trailer of the week: the dark knight rises

16Jul11

Normally I’d just insert the youtube video, but Warner Brothers is all over this shit and it will likely be taken down in a few hours. Not surprising, they have a frightening ability to keep movie news on lock down. Remember when they played exclusive Deathly Hallows footage at Comic-Con and none leaked? Literally no other studio can boast that. They must have Batman himself patrolling the crowd.

Anyway, I first saw the teaser trailer played Deathly Hallows Part Two in most theatres across North America this weekend. If youtube takes it down and you haven’t been fortunate enough to view it yet, let me summarize:

It opens with the WB logo and I immediately sit forward going “OMG OMG IS THIS IT THIS IS IT IS THIS IT???” The score kicks in with scenes of Commissioner Gordon in a hospital bed, possibly dying? Looks like he’s dying. He’s talking to an unseen Bruce Wayne, spliced with scenes from previous films in the series (notably the training sessions in Batman Begins). There’s a line from Liam Neeson (is R’as Al Ghul back?????) and a shot of Tom Hardy as Bane and a lot of text flashing on the screen saying things like “Journey’s begin… and end” and “The final film in the Dark Knight trilogy” and “seriously guys, we’re not making another one.” Okay maybe it wasn’t that literal, but the was the gist.

It’s hard to convey in mere words how perfect this tiny trailer was. I’m biased, of course, because I’m a bit of a Batman fan, but considering my expectations were met and then some by the previous two films, I doubt Nolan and co will be dropping the ball anytime soon.

There were two things I especially liked about this trailer.

The insistence that this was the final film: Now don’t get me wrong, I want Christopher and Jonathon Nolan to keep on keepin’ on, writing and directing the most flawless comic book movies to date with a perfect cast. However, they want out and they are making sure their legacy will remain untouched. This is the last in their trilogy, we’re not getting some Joel Schumacher bullshit where someone throws in a crappy knockoff and acts like it’s all part of the same continuity. Nope, the Nolan’s masterpiece sits at three and WB are going to have to start from scratch when it’s all done. Not the best news for us fans, but great thinking ahead for the Nolan bros.

The clips from Batman Begins: No one is saying The Dark Knight isn’t good, but everyone seems to forget the first film in the series. Batman Begins blew my mind, okay? I wasn’t expecting much going in (I had assumed it was another Joel Shumacher bullshit film. I recall saying things like “won’t top the Tim Burton originals”. I have obviously recanted.) It was a perfect film. It introduced us to the origins in a different way than we’re used to. We all know Batman’s parents are dead, but did we know he had awesome training montages with Liam Neeson? The fact that it used lesser-known villains of R’as Al Ghul and Scarecrow was genius as well. It was so refreshing, not like any Batman movie we’d seen before. Not to mention the perfect casting choices – Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy, the aforementioned Liam Neeson who catapults any film he’s in to a higher class, etc. Aside from Katie Holmes, this was a flaw-free film. TANGENT! My point was, I feel like Batman Begins doesn’t get its due by the movie-going public and I loved that WB, DC and the Nolan’s aren’t acting like Dark Knight Rises is just a sequel to The Dark Knight – it’s the final piece of an amazing trilogy.

Long story short, The Dark Knight Rises will be released July 2012 and I will see it every day for a month straight.