Matthew Modine! (though you could possibly make a case for Tom Conti as well).

Dr. Jonathan Crane

he'd put on the Scarecrow mask one more time.

Bane's death (or was it? )

Robin reference... though they kind of cheated by not naming Gordon-Levitt's character Dick Grayson... but, of course, that would've completely tipped their hand. And besides, what guy under 40 and named Richard these days goes by 'Dick' instead of 'Rich' or 'Rick' anyway?

Bane's supposed death. It was quick, direct, and followed a great fight on the steps of the prison.

The defenseless orphans in distress also felt a little too much like a worn cliché. Nothing interesting was done with it. It was superficial. And yes, I realise it relates to Blake's background, but this was established in his very first scene at the orphanage as well as in his confrontation with Bruce Wayne. Furtehr scenes were unnecessary.

In the end, the children moved into Bruce Wayne's house. Now the Wayne Foundation is ensuring an endless supply of Batmen or multiples at one time (some good, some bad, an Army of Batmen to fight invading aliens or some villain that clones himself thirty times - who knows)? Not necessary for TDKR, but perhaps so for additional continuity of the series if there is to be any. Only one of a least 3 such contingencies the movie appears to have made.

The orphanage and its lack of funding were all revealed on Blake's first visit. If we had never seen the orphanage again, Wayne's last will and testament would still have made sense. The additional scenes served no narrative purpose, save perhaps for a rather hackneyed example of children in distress.

The children were not necessarily in distress - at least depicted less so than other were. Indeed they were asked to help clear out the block before they left the scene. Rather than being used to manipulate through distress, I would argue that they were used to manipulate (pound) the message that the heartless and incompetent feds were more worried about believing Bane than in trusting Blake - even with the kids right in front of them.

However, I still believe the main point in re-visiting the kids was to iterate and re-iterate that the Batman's driving force is not unique to Bruce Wayne. The Batman made an emphasis on saving these particular kids rather than having Blake round up every stray kid he could find. I assume that was to emphasize the need to perpetuate his traits. Maybe "Robin" Blake is the future, maybe some unidentified orphan is (perhaps with Blake as a trainer), maybe Bruce gets kicked in the nads by Selena and decides to return in an even darker mood than before. Who knows? Maybe it was not necessary, but I don't think the purpose was to manipulate through putting kids in danger.

Are we left hanging on Scarecrow's fate?

Questions:
Why does Bane draw blood from the nuclear scientist to the man in the body bag? Was this to fake the scientist's death?

I don't read the comics but what is the nature of Ras al-Ghul's immortality and how did he attain it? Is he supposed to be an Obi-Wan like apparition as depicted in DKR or does he have a more tangible/physical presence in the comics?

Quibbles:
Blake's explanation for knowing Bruce Wayne's true identity was weak. I think they could have came up with something a little more creative than Blake proclaiming he knew by "just the look you had in your eyes".

Bruce and Miranda's little fireside chat was as unnecessary as Juno Temple's presence.

How does Bane know about the weapons in the basement of Wanye Enterprises? I thought Lucius Fox kept the weaponry off the books for this very reason. Maybe they could have fixed this plot hole by having the fusion reactor be housed in the basement of WE (or had that be the site of its initial construction) and made it a point to mention that Miranda was the only one who knew its location since she funded it. Then when we later discover Miranda's true identity we'd realize her inside connection to WE is what tipped the location of Lucius' stash to Bane.

I felt the DKR's representation of Gotham City was the weakest of the trilogy. I know people have expressed that Gotham is supposed to evolve between movies but seeing well-known landmarks such as the Empire State Building, Wall Street, the Freedom Towers and Saks Fifth Avenue (yes there is a huge shot of the store and its logo near the final chase sequence) really take you out of the experience. I also felt that the mood and atmosphere of danger on Gotham's streets that existed in the first two movies did not continue into DKR. Aside from the prisoners breaking out and the few shots of the rich having their homes trashed, there was no real sense of anarchy in Gotham City since the streets were largely barren (save for Blake running around and armored cars roving the streets) and soaked in sunlight during Bane's occupation (what happened to the darkness and shadow of the pervious films).

