Every Batman Movie Ranked Worst To Best

For all of the criticism levelled at The Dark Knight Rises (and do not misunderstand the fact that it absolutely deserves some of it), Nolan's trilogy ender is still a towering achievement in film-making. It delivers on the mythology established in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, taking THIS Bruce Wayne's arc to a fairly satisfactory conclusion and introducing a villain who stands shoulder to shoulder with all but the Joker in the trilogy.

Its problems loom large however: the decision to have Bruce Wayne retire is a betrayal of the character (and every inch of his history), the editing leaves a lot to be desired and there are - rather unforgivably given who made it - story issues.

But in a franchise that took some serious haymakers before Christopher Nolan rescued it, they are mere trivialities that reflect only a fanbase's lofty expectations of what could and probably should have been. Watched in a vacuum, The Dark Knight Rises is still great: it delivers on spectacle, threat and there is some level of comic book-ness in there, it's just a shame it didn't push things a little further.