Tagged: the dark knight rises

Sure, here’s one more “Dark Knight Rises” trailer

Another trailer for “The Dark Knight Rises” hit the Web this morning, and while nobody really anticipated another trailer for the movie, why complain? It’s a trailer for “The Dark Knight Rises.” Watch, enjoy, salivate, etc.:

Here, in no particular order, are three thoughts:

  1. Bane, played by Tom Hardy, still sounds utterly ridiculous. I know that was the big response to the prologue screening last December (those pre-”Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” previews where they showed the opening scene of the movie, which centers on Bane), and I know Warner Bros. and Christopher Nolan claimed it was fine and that they probably went in and did a little tweaking (because it’s incredibly easy to record a voiceover for a guy wearing a mask for an entire movie), but he still sounds silly.We’ve seen multiple trailers and ads for this movie so far, and how many lines of dialogue has Bane had in these previews? Five, maybe? Hey, maybe the guy has almost zero lines of dialogue (maybe he just stands there, cutting an imposing figure, because Hardy certainly looks imposing). Maybe the villain in this movie has no dialogue. Who knows? Or maybe he just sounds ridiculous. We’ll find out!
  2. This movie is absolutely not going to earn as much as “The Dark Knight,” nor is it going to open with as much as “The Avengers” netted in its opening. That’s not even a question. It’s going to be big ($400 million dollars is possible, but not definite). It also seems like it will be very good; it’s probably going to be a considerably better Film than “The Avengers” (a movie I liked, by the way). But it certainly won’t earn as much money as those two films.
  3. This movie comes out one month from tomorrow. Just tossing that out there.
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First TV spots for “The Dark Knight Rises” arrive

The official 2011-2012 television season came to a close last night, and the two biggest things on the air were the finales of “Modern Family” and “American Idol.” So it makes sense that Warner Bros. would choose to air the first TV spots for “The Dark Knight Rises” during those shows. I was very surprised to see such a TV ad — the movie doesn’t come out for another two months — but it was nice to see some new footage from the movie.

Anyway, this is all a preamble because I wanted to have an introductory paragraph but I am also aware that there’s not much I can say about “The Dark Knight Rises.” It’s a movie. You’re probably going to see it. Here are the two spots. First, the one that aired during “Idol”:

And here’s the one that dropped at the end of “Modern Family”:

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No, “The Dark Knight Rises” won’t beat the opening of “The Avengers”

In the wake of “The Avengers” and its ridiculous opening weekend haul of $200 million (or more), a very particular subset of people turned to the next logical question: Okay, so what about “The Dark Knight Rises”? (I had a couple of friends ask me what I thought about this over the last day, because I am exactly the type of weird person who gives this kind of thing serious thought.) After all, “The Dark Knight” broke the opening weekend record when it debuted with $158 million in July 2008, and people are incredibly eager to see the sequel. If “The Avengers” opened with $200 million, shouldn’t “The Dark Knight Rises” be able to earn at least that amount?

The answer is no. The main reason — really, the biggest reason, though there are others — is 3-D.

Continue reading →

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Final trailer for “The Dark Knight Rises”

Well, that was unexpected. The third and final trailer for “The Dark Knight Rises” has arrived online earlier than anticipated, giving us our best look yet at what appears to be the basic story of the film.

I say the basic story because we still don’t really know the full plot of the movie, which is quite something. We know that Bane (Tom Hardy) attacks Gotham City and Batman (Christian Bale). We know Batman is badly injured and maybe/probably taken out of the game for a while. We know Anne Hathaway plays Catwoman and we know Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a Gotham police officer. This trailer gives us a much better glimpse of Hathaway and Gordon-Levitt, while also showing a bit more of what happens after Batman faces Bane. (I am oddly pleased this trailer seems to give us an idea of the basic story structure without giving away every major detail. I am also pleased that Christopher Nolan and whomever cut this trailer opted to shy away from the excessive BWAAAAM-ing that has taken over every post-”Inception” trailer.)

What else do we know? We know the city descends into chaos and Batman eventually flies his Chris Nolan-fied Batwing. We know Marion Cotillard is in there, and that is all one can say about that without spoiling anything. We know Gary Oldman, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman are back. We don’t really know the overall stakes of the story, nor do we know the backstory behind some of the things we saw photographed on-set when the movie was filming. We also don’t know perhaps the biggest lingering issue: We don’t know if Nolan truly wraps up his series — i.e. kills Batman — and leaves the franchise to completely reboot in his wake. July 20 cannot come soon enough.

