The Dark Knight Rises Director Defends Angry Fans

By: Sara

A few fans of the Christopher Nolan "Dark Knight" trilogy took things too far when they started posting rape and death threats for critics who dared to write negative reviews of the final film. Things got so ugly on the movie review website RottenTomatoes.com that the site's editor in chief, Matt Atchity, took the unprecedented step of shutting the comments section down. Atchity wrote an open letter to readers and explained, "Whatever small role we play in the culture, I don't want to be known as a site for hate speech."

I don't know how you defend death threats, but Christopher Nolan did stand up for Batman lovers everywhere when taking questions about the heated responses at Wednesday night's London premiere of "The Dark Knight Rises". According to Nolan, "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 huge appeal, so I think you know people certainly respond to the character."

I wish Christopher Nolan would have come out with a stronger response to the situation, but I understand why he wouldn't. He has a movie to promote and he doesn't want to offend the people who are going to buy tickets. Of course people are going to have strong debates on the internet, but when you cross the line into death threats made to specific people, that is not something that should be glossed over.