The Dark Knight Rises The Dark Knight Rises Critic Review Thread

[Voyeur]

The positive reviews completely overwhelm the negative so far, yet when I do a google search of "Dark Knight Rises", I keep seeing the same Christine Lemire negative review of the film reposted over and over and over again. It's annoying...stupid Associated Press. LOL

 

[Micromind]

I am staying here, I don't want to hear spoilers but I just googled RT rating, it is at 91 % now with 3 negative reviews (one is from top critic.)

But it is still too early, only 15 reviews so far.

 

[Voyeur]

I am staying here, I don't want to hear spoilers but I just googled RT rating, it is at 91 % now with 3 negative reviews (one is from top critic.)

But it is still too early, only 15 reviews so far.

Yeah, that darn Lemire lady. She loved TDK, yet she didn't like BB. Thought BB took itself too seriously.

I think it'll be inevitable that a near-3 hour epic Batman film that doesn't feature the Joker will probably get occasional negative reviews. Because critics love the Joker, yet they don't always like "serious" superhero films.

Hopefully, there won't be many negative reviews though. I can't wait though. As much as I love Batman's rogue's gallery, I love even more the idea of this being Bruce Wayne's film.

 

[Micromind]

Yeah, that darn Lemire lady. She loved TDK, yet she didn't like BB. Thought BB took itself too seriously.

I think it'll be inevitable that a near-3 hour epic Batman film that doesn't feature the Joker will probably get occasional negative reviews. Because critics love the Joker, yet they don't always like "serious" superhero films.

Hopefully, there won't be many negative reviews though. I can't wait though. As much as I love Batman's rogue's gallery, I love even more the idea of this being Bruce Wayne's film.

Agreed.

 

[Minus Shock]

I read one of the negative reviews. Or rather the heading because I am trying to avoid spoilers and the point made was that there is so much action they may as well watch Transformers. To which I say you are stupid and all credibility is lost. I am sorry but the way reviews and media has gone is just extremes. Movie can't have awesome action pieces bookend story telling? Piss off.

 

[Aggressive Sock]

So far the positives have outwighed the negatives, based on the few things I have read from reviews. I, like many others, don't want spoilers...but I carefully read a few snippets from the negative ones, and this is what I have gathered with no spoilers:

1. This is more like Batman Begins, than The Dark Knight. So if you liked Batman Begins, or if you were part of the group that enjoyed Batman Begins more than TDK, you will love this movie. If you liked both BB and TDK, this prob won't beat out TDK in your opinion as the best movie, but you will still like it.
(summed up from the IGN review that wasn't really negative, but this was something he mentioned)

2. Bane doesn't grab your attention when on screen as much as the Joker did. He isn't as charismatic.
(personally I think they are 2 completely different characters, so to compare him to the Joker doesn't really make sense. Hardy even said in an interview months ago that Bane is not like the Joker, he is all about brute force, not showmanship etc.)

3. It's too long/bloated, and it takes a good hour to get going.
(Once again, if you are a fan of the series so far, why would you care how long it is? TDK was only 10 min. shorter than this, and I sat through it 4 times in theatres and always wanted more. This being the last one, I want as much as we can get. Also about the taking an hour to get going, to me that makes me think they take a good time with things and have a good buildup to things. That it tells a story rather than just action. Considering an hour of buildupm then that's an hour and 45 minutes of payoff...that's as long as a normal movie. Which I am very ok with.)

4. Bane is hard to hear.
(Said by a reviewer who saw it with his 21 year old son, and he too said he couldn't understand him. Personally I have never had a hard time understanding him, even in the very first trailers where others had trouble understanding him. Also, I will note that this was the only review where this was mentioned...so it could just be a problem with the viewer rather than the movie.)

5. It doesn't live up to the hype/isn't as good as TDK.
(This was from Christy Lemire's negative review. She was disappointed by the film and most of it was based on the fact that it wasn't as good as what she expected it to be and didn't live up to how crazy the hype was. Admittedly she said she didn't like Begins. She was a huge fan of Heath's Joker, but didn't find Bane as sexy or charismatic here. So take it for what it's worth.)

