The Dark Knight Rises 2012

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: For once a melodrama with pulp origins convinces viewers that it can be the modern equivalent to Greek myths or a Jonathan Swift satire. TDKR is that big, that bitter -- a film of grand ambitions and epic achievement. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: At over two hours and forty minutes long, with repeated scenes of bone-crunching violence and a maddeningly unrelenting percussive score by Hans Zimmer, The Dark Knight Rises is something of an ordeal to sit through. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: The Dark Knight Rises only rarely starts to tremor under the weight of its own portent, and is not without its own sly humor. Well done. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: The grave and satisfying finish to Mr. Nolan's operatic bat-trilogy. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Speaking lines they cannot possibly understand, not one actor makes any attempt to be believable. So manufactured and synthetic that they eventually lose all sense of reality, they're like reconstituted orange juice and processed cheese. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: It's spectacular, to be sure, but also remarkable for its all-encompassing gloom. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: A fitting conclusion to an artful trilogy, culminating with satisfying dazzle, despite some notable flaws. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: A satisfying and often breathtaking tale of good and evil. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: At a time when Hollywood seems incapable of doing anything that isn't a grand-scale fantasy, Nolan has hijacked the form to bring it down to earth. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: If the film is not quite the achievement "The Dark Knight" was -- and maybe that's the real question -- it's still a fitting end to a very ambitious series. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: In case you'd forgotten - and the summer of 2012 has given us much to forget - this is what a superhero movie is supposed to look like. Read more

Amy Nicholson, Boxoffice Magazine: A fine film in a strong summer, but it lacks the spark that made its immediate predecessor a masterpiece. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The script, by Nolan and his brother Jonathan, takes a few vague pokes at Wall Street and the financial elite but mainly revives the ponderous psychodrama of the first movie. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: What worked beautifully in "The Dark Knight" seems overworked and almost ridiculously grim in "The Dark Knight Rises." Read more

Tom Charity, CNN.com: Others will see it differently, but for me this is a disappointingly clunky and bombastic conclusion to a superior series -- Nolan's biggest and worst movie to date. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: I'm not arguing that Rises should be Singin' in the Rain. But its Wagnerian ambitions are not matched by its material. It hasn't earned its darkness. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Yes, The Dark Knight Rises. And rises. And rises some more. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: The director and cowriter/brother Jonathan Nolan pay heed to Wayne's wounded emotional arc. And the film is a feat of painstakingly crafted closure. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: This could - should - have been a swifter movie, but it sends the Batguy out in style. And let's face it, he's earned it. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Chaos reigns for much of The Dark Knight Rises, often in big, beautiful, IMAX-size scenes that only Nolan could have conceived. Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: Nolan knows where the good stuff will be mined: big IMAX action scenes juxtaposed with intimate moments of dialogue. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: Big-time Hollywood filmmaking at its most massively accomplished, this last installment of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy makes everything in the rival Marvel universe look thoroughly silly and childish. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: A disturbing experience we live through as much as a film we watch, this dazzling conclusion to director Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy is more than an exceptional superhero movie, it is masterful filmmaking by any standard. Read more

Charlie McCollum, San Jose Mercury News: As a cop tells a younger partner when Batman first reappears, "Boy, you're in for a show tonight, son." And, indeed, it's been quite a show. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Saddled with the impossible expectations surrounding the final chapter in his trilogy of Batman movies, Nolan surprises by one-upping you. He gives you more than you expected. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: An epic and then-some send-off to a character, and a franchise, that made it safe for superheroes to get serious. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: The story is dense, overlong, and studded with references that will make sense only to those intimate with Nolan's previous excursions into Batmanhood. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: It is, through and through, a Nolan movie - a brooding, complicated film that asks that you come to the theater prepared and that you watch the movie engaged. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR: The biggest surprise may just be how satisfying Nolan has made his farewell to a Dark Knight trilogy that many fans will wish he'd extend to a 10-part series, at least. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Christopher Nolan's dramatically and emotionally satisfying wrap-up to the Dark Knight trilogy adroitly avoids cliches and gleefully subverts your expectations at every turn. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Production-wise, effects-wise, Nolan's movie - much of its big action sequences shot with Imax cameras - is spectacular. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The Dark Knight Rises ultimately justifies its length (in fact, a good argument could be made for a longer cut) and the last 45 minutes is nothing short of spectacular. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: TDKR completes on the great trilogies in movie history. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The film begins slowly with a murky plot and too many new characters, but builds to a sensational climax. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Potent and provocative, The Dark Knight Rises is the King Daddy of summer movie epics. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Arguably the biggest, darkest, most thrilling and disturbing and utterly balls-out spectacle ever created for the screen. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Moments are stretched. Every recollection must be illustrated by a flashback. Character motivations shift on a dime, and if you understand even half of what's going on -- not generally, but specifically -- you'll be doing better than most. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Nolan's finale gives us the inevitable with generous portions of suspense, surprise and delicious shock. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Spoiler alert: "The Dark Knight Rises" will earn a billion dollars, be the subject of more master's theses than "Citizen Kane" and win the Academy Award for best picture. Read more

Christopher Orr, The Atlantic: There was an opportunity here for Nolan to show us another way, to (again) stretch the boundaries of what is possible in a superhero film. Instead, alas, the latter half of The Dark Knight Rises retreats toward conventionality. Read more

Brad Wheeler, Globe and Mail: This is a sequel that succeeds, meeting expectations built ridiculously high by fan culture and savvy marketing. In the end, Nolan's Dark Knight rises to the occasion. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: This Knight not only rises, it also cuts deep -- not just as spectacular entertainment but also as harrowing drama. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: "Merely great" feels like the most backhanded of compliments, but when a filmmaker is coming off a one-two punch of pop masterpieces like The Dark Knight and Inception, expectations get invariably raised for what comes next. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: The way the various strands tie up is a mite predictable, but it's satisfying nonetheless. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: My faith that a truly important piece can be gleaned from these tales of costumed champions has been broken. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: Retains the moral urgency and serious-minded pulp instincts that have made the Warners franchise a beacon of integrity in an increasingly comicbook-driven Hollywood universe. Read more

Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice: The history of Batman's burden is, however, increasingly cumbersome, and it's Mr. Bane who finally makes the pertinent point: "Gotham is beyond saving and must be allowed to die." Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: [This] wrap-up wraps up few of the threads in the first two films, and that the climactic cliff-hangers are nothing special (as well as flabbily edited). Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: [Nolan] has made a completely satisfying movie with The Dark Knight Rises, one steeped enough in self-contained mythology to reward hard-core fans while giving less invested viewers a rousing, adroitly executed piece of popcorn entertainment. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: This is the problem when you're an exceptional, visionary filmmaker. When you give people something extraordinary, they expect it every time. Anything short of that feels like a letdown. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: While director Christopher Nolan and star Christian Bale's epic of criminality and all-consuming conviction ultimately falls a bit short, their Batman trilogy ends with a suitably thrilling mix of guts and glory. Read more