"The Dark Knight Rises" opens in theaters tomorrow, and it seems to be making everyone a little bit crazy. Bat-obsessives kneeling at the altar of Christopher Nolan have unleashed their fury at critical reviews of the film on Rotten Tomatoes, forcing the movie rating aggregators to turn off comments on all reviews for the pic entirely (side note: Warner Bros. owns Rotten Tomatoes so make of that what you will). Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh unleashed his usual bit of crazy, suggesting that the villain of Bane is some scheme to get voters confused about Mitt Romney's various Bain Capital controversies. Now it's time for a rejoinder.
“I’m not sure how to address something that bizarre, to be honest. I really don’t have an answer for it. It’s a very particular comment to make,” Christopher Nolan told press at the London premiere for 'Rises.' C'mon Chris, you could've done better than that! We'll leave it Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash), who hit Twitter on Wednesday saying: “There needs to be a bipartisan effort to find Rush a new job.” BURN.
As for the fan response to the negative reviews, Nolan once again put on his kindly Diplomacy Hat saying, “I think the fans are very passionate about these characters the way a lot of people are very passionate. Batman’s been around for over 70 years and there’s a reason for that. He has a huge appeal, so I think you know people certainly respond to the character.” A missed opportunity to tell diehard fans to chill the fuck out if there ever was one.
Finally, Conan O'Brien used the Limbaugh/'Rises' dustup, displaying a recut version of the trailer on "Conan" that replaces Bane's dialogue with a fake Mitt Romney. It's actually not that funny, but it'll do until the stroke of midnight when the Bat flies again in theaters everywhere. [ABC/EW]