The Dark Knight Rises Reviews Point to A Movie Success for Nolan And Bale but One Negative Stands Out

Batman will once again don his suit to help Gotham eight years after the last movie put him on the run. (Photo : Warner Bros.)

The most heavily anticipated movie of the year is almost upon us. Warner Bros.'s The Dark Knight Rises is slated for a July 20 opening that promises to be one of the biggest movie draws ever. Despite the release date being 4 days away, reviews of the Christopher Nolan-directed flick are already trickling in and indicate the new movie is a fitting end for one of the most prolific trilogies in cinema history.

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The almost-three-hour-long movie will pick up with Batman (Christian Bale) eight years after The Dark Knight left Batman running from the law for taking the rap for Harvey Dent's (Aaron Eckhart) murders. Now, a seductive Catwoman played by Anne Hathaway and a terrorist named Bane (Tom Hardy) will bring the caped crusader out of retirement to try and save the city his father helped build.

So how good will The Dark Knight Rises be? Here are some snippets from reviews already released:

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

"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." - Richard Corliss, Time Magazine

"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." - Justin Chang, Variety

And if you're a Marvel fanboy who can't stand the DC Universe...

"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." - Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter

A Negative
Not every review I scoured was in favor of Nolan's film. In fact, The Dark Knight Rises could be a little too epic for some viewers.

"At times, the action is so massive and thunderously clunky that I might as well have been watching one of the Transformers movies." - Marshall Fine, Hollywood & Fine

Either way, I know I will be going to theaters this weekend to catch the last installment in a series that has reinvigorated comic book movies with a level of maturity and depth.

Will you be going to the theaters this week to catch The Dark Knight Rises?