The last time DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. released a trailer for their upcoming superhero flick, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, fans were treated to a lot of heavily shadowed shots of arguably the two most famous superheroes staring grimly at each other and some mumbled jargon about aliens and security and gods or something before they started wailing on each other in 3D-rendered spectacle. The high point, naturally, were the few glimpses of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman.
It certainly seems like things will be the same as Warners released the second trailer for Dawn of Justice on Jimmy Kimmel Live (which, incidentally, was where Marvel dropped the trailer for their own upcoming Captain America: Civil War). The new spot opens with Clark Kent interviewing Bruce Wayne at a gala of some kind, and the first interchange between them literally involves Kent (played by Henry Cavill) asking Bruce (Ben Affleck) what he thinks of the bat-vigilante in Gotham; Bruce smirks at him with that Nick Dunne smile and the screen cuts to black. Followed by more dourness and glowering and punching.
But then Lex Luthor shows up, played by Jesse Eisenberg. Eisenberg isn’t so much as chewing the scenery as he’s leaning back and just yelling for someone to inject it in his veins. For a film from Zack Snyder, a dude who’s spent a career striving for such awesome darkness unimaginable even by middle school goth kids, this comes off as a relief and a fairly nice choice. That being said, Eisenberg prances around the whole time like he’s channeling his American Ultra character channeling Mark Zuckerberg, and those energy levels aren’t exactly matched by anything else in the trailer.
We see more elements of wanton destruction and chaos, and it seems fine for a trailer, though is probably overkill for a movie. (Oh wait, this is a sequel to Man of Steel.)
We are living in a post-Mad Max: Fury Road world, and this trailer is indicative of the old way of handling things, of letting computer animation hide uninvested performances and lazy writing behind screen-grabbable action shots, of a thing that wants to be cool and loud but has no interest in being interesting, in this mentality of throwing more and more money at the screen instead of figuring out narrative flaws or channeling back on the nonsense or creatively trying to make something work. (Make no mistake: I don’t think the Marvel movies are any better and suffer from their own set of problems.) Not only do we have Bats and Supes trying to lay the beat down on each other, but there’s also Lex Luthor running around, and Doomsday apparently. Bright moments like Gal Godot’s Wonder Woman (the character’s second big screen appearance following The LEGO Movie) and Amy Adams’s Lois Lane are overshadowed by spectacle for spectacle’s sake and some bad jokes. (“Is she with you?” Superman asks. Batman replies, “I thought she was with you.”)
Actually, at the end of the day, this whole thing strikes me as a Jane Austen novel with more pyrotechnics. These two people who appear to hate each other will do whatever they can to upset one another’s ambitions before they realize how much they care and become besties.
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice is set to come out on March 25, 2016. It stars Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Henry Cavill as Clark Kent/Superman, Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, and Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. It’s directed by Zack Snyder and written by Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer.
