It would appear that hell hath no fury than a Batman fan scorned, as several US critics were subjected to a torrent of abuse for daring to suggest that The Dark Knight Rises isn't the best film of this or any other year. The invective later prompted reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes to close its comments section for the first time since the website's launch in 1999.
Two US-based reviewers, Marshall Fine and Christy Lemire, found themselves targeted by Batman fans, with the former reportedly receiving death threats after claiming The Dark Knight Rises was "grandiose, not grand". Lemire, the film critic for the Associated Press, described the film as "an epic letdown", adding that "the feeling of frustration and disappointment is unshakable". Not everyone was accepting of this.
"Broadly speaking, threats and hate speech will get your commenting privileges revoked," explained Matt Atchity, editor in chief of Rotten Tomatoes. "Marshall has the right to not like the movie, and people have the right to express their disagreement with him (although if you haven't seen the movie, your arguments may be on shaky ground). And we have the right to pull your comment down and ban you if we think you're acting inappropriately."
Atchity said commenting privileges were likely to be restored on the site on Thursday or Friday but admitted that the site was considering moving to a sign-up format in order to better police and monitor the commenters.
The Dark Knight Rises, the final part in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, is released on Friday 20 July.
