1. The Dark Knight Rises
Crafting a competent trilogy ender has always proved difficult Toy Story, Star Wars, The Godfather, Spider-Man all great series that had good third instalments, but that failed to live up to the previous entries, which makes the success of The Dark Knight Rises all the more sweet, because not only was Christopher Nolan faced with legions of hard-to-please fans, but had to do so without The Dark Knights ace of Heath Ledgers Joker. And funnily enough, it is the clown prince of crimes absence that helps boosts the film into greatness. For while the young stars death clouded The Dark Knight, its legacy in this world is less Ledgers maniacal clown and more Harvey Dents rampage and Batmans sacrifice; the film delights in looking at the toll the cover up has had on Gothams key players. The Jokers subverting also allowed Nolan to bring in Tom Hardys Bane, a much more methodical, physically imposing villain who, for the first time in this series, fully bested Bruce Wayne. As with Bond, we saw Batman reduced to bare basics; the traditional machismo was stripped away and a raw, flawed interpretation of the character presented. Some may have been put off by the lack of Wayne in cape and cowl, but that was the films ultimate strength. It made the film more than a superhero blockbuster; Nolan not only managed to make an epic that worked in its own right, telling a contained story, but tied it into the themes of fear and chaos that had ran through his bat films thus far, making it a perfect finale to the series. The Dark Knight Trilogy is, for my money, the finest cinematic trilogy of all time. Now click next and see which blockbusters from 2012 well and truly sucked.