BATMAN BEGINS: Unbelievably Boring Trailer

[AndyDursin]

It's funny: BATMAN BEGINS has all kinds of hype, a great cast, the director of "Memento" (an overrated movie in my book but I realize it has tons of fans), a big budget, a comic book legend and cinematic franchise behind it...

..and yet the final trailer is so utterly, completely boring...something I've seen seconded by many fans online.

It doesn't look particularly interesting. The dialogue looks flat. Even Christian Bale seems really stiff. Katie Holmes is a cardboard, perky actress who everyone is sick of through her Tom Cruise relationship, so it doesn't look like she's bringing much to the table either. Otherwise it looks like you have Morgan Freeman doing his usual sidekick routine, Michael Caine and Liam Neeson cashing checks...I'm sorry but my enthusiasm has dropped off after seeing this trailer.

My question is -- do you think the film will be better?

Obviously I hope it is, but the mere fact they couldn't even cobble a good-looking trailer together is a cause for concern.

Most of the time they get you juiced up with a great-looking ad, but this is one of the worst big-studio trailers I've frankly ever seen for a "blockbuster" film.

Thoughts? Reactions?
Andy

[Eric W.]

I couldn't be less interested, quite frankly. The trailer certainly did nothing for me. I'm long since Batmaned out.

Nice looking cast, and I'm rooting for Christian Bale all the way. I may be inclined to see it if I see TONS of GLOWING reviews and feedback about it.

I'll be interested to see what kind of score the combination of JNH and Zimmer (?!) come up with for this.

[Harry Chen]

Initially I was excited to learn that Chris Nolan was directing this. The teaser trailers were fine, but when the final theatrical trailer came out, my disappointment began. The trailer gave away way too much, and what I saw stopped being interesting.
I am really hoping that I am wrong, and that Nolan did a better job than Burton or Schumacher. I still have this horrible aftertaste lingering from the Schumacher Batcrap...
I always needed Batman to be angry, really angry.
In this side of the world, Katie Holmes is not really well-known. Now thanks to Mister Tom Cruise, we all know who she is, and all I can say is: uh-oh!

Harry Chen
Hong Kong

[scorehead]

I concur with all of the comments that have been posted. The trailer is about as boring as anything that I've seen (ISHTAR?) and hasn't built up any excitement for me wanting to see it. When the trailer came on at the recent midnight OPENING of Revenge of the Sith, it only got moans from the obvious comic book frenzied audience - not a good sign. Ironically, and for all the talent involved, BATMAN BEGINS looks to be the final curtain call to the Batman Franchise. It would have been quite the undertaking, but I think that Frank Miller's "The Dark Night Returns" would have been a great starting point for the flailing film series. Seriously, if it's already on it's way out, why not start at the end and not the beginning.

Scorehead.

[AndyDursin]

One thing that I find amusing is that, whenever they start talking about a new BATMAN movie, the studio always sends out these comments like "this one is going to be REALLY DARK and have an edge." And guess what -- they did it on this movie too.

At some point everything will regress back to sheer camp and self-parody a la the '60s TV show because...well...if BATMAN is too self-absorbed, it's so utterly ridiculous in the first place that it becomes unintentionally funny. The Marvel heroes have more of a sense of humor about them (Spider-Man in particular) than their DC counterparts, but Batman was never one of my favorites because he was just so damned serious...and yet he's wearing a Bat suit, dammit!

[scorehead]

It's almost like they have completely forgotten that Batman is, first and foremost, an analytical character. A detective who's second only to Sherlock Holmes when is come to deductive reasoning (after that comes Lassie, natch). If they could only be a bite more subdued with the superhero theatrics and focus on the charters talent for sifting through bullshit, such as the films script, they might have a fun watchable charter study dressed up as superhero film that could not only cater to children, but those with a connecting brain stem.

Scorehead!

[AndyDursin]

Scorehead, great point!! And it used to be called "DETECTIVE Comics," did it not??

[romanD]

and I thought Im the only one thinking the trailer was horrible. I completely agree with Andy.. am totally amazed how a trailer for such a big movie can be so boring.. even the 10 minute preview over at joblo was a major yawn. Only like Ken Watanabe and the firebreathing horse, but both seem to be in the movie for 5 minutes only.

Also the look seems to be the same as in CATWOMAN... and setting this kind of story into the "real" world (with slight modifications) doesn't make it particularly interesting...

exciting how successful it will be.

First serious reviews are raving though, but I dont think I will watch it...

the score is also by Ramin Djawadi who was one of the reasons why Blade 3 sucked so much... not a good sign... also Zimmer did the action music, JNH the emotional parts... in the style of SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS... and that is one of his most boring scores (except the great choir peace). Should have been the other way round.. Zimmer can easily grab you emotionally and JNH action music is a lot more powerful, intense, frightening and interesting than Zimmer's... the CD runs 60 minutes...

[Eric W.]

I'm still trying to figure out how, or why, they had to have TWO "A list" composers on this.

Why not just let JNH or Zimmer have the whole thing and be done with it? One, or the other? Why both?!

I'm never a big fan of situations like these.

What it shows me is this:

Even down to details like the music, the folks behind the camera clearly don't know what they want or what they're doing. Confusion, indecisiveness...I think this movie is going to be a mixed bag, as its schizophrenic score will no doubt demonstrate.

[romanD]

JNH and Zimmer wanted to do the score together. Apparently they are friends and tried already before to do something together (SECRET WINDOW), but had scheduling conflicts. So, it wasnt a wish by the studio or whoever, but they offered that.
I would have taken JNH alone, but well, it surely doesnt hurt to have both onboard...

[Eric W.]

JNH and Zimmer wanted to do the score together. Apparently they are friends and tried already before to do something together (SECRET WINDOW), but had scheduling conflicts. So, it wasnt a wish by the studio or whoever, but they offered that.
I would have taken JNH alone, but well, it surely doesnt hurt to have both onboard...

No, it certainly doesn't hurt to have arguably the two leading A list composers on your project, that's for sure.

I know Zimmer has helped out JNH in the past.

Example: Being in charge of all the synth work on the Waterworld score, etc. If that's the way it is, then that's fine!

I just start getting concerned when it goes past that kind of level. We shall see, and hear, soon enough.

[Harry Chen]

I too am not too sure about the two composers deal, but what I've listened to is ok, but not great. Same happened with Episode III, maybe it gets better with repeated listening.
A German site has samples, plus the last two samples are complete rather than short snippets...
http://www.batmans.de/news/article/Batm ... 35604.html

And, what's with the score's track names? What do they mean?
Those who have seen the sneak previews are giving it some very good reviews, so that's a relief, I hope.

Harry Chen
Hong Kong

[AndyDursin]

The movie is getting positive reviews, which is a good sign. What I heard of the score was spectacularly unimpressive -- like hearing Elfman without the theme...if that makes any sense A mish-mash of Zimmer cliches with "seasoning" from Newton Howard...I'm not impressed with the album, but hopefully it will work better after seeing the film.