Reception
How did IGN rate "The Dark Knight Rises"?
The Dark Knight Rises
"The Dark Knight Rises" received mostly positive reviews from critics; Rotten Tomatoes sampled 304 reviewers and judged 88% of the reviews to be positive. Metacritic, another review aggregator, assigned the film a weighted average score of 78 (out of 100) based on 45 reviews from mainstream critics, considered to be "generally favorable reviews". CinemaScore reported that audiences gave the film an A grade. "The Telegraph" granted the film a maximum score of five stars, stating that it is "a superhero film without a superhero," comparing it with "The Godfather Part II" and praising Hardy's performance as well as the film's intricate plot and narrative. Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" thought the film was "potent, persuasive and hypnotic" and that it was "more than an exceptional superhero movie, it is masterful filmmaking by any standard." "The Playlists" Todd Gilchrist wrote "A cinematic, cultural and personal triumph, "The Dark Knight Rises" is emotionally inspiring, aesthetically significant and critically important for America itself – as a mirror of both sober reflection and resilient hope." IGN gave it a 9 out of 10, noting similarities in tone and theme to "Batman Begins" over the trilogy's second installment "The Dark Knight", but also describing Bane as "that bit less interesting to watch" than Ledger's Joker, despite praising his "menacing voice" and "body language-driven performance". "The Guardian" scored the film four out of five stars, calling it a film of "granite, monolithic intensity", yet also calling it a "hammy, portentous affair". Andrew O'Hehir of "Salon" writes "if "The Dark Knight Rises" is a fascist film, it's a great fascist film, and arguably the biggest, darkest, most thrilling and disturbing and utterly balls-out spectacle ever created for the screen". Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film three out of four stars, stating "the film begins slowly with a murky plot and too many new characters, but builds to a sensational climax." Film critic Richard Roeper gave the film an "A", calling it "a majestic, gorgeous, brutal and richly satisfying epic", and citing the final scenes of the picture as "the best five minutes of any film this year." The London Film Review gave the film a B and said "Nolan's film is a reminder that superheroes aren't merely a frivolous distraction, but an embodiment of our best selves." The film was crowned by "Forbes" as the best modern comic book superhero adaption on screen, outranking both its main summer blockbuster competitor, "Marvel's The Avengers", and the trilogy's previous installment "The Dark Knight". "The Daily Mail" Chris Tookey said that the film was bloated and overly long, and criticized the sombre tone and lack of humor, despite praising the film's visually-impressive set pieces. CNN's Tom Charity said the film was a "disappointingly clunky and bombastic conclusion to a superior series" and called it Nolan's worst film. Anthony Lane of "The New Yorker" says that the "story is dense, overlong, and studded with references that will make sense only to those intimate with Nolan's previous excursions into Batmanhood". In reaction to fan backlash to some of the negative reviews, Rotten Tomatoes chose to disable user commentary for the film leading up to its release. Some fans had threatened violence against critics while others threatened to take down the websites of movie critics who had given the film a negative review.