@Taggerung:
Did you fall asleep during all those parts where Bruce was going I can do this, I'm going to do this, I have to do this, you don't want me to do this because you don't think I can but i'll show you I've still got it. And Alfred was basically giving him verbal heartfelt facepalms.
The conflict I was watching there was Alfred's. Not so much Bruce's. His concern that Bruce would DIE.
Also I didn't really buy the "Oh gosh I'm so old now" thing they tried pulling with Bruce. How old was he supposed to be? He still looked 40 or something!
It was like Nolan was trying pull the Dark Knight Returns thing. But hey, Batman was actually OLD in that.
Bane was a test for him, they all but came out and stated that.
Test for what? "Am I too old and creaky"? This was so barely touched upon. Have you read the Dark Knight Returns? That second chapter with the Mutant Leader? That's the conflict you're describing, that's not what we saw here.
What got Bruce in there to begin with? He underwent the pain of loss in the middle of the last movie, and then managed to overcome it to bring down the Joker, Harvey, and save the image and symbol Harvey had in the first place in spite of him going batshit insane. The issue of Bruce being incapable of living well after Rachel died was in the last film!
But you went through all of that which is basically the first 40 minutes of the movie and didn't even pick up on it which is why even opening a dialogue about this movie with you is stupid.
It never connected because it was badly written in, implausible, and did not work with other elements on display.
This isn't a new plot to Batman, I already read it years ago when Frank Miller did it.
The parts where Bruce showed off his "ooh im …45!" or whatever were about as fleeting and poorly focused on as the ridiculous jacquerie crap. The script did not commit to it an meaningful fashion.
This isn't going to turn into an 18 quote argument about the feelings you did/didn't get out of the movie the clearly disliked and were completely not into so have all the free quips you want.
You can go join TheCrystalShip in the "I have a glass jaw for internet arguments" club.