5. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
As their career goes on, youll see many directors begin to stagnate, choosing to stick with the familiar over pushing themselves (Burton and Tarantino are two high profile examples). With Nolan, however, you can see his films develop over time. His decision to punctuate each of his Batman films with a more personal project not only allowed him a holiday from Gotham, but also gave him an opportunity to develop himself outside of the confines of the franchise. The Dark Knight Rises is testament to his ability to grow; without practice with the dreamscapes of Inception, Nolan and Pfister wouldn't have had the same mastery over the epic scale of destruction Bane reaps in Rises. Watching his films back you get to sense how hes honed the art of filmmaking to suit his style and give the audience the best experience possible. In the pre-release hype, a lot of stock was put in whether Bruce Wayne would make it to the end credits and in the end it was only the Batman half of him that perished; as with Inception and its spinning top, it was less about the physical side of things and more about the emotional. There has been a small backlash against Rises, particularly on this website, that has escalated into dissatisfaction with Nolans entire trilogy. Its a mixture of high expectations but more importantly stiff commitment to the source material. We get countless adaptations of novels that update and alter the source material to make it more relevant, but, with Nolan being the first to do it properly with comic books, it has proven a hard pill to initially swallow.