The trailer is appearing in front of “The Avengers” this weekend, and Warner Bros. began pushing out some so-called “viral” marketing campaign on Monday that revealed images from that trailer. (One enterprising fan even turned these released images into a GIF.) It was expected that the actual trailer wouldn’t appear online until sometime after “The Avengers” came out. The second trailer, last December, hit theaters over the weekend and didn’t officially arrive online until after the weekend was over; as a result, many people watched crappy bootlegged versions that people had recorded in theaters. I’m guessing Warner Bros. wanted to avoid a repeat of that. And if this trailer makes “The Avengers” an afterthought, however briefly, in the week leading up to its release…well, I’m sure Warner Bros. doesn’t mind that.

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“The Hunger Games,” “The Avengers” and big, big numbers

We know “The Avengers” is going to be huge and we know ”The Hunger Games” is already huge. Both movies hit big milestones over the weekend, so let’s discuss that.

First, “The Avengers.” The movie opens stateside this weekend, but Disney decided to release it overseas a week before we see it in the U.S. The numbers are astonishing: $178.4 million earned in 39 countries. And it hasn’t even opened in Russia, China or Japan, which makes that opening even crazier.

The Marvel movies are typically very strong overseas. Only two of their movies — the first “Iron Man” and “The Incredible Hulk,” both released in 2008 — earned more than half of their worldwide grosses in North America. The other four movies — “Iron Man 2″ ($311 million abroad), “Thor” ($268 million) and “Captain America” ($192 million) — have been very, very huge outside of the U.S., earning more internationally than they did domestically. It looks like “The Avengers” will earn at least twice as much in foreign box office as “Iron Man 2″ made two years ago. And this movie’s domestic box office gross could wind up topping $375 or $400 million dollars. So we might have an actual competition here between this and “The Dark Knight Rises” as the summer movie to beat*.

“The Hunger Games,” meanwhile, is still raking it in all over the place. The movie’s worldwide gross topped $600 million this weekend. Domestically, it earned $11.2 million dollars this past weekend — dipping a meager 23 percent from last weekend, its smallest drop so far. That puts it at $372 million domestically, which makes it No. 17 on the all-time domestic box office chart (without adjusting for inflation). It should crack the top 15 by Saturday, and still looks likely to finish with between $390 and $400 million domestically. Overseas, it has earned $228 million.

There’s also “Battleship” — the movie “Battleship,” based on the board game Battleship, only with aliens this time — which has earned a very impressive $170 million overseas thus far. “Battleship”!

* FWIW: “The Dark Knight” is far and away the biggest superhero movie in box office history. It topped $1 billion worldwide, while its closest competitor — the reviled “Spider-Man 3″ — made $890 million. Yes, if “Spider-Man 3″ was actually decent it could have finished with a bigger gross, but it wasn’t and it didn’t and that’s not the point. The point here: “The Dark Knight” only made that much because it was such a phenomenon stateside, earning 53 percent of its overall haul here at home. It’s the only film among the 30 biggest worldwide hits with more than half of its grosses coming from domestic box office. The $468 million that “The Dark Knight” earned abroad is very good, clearly, but it falls behind the $554 million “Spider-Man 3″ made overseas the year before.

This summer’s biggest performers are likely to be — in order of release date — “The Avengers,” “Men in Black 3,” “Brave,” “The Amazing Spider-Man,” “Ice Age: Continental Drift” and “The Dark Knight Rises”; all of which could easily top $600 million worldwide. (I know, I know: “Ice Age 4.” But the third film in that series made an appalling $690 million overseas, earning more than 77 percent of its worldwide gross overseas — the biggest overseas-to-U.S. ratio among any movie on the top 100 all-time worldwide box office list.) “The Dark Knight Rises” will likely earn more overseas than its predecessor did, but less domestically, which would still put it on pace for a box office haul north of $900 million. That’s very good, clearly. It just might not be good enough to catch “The Avengers,” which is looking like a billion-dollar film right now.

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Is “The Hunger Games” The First Best Picture Contender of 2012?

Nope. But thanks for asking.

(To expound: No, this movie will not be a Best Picture nominee. This movie won’t be on any of the short lists of potential nominees. This movie won’t even make most of the “OSCAR SNUBS!” lists after it is not nominated, save for a handful of lists written by big fans of the movie or people making the argument that big, popular blockbusters deserve consideration. Also, the movie is not “the best test yet” of the Best Picture category expanding from five to 10 films after “The Dark Knight” wasn’t nominated; “District 9,” “Up,” “Toy Story 3,” “The Blind Side” and “Inception” were all nominated thanks to the rule change. If you’re looking for a big blockbuster to proclaim as this year’s “The Dark Knight,” just have some patience until “The Dark Knight Rises” opens in July.)

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New trailer for “The Dark Knight Rises”

Well doesn’t this just look awful! The second trailer for “The Dark Knight Rises” has arrived, and it just looks terrible, like the entire movie will be this boring thing filled with bad actors and poor special effects and in no way will it melt all of our faces clean off.

