Colorado Springs moviegoers continued to see “The Dark Knight Rises” Batman movie Friday morning despite a deadly shooting at the midnight premiere in Aurora.

Some moviegoers, including Craig Seals, who’s visiting the Springs from his hometown of Rapid City, S.D., said they were shocked but were still looking forward to the movie.

Seals, who was seeing the movie at the Cinemark theater northeast of Carefree Circle and Powers Boulevard, said life can be “messy” but that sometimes you have to carry on nonetheless.

“The Dark Knight Rises” is the final installment in Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed Batman trilogy.

Carl Owens, a self-described comic-book nerd who was at the same Cinemark, said two of his friends were in the Aurora theater where the shooting occured but that he was still excited to see it.

Six or seven of his friends were also in a theater adjacent to where the shooting happened, he said.

“Couple of them are still shaking,” but they’re all OK, Owens said.

A manager at this Cinemark directed media inquiries to the theater’s corporate office about whether there would be increased security and whether the movie schedule would change.

Employees at Cinemark Tinseltown in southwest Colorado Springs directed calls to their media representative.

The Colorado Springs Police Department said Friday that it received calls from various movie theaters requesting “off-duty” officers.  Arrangements are being made to assist them, police said.

“As for our Patrol Officers, they are aware of the Aurora shooting and will remain vigilant in their duties to pay attention not only to movie theatres but shopping centers and other places where people tend to socialize,” police spokeswoman Barbara Miller said.

The increase in off-duty officers at theaters “is for caution and to show people that they’re going the extra mile,” she said. “I think they’re just being very cautious and sending a message that they care about their patrons.”

Miller said police will increase patrol checks at movie theaters around Colorado Springs for the next couple days.

In Denver, several moviegoers were at an 8:30 a.m. showing at the downtown United Artists theater.

“I’ve been waiting two months to see the movie, and I took the day off to see it,” said Alex Pankonin, who was at the show.

Pankonin said he never considered scuttling his plans to see it.

Around 30 people purchased tickets for the film, which was also being shown as part of a private event for Internet-security vendors, a United Artists usher said.

This undated film image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Christian Bale as Batman in a scene from the action thriller “The Dark Knight Rises.” A gunman in a gas mask barged into a crowded Denver-area theater during a midnight premiere of the Batman movie on Friday, July 20, 2012, hurled a gas canister and then opened fire, killing 12 people and injuring at least 50 others in one of the deadliest mass shootings in recent U.S. history. (AP Photo/Warner Bros. Pictures, Ron Phillips) Photo by HOEP

Ron Phillips