These are the complaints I gathered from the few negative reviews that are out there. Personally, none of these complaints are things I am worried about, nor are they things I usually complain about a movie.

 

[Keyser Soze]

It's sad that, amidst the sea of glowing positive reviews, the emerging story that's getting real traction is the 2 negative reviews and the vitriolic abuse and death threats those who wrote them have been subjected to.

DEATH THREATS. Over a review.

If you wish death upon someone for not liking this movie, you are an embarrassment to All Batman fans, if not comic fans as a whole. You give us all a bad name. thanks to your idiocy, when this gets brought up in mainstream press articles (which it already has) people will think, "Wow, those Batman fans are real crazy losers."

No movie will be loved by everyone. Can't you be happy with the overwhelming majority of positive reviews? I'm not saying you can't disagree with a negative review, or say the critic is wrong or has a dodgy basis for their opinion. but maybe wait until you've actually SEEN the film in case, you know, you end up agreeing with them? But don't resort to personal abuse. Grow up!

 

[Micromind]

It's sad that, amidst the sea of glowing positive reviews, the emerging story that's getting real traction is the 2 negative reviews and the vitriolic abuse and death threats those who wrote them have been subjected to.

DEATH THREATS. Over a review.

If you wish death upon someone for not liking this movie, you are an embarrassment to All Batman fans, if not comic fans as a whole. You give us all a bad name. thanks to your idiocy, when this gets brought up in mainstream press articles (which it already has) people will think, "Wow, those Batman fans are real crazy losers."

No movie will be loved by everyone. Can't you be happy with the overwhelming majority of positive reviews? I'm not saying you can't disagree with a negative review, or say the critic is wrong or has a dodgy basis for their opinion. but maybe wait until you've actually SEEN the film in case, you know, you end up agreeing with them? But don't resort to personal abuse. Grow up!

I am a Batman fan but seriously, I cannot support such attitude even if the review is negative (whether it is fair and objective or a biased and unfair) at the end of the day it is still just a review, it does not affect the quality of the movie on screen(or lack of it.)

People are going to watch it and then they are free to decide whether they agree with a certain reviewer or not.

Post Avengers success, we all (comic book movie fans) expect every damn cbm to make 1.44 billion dollars at B.O. and get a 92 % RT rating or the movie is a failure.

 

[Aggressive Sock]

I am a Batman fan but seriously, I cannot support such attitude even if the review is negative (whether it is fair and objective or a biased and unfair) at the end of the day it is still just a review, it does not affect the quality of the movie on screen(or lack of it.)

People are going to watch it and then they are free to decide whether they agree with a certain reviewer or not.

Post Avengers success, we all (comic book movie fans) expect every damn cbm to make 1.44 billion dollars at B.O. and get a 92 % RT rating or the movie is a failure.

Agreed with both statements. It's really unfortunate and ridiculous that such immaturity runs rampant amongst fans. It's not just in terms of Batman fans though, it goes for fans of many things, but it seems to be at it's worse over the internet. Be it for a game, movie, tv show, or anything along those lines, people get way too obsessive over something so meaningless and unimportant as a review.

A review is just an opinion, we've all been in the minority when it comes to liking or disliking something that wasn't what most people felt. So it's ridiculously narrow minded to act so crazy when you are part of the majority and not show those people respect who have different opinions. Nothing is universally loved or hated, there's always gonna be a small group that feels differently than the rest. Not even God himself is beloved by all, and even the Devil has his worshipers. Martin Luther King was hated by some, and Hitler was loved by some. That's just the way the world works. So something way less important such as a movie, is certainly no exception.

It's a shame that fans have to do this in any case, but it's the most embarassing when you are a fan of something and other fans of the same thing choose to act in such childish hateful ways.

Oh well...just one issue among a whole heap that make society look like such selfish hateful beings.

 

[jmc]

See internet, this is why you can't have nice things. Some of these people need to have a long hard look at themselves, it's a ****ing movie for christ sake.

