How Can the Dark Knight Rise?

If there is one thing to learn from superhero films franchises like "Spiderman" and "X-Men," it is that hardly any film franchise is ever good after its third film. After the first film establishes the superhero or heroes and the back story into a marketable franchise, the second film is the game changer where things get better due to increased conflict and bigger budgets. Then the acclaim, money, and fan demands going into the third film results in a highly anticipated yet bogged down mess that usually ends the trilogy in a whimper. Usually the first problem going into the third film is throwing in too many villains or other important characters into the film to appease fans. I was expecting the Nolan Brothers to break the trend in their "Batman" series. The character driven scripts along with the great actors involved made for a good pair of films. Then after hearing that they cast Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle and Tom Hardy as Bane, I fear that even the Nolan brothers cannot break free of the film franchise trilogy train wreck.

"The Dark Knight" became an unstoppable force of film nature thanks to the death of Oscar winner Heath Ledger as The Joker. This final film of his showed the world a brilliant character actor in his final successful major role whose life was tragically cut short before he could cement his reputation in Hollywood. It will be hard to top that publicity phenomenon in "The Dark Knight Rises" unless the studios decide to kill another brilliant cast member just before release. So it will be up to the Nolans to pen a brilliant script and up to the actors to perform beyond expectations. But the trouble with superhero films and an already established film franchise is that expectations are already high. And given the choice of comic characters, it will be predictable and may include the following (possible spoilers ahead):

The ending of "The Dark Knight" set up Bruce Wayne and Batman's (both played by Christian Bale) issues from the start. Bruce's one sided love for Rachel Dawes is finished given her death, which also kills his drive to stop being Batman once Gotham City is restored. Being Batman is a more difficult night job given that he is now a wanted criminal after he took the fall for District Attorney turned villain Two-Face Harvey Dent's killings. Even if Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) knows the truth, he still has to mercilessly hunt down the vigilante just to keep Harvey's prosecution against the mob solid. The Dark Knight has definitely fallen.

But who is this? A new love for Bruce's life? Another possible chance for Bruce to become normal? Selina Kyle somehow waltzes into Bruce's life and tries to alleviate the burden of his troubles of dead ex crushes and dead parents. And if the Nolans do push the Catwoman route in this film, Selina may just alleviate the burden of Bruce's riches as the cat burglar. When the inevitable revealing of their secret identities comes forth, will they be able to see past their masks?

Then after news of the Joker's death (there really is no tasteful way to keep that character alive in this franchise) hits the underworld, the steroid case Bane decides to make his bones. He may not have received the proper treatment during the previous "Batman" film franchise after being delegated to stupid wall of meat, but now fans and general audiences will see him in a powerful light.

After many action scenes and several expository scenes where Batman will slowly regain his reputation as the hero Gotham City needs AND deserves, Batman will have a final showdown. Batman will defeat Bane. But in following the comics, Bane will break Batman's spine in the process. This final act of sacrifice will alleviate-or rise-the Dark Knight to heroic status. And it will close the trilogy in a shattering way that Batman needs so that the Nolan brothers no longer feel a need to keep writing these films and hopefully shrug off suggestions for a studio desired "Inception 2: Interception."