As I walked into the press screening for “The Dark Knight Rises” on Tuesday night in Kansas City, I was approached by the publicists.

“We want you to give us your word that your review won’t contain any spoilers or even talk about any elements of the plot.”

OK, I said. I spend very little on plot summaries because I think they’re lazy anyway, but why the fuss?

“The studio also wants your word that won’t you won’t tweet or Facebook about the movie or even mention that you saw it tonight.”

Yowza. That’s pretty crazy. I can’t even say I saw it without issuing an opinion until the movie opens on Friday? (… technically Thursday night at midnight — who’s going?)

I wondered if this had anything to do with the movie critic who saw the film early and posted a negative review of it on RottenTomatoes, prompting — I’m not kidding — death threats (as if this wasn’t bad enough, there’s more) from Batman fans who .. wait for it .. haven’t seen the movie yet.

(As if making death threats to a critic you disagree with after seeing the film makes the “death threat” part of it all okay in the first place, but I digress.)

This caused RottenTomatoes to suspend comments on “The Dark Knight Returns” until sanity is restored to the fanboy trolls:

“The job of policing the comments became more than my staff could handle for that film, so we stopped the comments altogether,” the site’s Editor-in-Chief said. “It just got to be too much hate based on reactions to reviews of movies that people hadn’t even seen.”

(See, I shouldn’t have digressed — death threats are okay as long as you’ve seen the film!)

Anyway, that was not the reason the studio didn’t want me talking about the film online. After seeing it, I kind of get it. There are some pretty satisfying and fun last-minute revelations in “The Dark Knight Rises” that I would never want to spoil for anyone — although uber fans of the comic will probably see the foreshadowing a mile away and guess the entire plot by the end.

But what’s really exciting about “The Dark Knight Rises” are two things:

1. Co-writer/director Christopher Nolan takes scary real-world issues–the gap between classes, fear-mongering tactics, and absolutism–to their terrifying physical realization in the film. Superhero movies usually involve a personal journey and a battle to save a city from destruction. There are lots of similarities between this and other superhero films, but the difference here is that Batman isn’t just fighting for the survival of Gotham’s residents, he’s fighting for their souls. It’s the very fabric of society at stake, and Nolan’s script throws barbs at both the left and the right, arguing perhaps that any extreme sway to either side is dangerous.

2. “The Dark Knight Rises” is black as night in tone, but I’m going out on a limb here: I actually think the movie might work well as a dark comedy on subsequent viewings. I certainly laughed at all kinds of “wrong” moments, mostly because of Tom Hardy’s outrageous accent for super villain Bane.(Also see trailer above for his inspiration: bare-knucle boxer Bartley Gorman.) Once viewers are freed from the shackles of not knowing what to expect next, a second, third and fourth viewing will allow people to concentrate on some of the campier details and giant leaps of faith the movie makes.

My final take is this: After “The Dark Knight” and “Inception,” Nolan proved himself to be the master of mature, thought-provoking blockbusters. “The Dark Knight Rises” continues that tradition and wraps up all of the loose ends from the previous Batman films in a satisfying way while providing the audience with visceral thrills and some serious issues to chew on.