Trailer for DC’s big gamble was overshadowed by teaser


Last Thursday morning, there was a rumbling, the skies opened and a new Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer descended upon a mostly unsuspecting Internet. From the moment a swaggering Han Solo spoke the words, “Chewie, we’re home,” the reaction was near unanimous praise. The shockwaves were not as pronounced as when Lucasfilm released the first excellent glimpse into J.J. Abrams’s new vision for the galaxy far, far away last November, but it still took the Internet by storm.

It showed two minutes of entirely new footage while still concealing everything substantial about the story itself — unlike that other multi billion-dollar Disney property, Marvel, which with its extensive “sneak previews” and “extended looks,” has taken a slash-and-burn approach to any remaining mystery for the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron. The Force Awakens trailer aftermath was as if a million nerd voices suddenly cried out at once, dissecting the new footage shot by shot, frame by frame. Thursday was a triumph for Lucasfilm and a statement of just how deep the hunger flows for these big-budget blockbusters.

Lost in all the hoopla was Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.  The highly anticipated film also released its first trailer this weekend. That trailer’s release came with much less fanfare, due in large part to the fact that it was first leaked online as a shaky recording made from inside a movie theater — Portuguese subtitles included for added effect. This is not the first superhero movie leak we have had recently; the Age of Ultron teaser was famously leaked a week early. Marvel promptly adjusted and released the actual version. Warner Bros. did the same here. Maybe, if that had happened on any other weekend, it would not have mattered. But the Star Wars trailer doomed it to being utterly overshadowed. Since, the trailer was due to be released Monday, however, one could wonder whether Warner Bros. (or, for that matter, 20th Century Fox, whose first full, much more spoiler-addled, Fantastic Four trailer leaked Sunday morning ahead of its planned Monday release date) knew that the Star Wars announcement would be happening Thursday. This is not the first decision by Warner Bros. that calls into question the firm’s ability to build the massive DC cinematic universe that it has set its sights on.

By all accounts, due to its extensive and popular comic book universe, DC should be neck-and-neck with Marvel, movie-wise. Instead, it has largely been left in the dust. Aside from the highly successful Dark Knight trilogy, nothing with the DC stamp has come close to Marvel’s MCU juggernaut. Christopher Nolan crafted a gritty, fun series of movies, each more massive than the last. But Batman is a pop culture golden goose, meaning simply that making a successful film franchise around the single most popular superhero is not, relatively speaking, that difficult. In comparison, Marvel took the Guardians of the Galaxy, a comic book team with a Q-rating of essentially zero and made it the subject of the third highest grossing movie of 2014 — outperforming Man of Steel at the box office by a cool $106 million. It’s an often repeated line — thought one that merits emphasis — but this would have been unthinkable back in 2008 when Iron Man came out and the MCU was born. Now, simply having “Marvel” appear at the front of the movie causes people to flock to see largely unknown characters in films like Guardians. DC simply doesn’t have that kind of pull yet.

It is certainly trying, though. Back in October, DC announced its plans to create a cinematic universe to rival Marvel’s with 10 movies in the works.

That universe is now in the hands of Zack Snyder, who helmed Man of Steel, is currently working on the finishing touches of Dawn of Justice and is slated to direct two Justice League movies. Snyder, who is currently pegged to have DC movies directed by him come out in 2016, 2017 and 2019, is a fine director for a superhero movie. His work on 300 and Watchmen was loud, flashy and stylized. His Man of Steel, however, met extremely polarizing reviews.

Its dark tone didn’t jive with expectations for a Superman movie, and it only garnered a 55 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. This, however, hasn’t stopped DC from making a darker, edgier tone its chosen defining characteristic to try and differentiate itself from Marvel’s generally lighter, good-guys-always-win house style. It remains to be seen how effective this will be, as the Man of Steel returns indicate that they will, at the very least, take some getting used to. Before we get to 2018’s dark and gritty Aquaman movie, DC needs to prove that its gritty-for-the-sake-of-being-gritty approach holds water.

The response to the Dawn of Justice trailer shows that this is not a sure thing yet. Those who did take a break from Star Wars to give their opinions on DC’s offered plenty of questions, but none of the unbridled excitement that Star Wars incited. The reaction mostly focused on two things: Batman’s suit looking like Lego Batman’s suit from The Lego Movie (it is in fact more reminiscent of Batman’s suit from the book with perhaps the most famous Superman-Batman showdown, Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns) and the caped crusader’s one line in the trailer, “Tell me, do you bleed? You will,” as simultaneously overly corny and dark. Batman and Superman are the two single most popular superheroes around, much more popular individually than any of Marvel’s heroes. And yet, the trailer barely created a ripple. Perhaps Star Wars is a different animal entirely, but the reaction to the Dawn of Justice teaser certainly does not seem solely due to a case of poor timing. While Disney revels in the afterglow of its latest trailer and hungrily counts down the days to Ultron’s release on May 1, Warner Bros. is struggling to get its own behemoth off the ground. If the reaction to the actual film, due to be released next April, is as tepid as the reaction to the first trailer, then DC’s patchwork Spruce Goose cinematic universy will be in danger of never getting off the ground — let alone catching up to Marvel’s already-soaring quinJet of a universe.

Daniel Grzywacz is a senior majoring in anthropology and neuroscience. He is also the lifestyle editor at the Daily Trojan. His column, “The Showbiz Must Go On,” runs Mondays.

1 reply
  1. Django9000
    Django9000 says:

    Excellent article. The impulsiveness of deciding to make this their next film still shows , in poor green-screening & doornail dialogue.

    My predicton : Alfred will be excellent & we’ll written , as will other secondary characters – but the basic shoehorned motivations for their fight wI’ll be hard to “Terrio” away. =7

    Cautiously optimistic. Mostly cautious, based on snyder’s film record.

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