There are moments when the stars and planets are in near-perfect alignment as a comet crosses the night sky and the movie gods cast their smiles on the screen, and a film dares to come close to living up to the undeniable hype that has been heaped upon its frames. It would appear that Christopher Nolan has produced just such an occurrence with the finale to his Batman trilogy.  

Christopher Nolan is daring us to ask the question. Is The Dark Knight Rises the best third film in a series ever? After going through this exercise for a few days now, there really isn’t much of a list to delineate and rank. Let’s review the obvious candidates and determine how Nolan’s finale stacks up.  

'Inception' finds writer/director Christopher Nolan in familiar territory as his previous reality-bending works ('Memento,' 'The Prestige,' 'The Dark Knight'), and the result is something almost as thrilling to contemplate as it is to watch. Even if you now know a little about what 'Inception' is about, you don’t even know the half of it. Grade: A.