Batman instructs Catwoman to use the Batcycle to make an escape route through a tunnel, yet when Batman tells Blake to lead Gotham's citizens on an exodus away from the city, Blake only selects a handful of orphans and leads them to a military occupied bridge!

With Gotham merely minutes from blowing up, Batman and Catwoman find time to kiss again. I thought these movies were above these kinds of tropes.

One final quibble I had with the film (one fans of the Lost series can attest to) was that Nolan overdid it on the flashbacks. Ras al-Ghul's reference to his lost wife and Batman hinting to Godron about his identity did not need flashbacks to Batman Begins. Not only were these flashbacks an insult to the audience's intelligence, but they werent even major plot points so it wouldnt have been an issue if the passing references went over some people's heads. I also feel the flashbacks were a disservice to Nolan's wonderfully crafted story and cheapened the strong ties linking each film together since part of what makes rewatching such a thematically rich trilogy so rewarding and fun is going back and seeing past events from a new perspective.

glimpse of Gordon putting the coat on young Bruce's shoulder.

I would have eliminated the Miranda Tate/Talia character completely, and spent more time on Batman and Selina Kyle's relationship... That way, Selina asking Batman to leave the city with her, their 2nd kiss as Batman prepares to sacrifice himself to save the city, and the last shot of them enjoying their freedom, would have been more emotional and powerful....

And I'm surprised Alfred reacted so casually when seeing Bruce Wayne after he thought he was dead. I was expecting more, maybe a smile, a tear, and a nod, then disappear.

The more I think about Miranda's character, the more I think she should have been eliminated. Selina had so much more presence than Miranda and it was disappointing to ultimately find out that Bane was just her pawn. They could have also scaled down Blake's scenes with the orphans to give Selina/Batman more screen time. As for Batman's final confrontation with Bane, I would have loved to see Batman deliver a few more haymakers, demask Bane and watch the two have a pointed exchange as Bane withers in pain. My favorite bits in the Dark Knight were when the Joker and Batman were verbally squaring off against one another and I wished Bane and Selina had more of these moments.

Another thing that came to mind was how did Bane even know Batman's true identity? The Joker spends an entire movie trying to unmask Batman but Bane states it so matter of factly when they first meet. I wonder if any scenes got axed in the cutting room explaining how Bane knew about the weapon stash in Wayne Enterprises. Then Bane discovering that Batman was Bruce Wayne would have made more sense.

Miranda knows about the reactor and mentions as much at the party. She presumably tells Bane

I assumed that Ra's Al Ghul knew about Batman before coming to Gotham at the end of Batman Begins. And thus that Bruce Wayne's role as the uber-defender of Gotham was well-known to the members of the League of Shadows. Even if all they knew was that Ra's had trained this dude named Bruce Wayne, who disagreed with Ra's' plan to sack Gotham, it's no major leap for League members to figure out that the masked defender of Gotham is the former pupil of Ra's Al Ghul.

I guess, put more simply: Bane / Talia knew Bruce Wayne was a former member of the League. He / She could tell by what they'd heard of Batman that he was trained by the League. 2 + 2 = Batman.

Bruce Wayne/Batman is actually dead? I was expecting there to be an epic debate over it. I'm convinced Alfred was hallucinating. A more thorough explanation will come later.

Say Mark's wrong and Alfred is hallucinating or seeing what he wants to see. Who cares? What purpose would that possibly serve for the film? It would just be a completely arbitrary, and, yes, stupid, twist. At least Inception's "is it real or not" had a reason for being included. This one just comes out of left field for no discernible reason.

But that's just indulging the argument. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever for Alfred to be seeing what he wants at the end.