The Dumbest Complaint Nolan Fans Have About The Dark Knight Rises
Despite positive reviews from critics and audiences, The Dark Knight Rises is often considered the weakest installment in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy.
In various discussions, viewers point to plot holes that ruined the film for them. However, most of these inconsistencies can be easily explained and actually fit into the internal logic of the trilogy.
The biggest fan complaint often concerns Bruce's return to Gotham after escaping from the Pit, an inescapable underground prison that Bane has placed Batman in.
Viewers don't know where the prison is, but hear that it's in some ancient part of the world, and find out that it's far from Gotham. What bothers many viewers is how Bruce, who has no money or resources, gets back to Gotham from that faraway place just in time for the bomb explosion.
Also, earlier in the film, Bane breaks Bruce's back, so it seems too convenient that a broken back magically heals when Bruce decides to escape. Let's address both of these questions.
As Redditor u/Lurker2115 points out, Batman had plenty of time to get back to Gotham before the bomb exploded. Bruce escapes the Pit right after Lucius says in the movie that the bomb will go off in 23 days.
When Bruce arrives in Gotham, viewers learn that the explosion will occur the next day, which means that Bruce has had about three weeks to return to Gotham. For Batman, it wouldn't be too difficult of a journey, since he was trained to travel without resources in Batman Begins to learn the ways of criminals.
Also, the League of Shadows taught Bruce to become undetectable, which would allow him to sneak onto a ship or plane and get to Gotham in relative comfort. As for how he managed to get into the closed city, the Redditor notes that the food trucks still supplied Gotham, so Bruce could sneak into one of them. Also, in the first part of the franchise, Ra's al Ghul trained Bruce to be "sure-footed" on ice. So Batman could just walk into the city on the ice, plain and simple.
The Redditor offers an even simpler explanation for Bruce's healed back. It was not broken. Viewers assume that Bane broke Bruce's back because of the way it is depicted in the comics.
But the film never says that Batman's back was broken. In fact, a prisoner in the Pit tells Bruce that he has protruding vertebrae before putting his herniated disc back in place.