So Christopher Nolan has given us the official title for the third in his Batman films. The Dark Knight Rises, I don’t know about you but this is probably the worst title I’ve heard for a superhero movie… ever. The first one is called Batman Begins, simple and to the point. The second one is called The Dark Knight, a title I wasn’t particularly keen on anyway but makes sense at least and is pretty evocative. But calling the third film The Dark Knight Rises just stinks to me of a studio fearing a title that doesn’t have the words ‘Dark’ and ‘Knight’ in it. As if people aren’t smart enough to know that it’s a sequel to that billion dollar behemoth.

I’m skeptical of this film to begin with, and I worry about the hype it will cause. Not because a Nolan film doesn’t deserve hype, The Prestige and Inception are two of my favourite films of all time. But The Dark Knight was hyped to high heaven and when I finally saw it, I was mostly underwhelmed. It’s impeccably crafted, but it’s not like he’s reinvented the wheel, it’s still only a superhero movie with delusions of depth.

With all this criticism, could I come up with a better title? Probably not, the only title I could think of that don’t have either ‘Batman’ or ‘Dark Knight’ in it was ‘Gotham Vigilante’ and that makes the film sound decidedly low-budget (for some reason). In the grand scheme of things a title doesn’t really matter that much, it’s the merits of the film itself which it will be judged on. Hopefully I’m not left sitting again while the rest of the audience gives standing ovations.