6. Chris Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy
When he joined the project as a bright young talent, Nolan had little experience with Batman and thus had none of the preconceptions other directors would have brought to films. To save the franchise from the hole deeper than Banes prison it was in after Joel Schumacher had thrown out two neon coated atrocities was a large order. Choosing to go for the gritty realism that had served him so well on Memento and Insomnia, the very first steps of Nolans vision were away from the norm. Although him and fellow screenwriter David S. Goyer took inspiration from various comic runs for the trilogy (particularly Frank Millers Year One), at no point did they seem afraid to change things. Merging together Waynes mentor Henri Ducard and supreme villain Ras al Ghul, weakening Bane and removing some of the more unbelievable elements of Batmans armoury are just a handful of examples of how Nolan played with the mythology. All the while, the general morals of Batman were preserved, showing a reverence to character, if not the stories. Again, as with Star Trek this payed off, with millions of new fans drawn to the caped crusader and, for the most part, comic lovers were left content.