Was the improvement to Batman's suit actually noticeable?

Question

At the beginning of The Dark Knight they make it a significant point that Batman needs an improvement to his suit, in particular that he needs to be more flexible, as he realizes after the initial fight against the goons in the parkhouse and their dogs.

Bruce: I need a new suit.
Lucius: Want to be able to turn your head?

This goes pretty much in line with the motif established in the previous film, and continued throughout the entire series, of Bruce encountering some technological problem in his work and asking Fox if he can do anything about it. And indeed Fox builds him a new suit emphasizing this flexibility.

Lucius: Hardened Kevlar plates over titanium-tipped triweaved fibers for flexibility. You'll be lighter, faster, more agile.

I also remember that the reworking of the Batsuit, and especially his neck parts, were something the filmmakers explicitly emphasised off-screen. But while this scene also introduces the sleeve projectiles that come into action prominently during the final fight with the Joker, the usefulness of the increased agility and swiftness is much less clearly apparent to me during the later course of the movie. He does have another fight with a bunch of dogs (if not even the exact same ones), but he doesn't really seem to be much better at handling them, nor was the suit supposed to improve his resistence to them anyway.

So was there ever a crucial moment in The Dark Knight where the improved agility of Batman's new suit really paid or are the changes less clearly apparent and we're more supposed to accept that improvement as given or less drastic? Or maybe it was a less pointed and more general improvement of his entire fighting style that only becomes apparent from analyzing his fight choreography a little more? Did the filmmakers maybe even conciously change Batman's fighting style in reaction to the new suit?

Answer 1

There were a couple of enhancements in the Batsuit, that were exactly noticeable in the movie.

This time the Bat suit had cowl separated from the neck piece and based on the motorcycle helmet. This enhancement helped him to turn his neck left, right, up, and down. This thing is especially noticeable in the end when Batman goes to capture Joker while saving civilians who were captured by him and assumed to be Joker's henchmen.

In this fight sequence, we can see him moving his neck up and sides when Fox tells him about the current positions of SWAT team, Joker's henchmen and civilians.

Also in the same sequence, he also ties the rope in the legs of SWAT team while fighting with them. This, of course, requires agility to perform this so quickly that it goes unnoticeable and this agility can be achieved when a person feels lighter.

You can see legs of SWAT team tied with rope in this image.

If there is ever a crucial moment in The Dark Knight where the improved agility of Batman's new suit really paid, this would be the one.

Here we can see that Batman was able to quickly move his head when quick responses were required.

In the entire movie, more improvements can only be seen only after analyzing the fighting sequence, especially the last one.

The major enhancement was the White Eye Lenses, that he uses when he turns on the Bat Sonar to find Joker.

Also from IMDb Trivia page, which may answer your last question.

According to Christopher Nolan, Bruce Wayne's reasons for needing a new Batsuit (to be faster and more agile) were, in fact, the real reasons why Nolan wanted the Batsuit to be redesigned for this film.

This may explain the reason for adding the plot about Bruce asking Fox for a new suit to improve agility.

Answer 2

So the enhancements also set up a plot point in The Dark Knight Rises

Note Fox's continuation of your quote about being agile:

Now, there's a trade-off... the spread of the plates gives you weak spots. You'll be more vulnerable to gunfire and knives.

So when Thalia al Ghul stabs Batman, she would have failed with the old suit, probably changing the end as he would likely be able to face off to Bane.