The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

The final instalment of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy is both the greatest visually, but the weakest character and plot-wise, but not by much. Batman is driven to seclusion because he has been vilified in the media and he just wants to hide away anyhow. Enter both Catwoman (a slinky marginalized toughy who just needs someone to love her) and Robin (a young beat cop with a heart for orphans) to draw the Dark Knight from his cave. But the real conjurer is the new supervillain Bane who holds Gotham hostage with bombs developed by Batman's tech corp.

The drama is interesting if you can follow what Bane says through is mask and you can buy the storyline if you cast concerns about timelines aside (especially for Batman's bones to knit in the pit). Not sure why I'm so negative on this all of a sudden, maybe I've grown tired of this genre... I do find the bigger questions asked by Bane compelling and the underground movements to thwart him are inspiring and of course the death and resurrection themes are always sublime.