1. Liam Neeson - The Dark Knight Rises
Everyone knew it was coming, thanks to an early leak, but noone could have realised quite how underwhelming Liam Neeson's appearance in The Dark Knight Rises would end up being. During Bruce Wayne's incarceration in the pit, in which he twice defied medical science by having his spine punched better, and not dying from a very much fatal fall on the end of some string, Neeson appeared as a hallucination to mock/inspire Wayne to get himself better, while also telling him about Gotham's plight. Hang on a minute... how exactly did a hallucination transmit key information that wouldn't have been available in Bruce Wayne's subconscious? Or are we supposed to have believed that Ra's really was some sort of force ghost, thus compromising the entire realistic approach in Nolan's trilogy? It's pretty obvious that whatever Nolan was intending with Liam Neeson's cameo - which was arguably the worst kept secret of the entire franchise - that it was a poor creative decision. He should have been brought back for real, in a move fitting the grandeur of Nolan's final Bat-movie, and it would hardly have been difficult to believe that he had survived the end of Batman Begins given what would happen at the end of Rises and Batman's magical anti-nuclear explosion suit. That could also have left another thread open to explore if Warners do choose to keep Nolan's Bat-universe alive for the next Batman movie. What do you think - were there any other strange or distracting cameos from 2012 you think should be on this list? Share your own picks below.