Batman: The Dark Knight Rises Poster, What Does It Mean?

Batman fans are rejoicing at the release of the first official poster for The Dark Knight Rises, the third and final installment of Christopher Nolan’s films. It’s not due out until Summer 2012, yeah, a whole year from now, but the release of this poster has the internet abuzz with speculation and excitement.

It takes a second to register that what you’re seeing is a piece of the sky revealed as a bat through the crumbling skyscrapers of Gotham City. If you head over to the movie’s official site you can get a full screen image of the poster and really see just how tattered and neglected the buildings of Gotham are in this image.

Early posters don’t usually tell a lot about a movie. They’re just enough to make you say “Oh, yeah, that’s coming out soon!” and get you excited, but they’re rarely packed with details that will give away any key elements of the story. This one, well, you know stuff is going to go horribly, destructively, catastrophically wrong, but you have no idea how or why and can only hope that The Batman is going to save the day. And he will save the day, right?

Well, maybe it shows Batman being overcome by the corruption of the city and the light is not so much a beacon, but the hole left in his absence? Could he have abandoned Gotham? Some fans are speculating that this is what the poster is trying to show. Maybe it shows a city who is reaching for Batman in a desperate attempt to save itself when all else has failed?  Maybe it’s just, you know, arty-fartsy and cool and doesn’t actual mean a darn thing?

I think it means one thing, and one thing only. There’s a new Batman movie on the horizon, and I can not wait to buy my ticket.