Okay, so I guess it looks like it could be a little bit decent. The first teaser trailer that dropped over the summer didn’t reveal much of anything (because filming was still ongoing) (and, also, because it was a teaser trailer), but this longer look actually shows us the main players, gives us an idea of the film’s themes and conveys the film’s tone and mood.

So what do we know? We know Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman (even if she isn’t referred to as Catwoman in any of the promotional materials) delivers a very Occupy Wall Street-esque line to Christian Bale’s hobbled, older Bruce Wayne. “When it hits, you’re all gonna wonder how you ever thought you could live so large and leave so little for the rest of us,” she purrs. (Purrs? Purrs.) We know Hines Ward can outrun a supervillain’s dastardly plan. (I believe you get extra fantasy points for outrunning a field-leveling earthquake, or whatever that is.) We know Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Matthew Modine are in the movie, however briefly. We know there’s a Batwing.

We know it’s not July 20, 2012. We do not know how in the hell we’re going to wait another seven months for this movie.*

[Apple]

* – We don’t know when we’re going to stop saying “we” for everything, either.

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Judging books by their covers: Apes, Catwoman and Superman Edition

I just wrote about cautious optimism with regard to “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” which sounded awful on paper but wound up turning into a pleasant surprise. So it’s perhaps fitting that this week in particular Warner Bros. revealed two highly-scrutinized first official glimpses: Anne Hathaway as Catwoman* in “The Dark Knight Rises” and Henry Cavill as Superman in “The Man of Steel.”

The reaction to both images was fairly negative. Hathaway’s casting in particular wasn’t positively received, because she really doesn’t give off the vibe one would associate with Catwoman or a superhero movie in general (personally, I didn’t mind it, because she’s talented and we don’t know precisely what her character will wind up being on-screen). Yes, the goggles look pretty goofy. But Warner Bros. had to get the image out quickly, because the film is shooting in Pittsburgh and new photos seem to be streaming out by the minute. We don’t know if that is her ultimate costume. As for Cavill’s Superman, much of the consternation revolved around his costume and his hair. I’ll just chalk that up to people being upset because he’s British and is playing and American icon and they took ‘er jebs and so forth.

Anyway, so these are just initial images and it’s pretty damn near impossible to fully judge a movie based solely on first glimpses. We now know that Anne Hathaway will wear leather (we knew that) and that Henry Cavill will wear a Superman outfit (we knew that, too). People are already overreacting to these photos, but it’s wise to wait and save our bile at least until the first full trailer. That way we can be fully primed to overreact when the time is right.

* – I say Catwoman because she’s Catwoman, even if she doesn’t put on the cat ears and crack the whip, she is still playing some variation of the character Catwoman, much like how the Red Skull in “Captain America” was only called the Red Skull once (derisively) (and, though it was delivered secondhand, it was said by Hitler, for what it’s worth), but was still that character nonetheless. It’s not a perfect comparison, but my point is that even if she plays Selina Kyle (Catwoman’s real name, and the name used in the Warner Bros. casting announcement, and also the name of this image’s file when Warner Bros. released it), we are all fine calling her Catwoman until we hear that she is definitively not playing Catwoman, okay? Okay.

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First teaser trailer for “The Dark Knight Rises”

Here’s our first look at the teaser trailer for “The Dark Knight Rises,” Christopher Nolan’s third and final “Batman” film. This teaser ran in front of “Harry Potter” over the weekend (though not in my theater for some annoying reason), and pirated copies kept popping up online for a few days now before ever-vigilant Warner Bros. had them yanked. So this is our first real, concrete look at the most anticipated movie of 2012 (and, let’s face it, the rest of 2011 as well).

Anyway, this isn’t the most impressive teaser in the world. I think part of that is just annoyance that it doesn’t actually show much of anything of the new movie (I know, I know, that’s how teasers work). The film doesn’t actually debut for a year, so there’s plenty of time, but it’s still something of a letdown for those of us who were more excited about seeing this teaser before “Harry Potter” than actually seeing “Harry Potter.” There are glimpses of “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight,” followed by a brief look at an injured Gary Oldman (under-appreciated and terrific as Commissioner Gordon in these films), and then we get a very brief look at a menacing and hulking Bane (Tom Hardy). The chanting is pretty haunting, in a good way, and actually seems like the same chanting from those viral videos that were posted and have since been pulled down.

Look, maybe it’s just high expectations because Nolan’s “Batman” films have had such good trailers. Check out the first teasers for “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight.” The former shows a decent amount of footage, while the latter shows no footage but showcases mood and atmosphere through the dialogue. This teaser mostly tells us that things are bad and then, briefly, shows us that Batman has to fight a bigger, stronger villain in Bane, and I think I’m still probably just whining because there was barely any new footage and is it July 20, 2012 yet?

UPDATE: Here’s an embedded version (via Thompson on Hollywood).

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