The Triumphal End of the Batman Trilogy

“The Legend Ends,” but does it? Is it possible for Batman to end? Does this mean that we will be without the Dark Knight forever!? Calm down. Take a deep breath. It will be alright. But seriously, Batman is alive and well in the comic book world, which means there’s always hope for the caped crusader to resurface again. Bruce Wayne might not always be the one behind the mask that criminals fear, but Batman continues to live on through the ones who follow after him.

After all, “As a man I can be ignored and destroyed. But as a symbol. As a symbol I can be elemental. I can be everlasting,” said Bruce Wayne in a conversation with Alfred after he returned from the League of Shadows. This conversation is the single most important conversation in the Dark Knight trilogy. Batman “begins” by first establishing this symbol concept and in The Dark Knight Rises the process of making Batman into a symbol is complete. Here’s what Christopher Nolan had to say about the symbol concept in his trilogy from his biography profile on IMDB.com: 

“For me, "The Dark Knight Rises" is specifically and definitely the end of the Batman story as I wanted to tell it, and the open-ended nature of the film is simply a very important thematic idea that we wanted to get into the movie, which is that Batman is a symbol. He can be anybody, and that was very important to us. Not every Batman fan will necessarily agree with that interpretation of the philosophy of the character, but for me it all comes back to the scene between Bruce Wayne and Alfred in the private jet in "Batman Begins," where the only way that I could find to make a credible characterization of a guy transforming himself into Batman is if it was as a necessary symbol, and he saw himself as a catalyst for change and therefore it was a temporary process, maybe a five-year plan that would be enforced for symbolically encouraging the good of Gotham to take back their city. To me, for that mission to succeed, it has to end, so this is the ending for me, and as I say, the open-ended elements are all to do with the thematic idea that Batman was not important as a man, he's more than that. He's a symbol, and the symbol lives on.”

The Dark Knight Rises ended exactly the way I would want it to end if I had written the script myself. If you have been following the Christian Bale – Batman trilogy, you will love this movie if you haven’t seen it already… which I’m sure most Batman fans already have. The best Batman series has come to an end in this movie, but could there be a continuation of the story down the road by someone other than Bruce Wayne… possibly by introducing Robin, Night Wing, or even one of Bruce Wayne’s offspring, which would be perfectly okay with me. Bottom line about Christopher Nolan’s Batman series is that it is the best. Hands down. There’s no campiness in the films. There’s no outlandish characters where it leaves the audience scratching their heads thinking, “What were the filmmakers thinking when they made this. Did they actually believe we would buy into this.” With the end of The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan has completed the most true to form series for the Caped Crusader. As a Batman fan from the age of 2, I’m sad to see the series end; however, with Nolan finishing the story in the way that it started, it makes it easier to say goodbye to the Dark Knight… or at least farewell for now my friend..

Stay tuned for a special Christmas post: My Top 10 Christmas Movies