Early reviews: ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ and Bane get high marks

The early reviews on "The Dark Knight Rises" are in, and they are overwhelmingly positive. (Rotten Tomatoes measures critics reviews in at 96% positive, so far. )

Perhaps most notably, new villain Bane, played by Tom Hardy, is said to measure up to the late Heath Ledger's Oscar-winning Joker in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy grand finale.

Nolan himself has said he sought out "someone completely different from the Joker - that he be a brute force" (via Flicks and Bits). And Hardy has further pointed out key differences: "The Joker didn't care. He just wanted to see the world burn, and he was a master of chaos and destruction, unscrupulous and crazy. Bane is not that guy. There is a very meticulous and calculated way about Bane. There is a huge orchestration of organization to his ambition. He is also a physical threat to Batman. There is nothing vague about Bane. No jokes. He's a very clean, clear villain" (via Entertainment Weekly).