Of all the films in Christopher Nolan's "Dark Knight" trilogy "The Dark Knight Rises" isn't the most fondly remembered. Sure, it made $1 billion at the global box office and was arguably the most ambitious superhero movie ever made in terms of its scale. But Nolan was always going to struggle to follow the zenith that was 2008's "The Dark Knight," and in many fans' estimations, struggle is exactly what he did.

Much has been written about the issues with "Rises" so we'll spare you yet another critique. In fact, we'll go one better and say there's a lot to like about the film, Marion Cotillard's controversial death scene notwithstanding. Aside from Nolan's always impressive in-camera action set-pieces, the film also featured some great performances, with Tom Hardy's Bane becoming almost as big a cultural phenomenon as Heath Ledger's Joker from the previous installment. Sure, most of...