I can't believe no one has mentioned this: One of the foundations of the movie is that Blake magically knows Batman is Bruce Wayne.

It's needed for the story to progress, so, whatever, but the whole "I once saw your face on TV and knew you were Batman because of your HIDDEN RAGE" bugged me.

Especially since a better way to do it would have been to have Blake be the kid Batman gave his periscope to in the first movie. It wouldn't totally explain anything, but it's better than the "I saw your face once" explanation.

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Next: The reactor. A super-awesome fusion reactor that can provide tons of energy, presumably better/more efficiently than current nuclear tech.

But oh no! It can be used as a WEAPON! You know, if a highly trained strike force, accompanied by the most brilliant man in nuclear science in the world somehow gains access to it.

Guess what, though? That is true of ALL nuclear power plants. I mean, yes, I guess not all nuclear power plants can be coverted into an apparently indestructible beach ball of Doom (seriously, haha how many things did that bomb crash into?) But this is why nuclear power plants have layers and layers of defenses, and failsafes, and so on.

This is why we don't keep our nuclear plants in the SEWER, Bruce!

Anyway, that bugged me. I realize, that the Nuclear Beach Ball was a MacGuffin, but still.
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Finally, The Evil Plan. What exactly was Bane and Talia's endgame?

So, upon initial examination, everything is pretty straightforward.

1. Install Talia as a deep agent, try to gain Bruce Wayne's trust.

2. Kidnap the scientist for eventual use in Operation Nuclear Beachball

3. Use Evil Rich Guy to:
3a. Hire Catwoman to get Bruce Wayne's fingerprints
3b. Sponsor an attack on Wall Street to financially ruin Bruce Wayne (using said fingerprints, which, WHATEVER)
3c. Use his construction crews to line Gotham City with explosives.

4. Beat the shit out of Batman, throw him in the Pit of Despair (which is apparently controlled by Bane).

5. Conquer Gotham and cut it off from the outside world.

6. Make Batman watch his city be occupied.

7. ???

8. Profit!


So, here are my issues:

First, if the prison was controlled by Bane, how is it that everyone was so eager to help Batman? I mean, he's got a doctor (well, a guy with a rope) over here, he's got a cynical old wise man over there, everyone's cheering him on when he's climbing up the wall...

I mean, Bane was FLABBERGASTED that he got out. This was Not Part of the Plan. Despite the fact that an 8 year old girl did it.

Yes, I realize it was tough, and part of despair is keeping hope alive... but just one dude with a gun, sitting at the top of the prison, would have made everything moot.

Second: What was Bane and Talia's endgame? Just to run out the clock, and die together? I mean, I get that the goal is to draw out Batman's suffering. But their plan seems kind of... anticlimactic.

As near as I can tell, if Batman hadn't broken out of the Pit, the plan was to just hang out, and then when the timer ran out, Gotham was destroyed. That's it. Which, fine, Gotham's gone, that's the goal, but why wait for the timer? Why not get to a safe distance and destroy Gotham? Talia's whole thing is to revive the League of Shadows and carry on its mission- there is nothing in her philosophy that necessitates dying.