The initial reviews of “The Dark Knight” are in and like always, they vary between each film critic.  It is currently receiving  100% on Rotten Tomato, which proves that  ‘most’ critics are giving high praise to the film.

The first negative review on the web comes from New York Magazine editor David Edelstein: 

Even if the death of Heath Ledger hadn’t already draped it in a funeral shroud, The Dark Knight would be a morbid affair: It could only be darker if Batman died. (He does die a little, on the inside.)  It’s a shock—and very effective—to see a comic-book villain come on like a Quentin Tarantino reservoir dog. But then the novelty wears off and the lack of imagination, visual and otherwise, turns into a drag. The Dark Knight is noisy, jumbled, and sadistic. Even its most wondrous vision—Batman’s plunges from skyscrapers, bat-wings snapping open as he glides through the night like a human kite—can’t keep the movie airborne. There’s an anvil attached to that cape.

From David Ansen of Newsweek:

Nolan wants to prove that a superhero movie needn’t be disposable, effects-ridden junk food, and you have to admire his ambition.

From Kirk Honeycutt of Hollywood Reporter:

Pure adrenaline. [Nolan], having dispensed with his introspective, moody origin story, now puts the Caped Crusader through a decathlon of explosions, vehicle flips, hand-to-hand combat, midair rescues and pulse-pounding suspense.

From Christie Lemere, the AP:

An epic that will leave you staggering from the theater, stunned by its scope and complexity. It’s also, thankfully, a vast improvement over his self-serious origin story, 2005’s Batman Begins.

From Peter Sciretta of Slash Film:

The Dark Knight is the grittiest superhero film I’ve ever seen. It’s so wonderfully bleak that you will forget that you are even watching a comic book movie adaptation.

I walked out of my Los Angeles junket screening commenting to friends that this might be the first comic book screenplay to be worthy for award consideration.

From Nick Nunziata of CHUD:

The film is quite special but where some films can weather extraneous or padded scenes, The Dark Knight has some distracting bloat to it which keeps it out of masterpiece territory.

From Staci Layne Wilson of Horror.com:

Martin Scorsese’s The Departed. Michael Mann’s Heat. Brian de Palma’s The Untouchables. And now, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight can join the list of one of the most absorbing and intense crime dramas in modern movie milestones.

From Edward Douglas at Comingsoon.net:

Daring and uncompromisingly different from previous incarnations of Batman, Nolan hasn’t redefined the superhero genre as much as created an unforgettable piece of crime fiction within the context of that realm.

As you can see, The Dark Knight is receiving mostly high praise from critics everywhere.  The only bad apple of the group is from New York Magazine, which from what I have read, seems to be the farthest from the truth.

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