Downloading 'The Dark Knight Rises' Online Torrent, Not Worth It

The release of The Dark Knight Rises has been one of the most anticipated movie events since its prequel The Dark Knight came out in theaters in July 2008. When the expectations for a movie are so high in the age of the Internet, there's always the inevitability that bootleg copies will pop up online and spread like wildfire, but the question remains if it's worth it.

One thing fans are sure to ignore is the question of how much money the movies grosses and, in turn, how much the movie studio will make. The Examiner has an early estimate for the opening weekend at somewhere around $170 million, although in the same paragraph the author mentions that The Avengers topped $200 million its first weekend. With expectations set so high for the newest Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises could easily surpass that total.

Early reviews are favorable. So much so that movie gatekeeper Rotten Tomatoes ranked it at an 83 percent approval rating and had to temporarily suspend comments because of the negative reactions some critics were getting to their less-than-glowing reviews.

Usually when torrents do show up online, the quality is terrible because bootleggers sneak a camcorder into the theater and tape the movie that way. Think of Jerry and Kramer being bullied into taping movie premieres on an old episode of Seinfeld. Unlike Seinfeld, who was praised by his fellow bootleggers for his cinematography, most of the people who post the pirate version of the movie aren't able to get in all the details that make a movie like The Dark Knight Rises so rich.

Christopher Nolan is known for his flair as a director and while it's impossible to argue any movie is worth shelling out $15 to see in a theater, The Dark Knight Rises looks like it's designed for that experience. The big bangs, the gunshots, the fights and Christian Bale's terrible Batman voice will all sound the best out of real speakers, not ones that are replicating the sound after its been funneled through a camera phone.

There's no way a camcorder bootleg is the way to see The Dark Knight Rises, even for the hipsters that are surely going to hate it because everyone else will love it. The only way to really hate it is to pay the 15 smackers. That gets the blood pumping even for good movies.

Eventually, a quality torrent for The Dark Knight Rises will surface. Usually the best ones aren't available until just before the DVD is released but the demand that will (and probably already does) exist could push that date up.

As of October 2011, The Dark Knight was the second most pirated film ever (behind Avatar) with about 19 million downloads, per The Huffington Post. While The Dark Knight Rises will probably take the top spot on that list, hopefully the bootlegs are worth it.