Batman snares nasty comments on web

Christian Bale as Batman in a scene from the action thriller The Dark Knight Rises.

Christian Bale as Batman in a scene from the action thriller The Dark Knight Rises.

Published Jul 23, 2012

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The aggregating website RottenTomatoes.com suspended user comments on movie reviews of The Dark Knight Rises after commenters reacted harshly to negative reviews of the film and made threatening remarks about the critics who wrote them.

Matt Atchity, the site’s editor-in-chief, said it was the first time RottenTomatoes.com had suspended user comments, adding that postings about Dark Knight reviews would probably be restored by the end of the week. This is the final film in director Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy.

“The job of policing the comments became more than my staff could handle for that film, so we stopped the comments altogether,” said Atchity. “It just got to be too much hate based on reactions to reviews of movies that people hadn’t even seen.”

Atchity said the site was considering a move to a Facebook commenting system, which might cut down on the glut of anonymous posts.

“We may do away with comments completely or get to a place where comments are only activated after a movie opens.”

While The Dark Knight Rises is experiencing a glowing 84 percent “fresh” rating on Rotten- Tomatoes.com, the film has been deemed “rotten” by a few critics, including Marshall Fine of Hollywood & Fine, Christy Lemire of The Associated Press and Nick Pinkerton of the Village Voice. Fine lambasted Dark Knight Rises for being “nonsensical” and Lemire called it a “letdown”.

“As a movie writer and critic, Christy gives her opinion and we expect people will agree with some of her reviews and disagree with others,” said Lou Ferrara, the AP managing editor who oversees entertainment. “It’s unfortunate when the conversation turns ugly.” – Sapa-AP

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