My Thoughts on The Dark Knight Rises Teaser Trailer

Very rarely do I get caught up in the hype of anything, be it video games, books or films as such things always lead to disappointments.  But every now and then, I'll find a teaser trailer or gameplay footage that puts the hook in me the instant I see it.  And earlier today, I saw a teaser trailer that put the hook in me the instant it finished playing.  In this I am referring to the teaser trailer for the upcoming film, The Dark Knight Rises.

            When it comes to the Christopher Nolan Batman Films, I have mixed feelings.  Batman Begins always struck me as being a little overrated and underwhelming, like most origin stories.  The Dark Knight, on the other hand, struck me as being just as good as everyone said and better.  Today, I can honestly say that I consider it not only the best Batman film, but the greatest Super Hero film of all time.  However, unlike everyone else, I honestly wasn’t sure if I wanted to see a sequel to this film as the end of The Dark Knight more or less concluded the story.  Batman was now a reject, the Mob was going down and the Joker was in prison.  It was a bittersweet ending but it was one that I could have lived with and I would have been happy if they had never made another Batman film.

            However, this didn’t stop me from speculating on what the sequel would be like. Most people believed that the next villain would either be the Joker again, (despite Heath Ledger’s death), the Riddler, or maybe the Penguin.  My thoughts on it were a little different and I swear by everything I hold dear, to God, and on my soul that is what I thought whenever the subject came up.  I speculated that after the end of The Dark Knight much of the mob would go down but a good chunk of it would remain.  Realizing that the Joker was too much of a loose cannon, what's left of the mob decide to bring in Bane from God knows where to take Batman down.  At the same time I thought there would a bit of focus on Gordon hunting Batman and they would somehow bring Catwoman into the mix.  The latter two areas were obvious so I wasn’t surprised when it turned out when I was right.  However, you cannot begin to imagine my shock when I found out who the villain for this film was going to be.

            So now that I have ranted about the films for three paragraphs, what about the trailer itself?  Well, I first saw the trailer on IMDB.com and wasn't really sure what I was going to see.  The first thirty eight seconds of it was just stock footage from the previous films and I thought it was going to blow.  But then I saw something that caught my interest.  Commissioner Gordon lying in a hospital bed talking to Bruce Wayne?  Not Batman?  Bruce Wayne?  WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO HIM!?  HOW THE HELL DID THAT HAPPEN?!  HOW DID HE FIND OUT WHO BATMAN WAS?!  Then Gordon goes on to tell Wayne that Gotham needs Batman now more than ever, saying that a new evil has risen that he must fight.  However, Wayne says that he is no longer sure if Batman even exists within him anymore and Gordon pleads that he must.  That alone caught my attention and renewed my interest in the psychology and personal dilemmas of the character that the Dark Knight films are famous for.

            Then we got the best part of the trailer; little pieces of footage of Bane.  While he's never shown in full light for more than a second, what you do see of him makes your eyes pop out of your skull and you know that this guy is going to be a problem for the Dark Knight.  The final piece of footage we see is Batman about to go one on one with this juggernaut, followed by the trailer saying that this is the end of the Dark Knight Trilogy. 

            What else can I say?  I was sold the instant the trailer ended.  It started off bad but got better as time went on and showed just enough of the film to get audiences hyped but little enough to keep speculation alive.  And I for one can’t wait to see this film.  Anyone who knows me knows that I cannot stand teaser trailers so for this one to leave such an impact is a big thing for me.  If you haven’t already seen the trailer, check it out below.

            As I said, I can't wait to see it.

            So until next time, this is The Illusive One hoping to God that the film proves to be as good as the teaser trailer.