'You should die in a fire': Batman fans' turn on critic who panned Dark Knight Rises, forcing film website Rotten Tomatoes to suspend comments



Reviewer Marshall Fine under fire for comparing film to the Transformers

Poster tells him he would be the 'most hated man on the internet'



It is in turns explosive, menacing and sinister.

Not the film itself, but the war of words that has broken out on the message boards over reviews of The Dark Knight Rises.

It has not even opened in cinemas yet, but so intense is the strength of feeling over the film that fans have taken to making death threats against those who have given it a bad review.



Movie site RottenTomatoes.com was even forced to suspend user comments on reviews of the latest batman film after commenters reacted harshly to negative reviews, hurling abuse and threatening the critics.



Star-studded: In this film image released by Warner Bros. Pictures, Christian Bale portrays Batman in a scene from The Dark Knight Rises

'A HACK WITH NO OBJECTIVITY'

In response to a comment by Boston Herald movie reviewer James Verniere criticising Hans Zimmer's music for the film, one poster had this to say: 'There is absolutely no reason why an obvious ultra-Republican, right winged "movie critic", should be a movie "critic" for your newspaper. 'James Verniere is a hack who wants to capitalize on writing movie reviews when he has no experience, or frame of mind to do so objectively.

'Anyone can write a movie review. He is extremely subjective and entirely too political.

'You (Boston Herald) are wasting your money paying this guy.

'Thankfully, I use a heavy advertisement blocker in my browser so you were not paid a cent for my post.

'People like James Verniere should not be hired and you should be ashamed of yourselves for hiring him.

'Being contrary and political to shock readers into viewing an article for ad revenue is terrible journalism -- and bad policy for a business plan.'

Matt Atchity, the site's editor-in-chief, said on Tuesday it was the first time RottenTomatoes.com has suspended user comments, adding postings about Dark Knight reviews would likely be restored by the end of the week.

The UK premiere of the final film in director Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy wa slast night, ahead of it opening on Friday.

'The job of policing the comments became more than my staff could handle for that film, so we stopped the comments altogether,' said Atchity. 'It just got to be too much hate based on reactions to reviews of movies that people hadn't even seen.'

Atchity said the site is considering a move to a Facebook commenting system, which might cut down on the glut of anonymous posts.

Other film review aggregating sites, such as MetaCritic.com and MovieReviewIntelligence.com, either do not allow user comments or do not permit comments to be posted before a film opens.

'There are a lot of options on the table,' said Atchity, who is worried about a similar backlash when director Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is released later this year.

'We may do away with comments completely or get to a place where comments are only activated after a movie opens,' he added.



While The Dark Knight Rises is currently experiencing a glowing 84 per cent 'fresh' rating on RottenTomatoes.com, the film has been deemed 'rotten' by a few critics, including Marshall Fine of Hollywood & Fine, Christy Lemire of The Associated Press and Nick Pinkerton of the Village Voice.

Fine lambasted Dark Knight Rises for being 'nonsensical,' and Lemire called it a 'letdown.'

And it seemed the comment that brought the most anger was Fine's comparing The Dark Knight to the Transformers films. He wrote: 'At times, the action is so massive and thunderously clunky that I might as well have been watching one of the "Transformers" movies.'

To which 'Evan H' replied: 'Not only is this turd a moron, he is completely unoriginal. There was another troll reviewer that compared The Avengers to Transformers back in May. UNORIGINAL TROLL.'

Blockbuster: Actress Anne Hathaway is shown in a scene from the Warner Bros. film The Dark Knight Rises in this publicity photo released to Reuters May 1, 2012 Despite the critics The Dark Knight Rises still has a high reviewer score on Rotten Tomatoes

Another put it more succinctly, saying: 'Who in the hell gave you a job as a film critic??'

Among the more offensive posts one commenter said Fine should 'die in a fire' while another said he wanted to beat the critic 'with a thick rubber hose into a coma.'

Fine's review received 97 comments on his own site and 460 comments on Rotten Tomatoes before they were removed, according to indiewire.com .

Some were less harsh, with one observing: 'Just so you know, your going to be the most hated man on the internet for the next couple weeks. Enjoy. You brought this upon yourself'

'As a movie writer and critic, Christy gives her opinion and we expect people will agree with some of her reviews and disagree with others,' said Lou Ferrara, the AP managing editor who oversees entertainment. 'It's unfortunate when the conversation turns ugly''

RottenTomatoes.com is owned by social movie site Flixster.com, a Warner Bros. company.

Iconic: Actor Christian Bale is shown in a scene from the Warner Bros movie, which has received a few negative reviews