The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

All Critics (299) | Top Critics (48) | Fresh (262) | Rotten (39) | DVD (3)

The story is dense, overlong, and studded with references that will make sense only to those intimate with Nolan's previous excursions into Batmanhood.

July 30, 2012 Full Review

Anthony Lane

New Yorker

Top Critic

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.

July 20, 2012 Full Review

Christopher Orr

The Atlantic

Top Critic

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.

July 20, 2012 Full Review

Peter Rainer

Christian Science Monitor

Top Critic

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.

July 19, 2012 Full Review | Comments (8)

Bob Mondello

NPR

Top Critic

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.

July 19, 2012 Full Review | Comments (173)

Tom Charity

CNN.com

Top Critic

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.

July 19, 2012 Full Review

Lisa Kennedy

Denver Post

Top Critic

Even with its flaws, The Dark Knight Rises is a solid film. It just fails to live up to the magnificent legacy created by the first two movies in the trilogy. To be fair, they were incredibly hard acts to follow.

April 12, 2013 Full Review

Rick Bentley

Fresno Bee

Every facet of this impressive piece reaffirms the same thematic gristle as it forces the viewer to chew on the notion of personal responsibility.

April 12, 2013 Full Review

Katherine Monk

Canada.com

The Dark Knight Rises is all about risks, and there are payoffs and failures to go with it.

April 12, 2013 Full Review

Kirk Baird

Toledo Blade

This is a solid film, taking itself seriously and asking that we do the same.

April 12, 2013 Full Review

Chris Knight

National Post

An ambitious, honourable and satisfying conclusion to this genre-defining trilogy.

March 4, 2013 Full Review

Tom Glasson

Concrete Playground

The Dark Knight Rises directly counters the arguments made against The Dark Knight. Maybe, sometimes, it is better to leave the demons unvanquished.

December 31, 2012 Full Review

Jordan Hiller

Bangitout.com

Technically, The Dark Knight Rises is a thick leatherbound volume with gilded pages, though flipping through it yields a story about a big bad bald man doing eeevil things until a vigilante with pointy ears comes to the rescue.

December 17, 2012 Full Review

Rob Gonsalves

eFilmCritic.com

The Dark Knight Rises, the year's silliest and most stubbornly self-serious blockbuster, arrives on Blu-ray with a flawed A/V transfer and a slew of largely inessential extras.

November 27, 2012 Full Review

Calum Marsh

Slant Magazine

Weighed down by portentousness and momentousness. The overall story remains a bit muddled. A better trilogy-capper than a movie in its own right.

November 22, 2012 Full Review

Brian Gibson

Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)

It makes an acceptable, if somewhat anticlimactic, conclusion to the three-part story arc. (Blu-ray Combo edition)

November 20, 2012 Full Review

John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

There's plenty of action, intrigue, special effects, and high-tech gadgets to maintain our attention at least in spurts.

November 20, 2012 Full Review

John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

There's enough that works in The Dark Knight Rises that I can overlook most of the more glaring flaws, but it remains to date the most disappointing film I've seen from 2012.

November 5, 2012 | Comment (1)

Rob Humanick

Projection Booth

Nolan keeps things dark and dangerous

October 20, 2012 Full Review

Robert Denerstein

Movie Habit

Doubtless flawed and arguably overlong, it's nonetheless a personal and heartfelt ode from the director to the greatest comic-book character ever committed to paper -- and now film.

October 19, 2012 Full Review

Ali Gray

TheShiznit.co.uk

Nolan's finale isn't perfect, and may not be the greatest installment of the trilogy, but it solidifies this three-part tale of the Batman legend as one of the best ever told.

October 2, 2012 Full Review

Kofi Outlaw

ScreenRant

... if Gotham falls, so does Bruce Wayne. Rarely, in film, have we understood and sympathised with a hero's mission as much as Bruce's.

September 27, 2012 Full Review

Adam Ross

The Aristocrat

The Dark Knight Rises succeeds in surpassing 2008's 'The Dark Knight' to become the best of his three films. Whether that will be enough to secure his Best Picture Oscar is frankly irrelevant - because what matters is that this is Batman's best picture.

September 26, 2012 Full Review | Comment (1)

Patrick Kolan

Shotgun Critic

Though not without the odd minor niggle, The Dark Knight Rises is an intelligent, gripping, complex and suitably satisfying end to what is now - quite easily - the best comic adaptation trilogy of all time.

September 26, 2012 Full Review

Stephen Carty

Flix Capacitor

The Dark Knight Rises is the film event of the summer. A completely satisfying piece of filmmaking that delivers so much more, making for an excellent sign off for one of cinema's finest trilogies.

September 14, 2012 Full Review

Will Chadwick

We Got This Covered

[It] may be the weakest film in the trilogy, but it is still a satisfactory and exciting conclusion to what has been the greatest treatment of any superhero in film history.

September 12, 2012 Full Review

Jeff Beck

Examiner.com

• 1. Commissioner Gordon: There's only one man with his finger on the button. That's Bane!
  – Submitted by In Your D (4 days ago)
• 1. Bane: Ahh, you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it. Molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was a man. But it was nothing to me but blinding.
  – Submitted by Bryan D (39 days ago)
• 1. Bane: Let's not stand on ceremony here. Mr. Wayne.
  – Submitted by Bryan D (39 days ago)
• 1. Bane: The shadows betray you, because they belongs to me.
  – Submitted by Rodrigo B (45 days ago)
• 1. Stryver: You're pure evil.
  2. Bane: I'm necessary evil.
  – Submitted by Kapil S (47 days ago)
• 1. Bane: The shadows betray you, because they belong to me.
  – Submitted by Rodrigo B (54 days ago)