Themes, Social and Moral Questions and what really makes a good story

The simple question is: What makes a great story? Now as I try to answer this question, I would like to point out this is my opinion and it should not be taken as me trying to say I am right and any other opinion is wrong. Now if you end up agreeing with me then, great minds think alike. So what does make a great story? Now first thing is first if I would like to point out something as fact its that: Not everything we like, not everything that makes us laugh, not everything entertaining, and awesome is "a great story". Because lets face it if that were the case Quentin Tarantino would have won an Oscar, Kick-Ass would have made millions in the box office, and as is the case with millions of die hard fans, Twilight would be the new bible. For me what makes something a great story is the questions it makes you ask yourself after reading or watching it. Yes it should have interesting characters, an intriguing plot, and good writing or in tv/movie cases good film making, but mainly it should have and underlying theme to its main plot. Now let me use my favorite director`s (Chris Nolan) two most popular films to date: The Dark Knight and Inception. Lets start with TDK now this movie  does a lot of things well, in particular how it fleshes out famous characters for a new generation of viewers. Now first and foremost it is a Batman story. Second I will not argue with people who say that the best scenes in this movie happen when both Batman and Joker are both present or even just when the Joker appears. But finally if you look at the main story arc of that whole movie, a movie with brilliant acting, a brilliant story, and brilliant film making, the main arc was that of Harvey Dent. A man who in the beginning was the so called "white knight", the man who could take corruption down. Who would not take it down by dressing up as a bat and beating people up, but by using the law. But in the end was corrupted by a madman, and how the best, brightest, and most optimistic of people can fall. It makes you question yourself. What you would do if you were that character? Would you rise above it? Or would you be swayed by corruption after everything you have fought for has apparently been taken away from you? Now lets talk about Inception. In many ways it is similar to any great movie, great acting, great plot, great film making. But lets be honest, who did not come out of that movie with questions of reality? Who did not at one point after or during that movie come out questioning the very fabric of our reality and the world we live in? Questions of is this a dream? Or if this is a dream then where are we, really? Kept popping up. And it also managed to throw another question about your moral character. If you were really paying attention to the story by the time this particular plot thread appeared and had not been distracted by the other ideas and concepts put out by this movie then you would have noticed one of the biggest questions this movie puts on to its viewers. What would you do, if you knew you were living in a dream, and were completely in control of it? Would you stay in your own little "perfect" world or would you come back to a world of "imperfection"? Even the way it was presented in this film when Leo DiCaprio`s character placed an idea in his wife`s head that they needed to go back to the real world tells you a little about yourself. If you agree with what he was doing then you live with the results, which in this case was his wife`s death. But if you do not agree with what he did, then would you rather stay in a dream world where nothing is "real"? These type of questions are what make great stories, at least from my point of view. Questions that make you look at your beliefs and your morals. Now don`t get me wrong I will always love watching and reading mind numbing stories that are stupid, pointless and fun, but it doesn`t mean those things are great. So yeah there you go all that is what I think makes a story great. And while we will always have movies/books like Harry Potter, Star Wars, or Narnia where we end up wishing with all our youthful exuberance that we lived in those worlds, we will also have movies/books like Inception, No Country for Old Men, and Catcher in the Rye which make us ask questions about are morals, are individual growth , and most importantly our own beliefs, which all form the basis of our own character, and our own story.