 

[Keyser Soze]

I don't know if this is a bit condescending and sexist of me, but in my opinion, in the case of the Christina Lemire review, it's made all the more repugnant that it's a bunch of mostly men aiming abuse and threats of violence towards a woman.

 

[Maximus]

I don't know if this is a bit condescending and sexist of me, but in my opinion, in the case of the Christina Lemire review, it's made all the more repugnant that it's a bunch of mostly men aiming abuse and threats of violence towards a woman.

The real irony here is that these "fans" of Batman are the exact opposite of what Batman stands for.

 

[TomPiltoff]

And the thing that gets me is that these people still don't seem to understand the concept of a review. They read a negative review and react as if somebody has started a campaign against the thing they love, as if the movie won't be available to them unless this person shuts up immediately.

 

[Baneis8feettall]

84% at RT by the way.

 

[Aggressive Sock]

84% at RT by the way.

Based on the way things are going, I expect it to get around an 85-90% fresh rating. Probably around 210 fresh ratings, and around 30 rotten. With an average score of 8.2/10. (Begins got 85%, 7.7/10 average and this movie has been said to be more like Begins than TDK)

Which is good. So nobody should really feel disppointed or as if it's bad because it wasn't loved by everyone. No movie is. Not TDK, not Avengers, not Citizen Kane...nothing. There's always gonna be people who don't care for the same things the majority does. It especially won't appeal to everyone because of it's length(a lot of people hate long movies), and it's dark and grim tone. It's been labeled by many reviewers both positive and negative as the grimmest, darkest, depressing, and bleakest summer blockbuster yet. So it's like the Batman Returns to Batman 89'. So of course it's gonna turn away some people who want that happy feel good light hearted story.

 

[Keyser Soze]

And those who want to whine about any negative reviews should bear in mind that professional critics can be a community too, and a bunch of morons personally attacking a critic for their negative opinion could also serve to harden other critics against the film, given how crummy the film's ambassadors are.

 

[Minus Shock]

I really hate the whole way reviews are written anymore. I feel that the content should really only count for about 25% of the review. Everything else isn't as subjective. Is it well shot, well written, well performed, well directed, well edited, etc... those are yes and no. Whether or not you like Bane less or more than Joker is not that important to me. I want to know if the movie is written well, which I don't really have to worry about in this case. But I just see so many people interjecting their opinion on content far over how well the movie was made and if it is indeed worth the 7 bits to 12 bits you have to throw down for it.

I feel Avengers got higher reviews because expectations were lower therefore easier to surpass and the honeymoon affect hasn't worn off. Yes I love Whedon, Yes I love the cast, but it just is what it is. People liked it more because they expected it to be worse or even flat out fail. Batman's track record has been great, incredible so the expectation is FAR higher. And when people let their personal matters blind them from what is in front of them.. it's easier to be harsh on it. Plus being that guy who rail roads a highly anticipated movie has it's appeal to people.

Once the movie comes out I have a feeling it will level off at about 90% which whatever man. I love movies that are considered Rotten. What I am saying though is the priority and agenda of reviewers seems to be more of an ideological "I can do things better than this filmmaker and here is why I think so...". Now I am not saying DONT inject your personality into review writing.. I am saying don't let it account for more than it should.

By that logic I can say that simply because they didn't use Riddler and introduce Dick Grayson this movie is a failure. Which is absolutely absurd. If I am watching a movie made by anyone other than myself then I am accepting that it is not MY vision... IDK my two cents.

 

[jmc]

Expectations do come into play, I had pretty low expectations for Avengers given the other films in the series and in spite of the problems the film has came out enjoying the bad place out of it, conversely I had high expectations for Prometheus and come out feeling rather nonchalant about the film. Thing is of the 9 negative reviews only one is really scathing, and that came from someone who hasn't rated any of Nolan's Batman film, or indeed most of his back catalogue. So I say relax folks.

 

[Baneis8feettall]

Is that true that there is criticism about Bane that isn't sexy like Joker? If so, who wrote that?

