The Dark Knight Rises
Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Written by: Jonathon Nolan, Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt

With everything at stake in the final film and conclusion to Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale’s much-venerated Batman series, The Dark Knight Rises trailer appears to address all our concerns while making us scratch for more. In the four years since its predecessor, which poised itself as the third highest domestic box office grosser of all-time and near critical masterpiece with eight Academy Award nominations, Nolan let the dust settle on the franchise, instead moving on to Inception. Needless to say, expectations for the final Batman film are considerably high.

One thing Nolan consistently does well with realism in his films is reflecting our world into his movies. Four years later, the film picks up around eight years after Batman fled in the end of The Dark Knight. In this time period a lot has changed. Gotham is now experiencing peacetime, of which clearly financially benefits the heir of Wayne Enterprises. Not much can be said about Batman’s whereabouts, but it appears he’s still very much a wanted man. Without the Joker in the picture to intellectually stalemate Batman, we are introduced to a quite intimidating Bane, Batman’s first real physical challenge.

Other than small glimpses of Levitt and Cotillard’s characters, we aren’t given much on their role in the story from the trailer. However, Anne Hathaway’s much-debated Catwoman makes her debut. As things intensify in the trailer, she warns Mr. Wayne for living so large while the rest have lived with so little. Protest chants and uprisings clearly signal Nolan’s desire to again make a relationship in his film with the controversial political landscape. In The Dark Knight he takes on terrorism, national security and privacy, and in Rises we may get a frilling #OccupyGotham.

Highs: Technical aspects of the trailer promise that The Dark Knight Rises is certainly going to maintain the visual prowess from his last two films. It is also worth noting that this is one of the first few new blockbusters not going to be released in 3D. Nolan’s team always seems to produce high quality trailers, having a knack for eloquently arranging Zimmer’s music and the best of Pfister’s magnificent shooting without revealing to many of Nolan’s surprises.

Lows: As odd as the chanting (subtle protest hint?) in the background, it’s not the biggest oddity in the trailer, which saves itself for the expected: Hathaway’s feline nemesis that we hope will find better context in the feature length version. More from Cotillard and more about what’s going on with others would be nice, but for now we are left with that impressive yet gimmicky football field destruction and wondering if this film can rise above its predecessor.

Grade: B+