'Dark Knight Rises' Critics Receive Death Threats From Fans

With many film industry insiders beginning to murmur about the possibility of Christopher Nolan receiving an Oscar for 'The Dark Knight Rises', some fans of the movie have become a little-over protective about the film. Fans of the movie have reportedly threatened reviewers on the Rotten Tomatoes reviews site who have dared to criticise the film, with some even receiving death threats. As a result, The Guardian reports, the site owners have disabled the comments section for the first time since the site launched in 1999.

According to The Guardian's story today (July 18, 2012), two of the site's US reviewers, Marshall Fine and Christy Lemire (of Associated Press) were targeted by fans of the film. Lemire even found herself on the receiving end of their death threats, with her claim that the film was "grandiose," not "grand." She surmised that the Batman series had ended as an "epic letdown," something to which a number of fans took umbrage. The comments section of the site was taken down as a result and the editor in chief of Rotten Tomatoes, Matt Atchity, said that it may not be restored until Thursday or Friday. He added that they were considering implementing a sign-up system, so that abuses such as this could be better monitored.

Atchity commented on the abuse received by the reviewers by saying "Broadly speaking, threats and hate speech will get your commenting privileges revoked. 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."