It's an inexplicably generic sell to boot, trading the powerful myth-making of the last trailer for action, Action, ACTION!!! While there are a number of interesting individual moments, the whole thing plays like a 'greatest-hits' montage from all the prior teasers, trailers, and television spots edited together for a conventional sell. With just a couple shots of Anne Hathaway and almost as few shots of Batman himself, the trailer merely seems filled with pretty much every major action beat that isn't a genuine spoiler. Cars! Guns! Explosions! Fuck the Expendables! Obviously studios can sell a movie however they want it, and I suppose the artier trailer turned off some audiences back in May. But while the first three previews, warts and all, felt supervised and/or approved by Chris Nolan and company, this new trailer feels like it was edited together by a fan sitting on his desktop cobbling together all of the prior trailers and TV spots. Yes, I know there is some new footage, but the vast majority of the trailer feels like a greatest-hits montage of the prior material set to somewhat generic hard-action music. This isn't about the film so much in how its being sold. The desperation I speak of is in regards to the idea that moviegoers will apparently lose interest in an upcoming tent pole if there isn't new audio/visual material being released online every other day until the release date. The Dark Knight Rises could have stood above the muck, but instead it chose to crawl through the dirt like a just another summer tentpole. Anyway, The Dark Knight Rises opens on July 20th. We're all going to be there anyway, right?
Scott Mendelson
