in relation, bruce, to suffer by providing them FALSE HOPE before blowing them up. he tells bruce this when he puts him into the pit and explained how he want the city of gotham to feel like he did while in the pit when you can look up into the sky and see "freedom", but never be able to grasp it.
in other words, bane made gotham into one massive concentration camp...
