10 Movies That Could Have Been Truly Awesome (With A Single Change)

9. The Dark Knight Rises

It's not easy to complete a trilogy. Even accomplished filmmakers like George Lucas and Francis Coppola had trouble keeping our interest after two long chapters. Outstanding third films are as rare as free trips to New Zealand. Trilogies, even the most promising ones, almost always disappoint in the end.

Fans had high expectations for The Dark Knight Rises, perhaps the highest for a Batman movie since 1989. After the surprisingly good Batman Begins and the masterful Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan had gained the trust of cynical Bat-fans. Even a movie theatre shooting in Aurora, Colorado, couldn't hinder the film's potential as a superhero classic.

What keeps the film from reaching that potential can be boiled down to one word: autopilot. The obvious trick of killing but not really killing Batman is explained away with a plot device more befitting the 1966 TV series than a serious cinematic treatment, let alone the final chapter of an epic series. It's the sort of thing you can get away with in a prologue €“ You Only Live Twice, for example €“ but not a climax.