Trailer Park: Batman vs Superman's First Teaser Trailer

In which I discuss the latest movie trailers.

Batman vs Superman was always going to be a troublesome movie for me.  While I actually loved Man of Steel (more than I thought I ever would love a Superman movie), everything about Dawn of Justice struck me as trying to incessantly one-up Marvel with an almost willful insistence that they don't need to build up to this mini-Justice League the same way that Marvel had to build up its cinematic universe.

Superman shrugged.

I'm not saying that there's not something to the idea of hitting the ground running.  I'm not saying that they necessarily had to construct the DCCU brick by brick.  I'm just saying that the dark, heavy-handed tone of the movie doesn't feel earned.

My biggest grip with Man of Steel was with its Dark Knight aesthetic.  For however interesting they were able to make Superman and however fantastic the action was, it never once felt like I was watching a Superman movie.  And with Dawn of Justice's trailer, it still doesn't feel that way.  Check it out here:

It's almost like somebody at DC figured that Man of Steel wasn't nearly dark and gritty enough, and that anything with Batman in it necessarily had to raise the bar in that respect.  Seriously, this feels more like Injustice than what's supposed to be a pretty straightforward take on mainstream DC continuity.

Think about it.  The omnipresent nocturnal setting, the Atlas-like Superman statue with "False God" graffitied on its chest.  The timely voice over reminding us that "absolute power corrupts absolutely."  Then there's this strangely martial-looking shot:

Hail Hydra.

This isn't really the take on the subject that I was hoping for.  Everything coming out its production talked about Superman being a controversial character, not about him basically being the Superman from Red Son.  I was expecting a bit more leveled approach when it came to the question of superheroic ethics than Snyder's apparent belief that "Devil's don't come from Hell beneath us, they come from the sky" (actual voice-over dialog from the trailer!).

Unsurprisingly, Batman is the best part of the trailer.  Although we really don't see him in his iconic suit, the unworn costume looks fantastic: maybe the best version of it that we've seen on screen so far.  And remember, chasing Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, that's actually saying something.

Okay, this is actually pretty sweet.

Even though he's only given only one inane, voice-modified line of dialog, Ben Affleck absolute sells himself as Bruce Wayne.  His brooding scowl is absolutely dead on.  Although much has already been made of Batman's chunky, Lego-like armor already, I can't say that it bothered me all that much.  It's obviously battle armor and obviously meant to be as Batman as possible and is a pretty logical and cool-looking progression from previous Batman augmentations.

Jeremy Irons voice-over as Alfred is like a hard-edged take on Michael Caine's Alfred.  It's pretty much what I would have expected from Sean Pertwee reciting Caine's "some men just want to watch the world burn" speech from The Dark Knight, and it's unquestionably awesome.

Batfleck

If the movie - God forbid the entire DCCU - actually turns out how they're selling it in this trailer, I can't say that I'll be excited for anything that's not Batman branded from the start (The Suicide Squad, a Batman solo movie, a Nightwing movie, etc...).  It's just such an unrelentingly grim, mono-tonal take on the DC universe, with seemingly no room for variation between its component franchises.

Not everything's supposed to look, sound and feel like Batman.  Sure, Snyder might of Batman down to a T, but that didn't help him in Man of Steel and that won't help him with any of the DCCU's future projects.

Darkness!  No parents!  Continued darkness!  More darkness!  Get it?

So what do you think about the Batman vs Superman teaser trailer?  Are you still excited to see the movie?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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