 

[darrenbevan1]

My review is here

http://darrens-world-of-entertainment.blogspot.co.nz/2012/07/the-dark-knight-rises-movie-review.html

 

[Maximus]

I also noticed that there are two reviewers from the same newspaper in Australia who both rated it negatively. I believe their reason was that it was too big and boisterous, but they rated the Avengers excellently when that is almost a carbon copy of Transformers.

They also rated uninspiring and boring movies like Captain America fresh despite TDKR obviously being a higher quality product. It just seems like they want to go against the grain, especially because they work together.

edit - Andrew Urban - rotten - but a bloated one, full of the bling of blockbuster superhero filmmaking, from the giant stunts...

This is the guy who rated Avengers fresh yet it sounds like it could be written for that movie, and he is not the only one. Marshall Fine did the same thing; they just seem like fanboys arbitrarily rating these movies based on their favorite company.

 

[Baneis8feettall]

"Too grim.", "Too long." ,"Bane isn't like Joker." "Too much action" same stuff

"Too grim"
It's the Dark Knight movie. Last movie had sad end.Of course it'll be grim. Protagonist lost his love, his possible successor, took the blame,beaten and shot, he is an outlaw. It would be big **** off to previous audience if it didn't have such tone.

"Too long"
The last movie. It better be long. It's farewell to fans.

"Bane isn't like Joker"
Because he isn't suppose to be like Joker. Tommy Lee Jones/Two-Face anyone?

"Too much action.Too big scale"
It's a Batman movie.Summer blockbuster.Not art house film.

They can criticize direction,acting,story, plot holes and mistakes but seriously, what's wrong with these guys?

It's like watching Red Thin Line and criticizing it because it doesn't similar to Rambo movies.

 

[Voyeur]

Yeah, it's like some of these critics are suggesting Batman isn't worthy enough to carry a film on his own. He must have the Joker to hook us in. This is silly, of course. Heck, by their measuring stick, Darth Vader (pre-prequel, of course) would not have been colorful enough a villain for Batman.

A good Batman story doesn't have to always include Joker. In fact, most of my favorite Batman comics usually didn't.

From all accounts, Dark Knight Rises appears to be Batman's movie, more so than Bane's. Which is a good thing, especially for Nolan's finale. If anything, I'm now glad they chose Bane as the villain. He's completely different from the Joker and most of the Rogues Gallery. And while he may not be as colorful as, say, the Riddler or Penguin, he seems the only one (short of Ra's himself) who could truly intimidate Batman and Gotham City.

As far as the film being "long" or "dark". Ironically, I seem to remember many critics calling The Dark Knight too long and with one too many endings. I dare say, I'm actually hearing less criticism about the length of this one and most agree the finale is emotionally satisfying.

I am hearing some call this film too serious and not fun. Well, this ain't the Avengers. It's not supposed to be. It's Batman. And my favorite Batman stories were hardly a barrel of laughs. Having said that, it is a movie so there should be some fun. And it seems there's still some humor in the film and some fun to be had with Selina Kyle. But for a film that's about Batman's conclusion, I expect it to be VERY serious. I swear, I still believe there are critics out there who honestly think a super hero film can't be serious or have high minded screenplays.

They believe as long as the film features a guy in a costume, the filmmakers must not take themselves or the characters too seriously. I'm sorry, but I can't subscribe to that believe. Yes, some superhero movies should be all about fun and light entertainment. And we had that (or at least a failed attempt) with earlier Batman films from Burton and Schumacher. But Nolan's films have showed the Batman I always wanted to see put to film. I've been satisfied so far. I hope I am equally so for the finale.

 

[NMaudlin]

Hey guys, I see the movie in 4 hours.

Insert jealous comments below.

EDIT: Sorry, I though I was in General Discussion. Thats what I get for posting on an iPhone I suppose. To keep it relevant I will put up a quick review tonight. Im sure theShape has already covered everyones questions by now but I'll be hanging around for any further interrogations. Just dont start with the head...I'll get all fuzzy...

 

[Baneis8feettall]

^