Yes, you may have seen a cruddy version of Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight Rises" trailer a few days ago, the third and final film in his epic Batman trilogy, or the big-screen version in front of "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," but if you struggled to hear and see what it all was about, behold the beautiful, high-definition version that is not only incredibly impressive, but looks wickedly ominous and striking. The wonderful thing that Nolan does with all his trailers is make the stakes of his films look incredibly high, as in do-or-die, and "The Dark Knight Rises" looks no different. This looks dark with deep and powerful consequences around every corner. It appears that some kind of army is rising and it's something that neither Batman nor Gotham has ever faced.
Scored, at least intially, to a haunting rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner," the title might include 'rises,' but it looks like it's going to get very dark before then; as Anne Hathaway's Selena Kyle says, "There's a storm coming, Mr. Wayne." We've got first looks at much of the cast, hints of the epic scope (this looks like the first comic book movie for the era of the 99%), and a big money shot of a football field being sunk to the ground (the one moment that seems a bit jarring, perhaps alongside the sci-fi-ish flying craft thought to be the Bat-Copter. But in Nolan we trust, right?)
We're sure it'll all be picked over and analyzed for months ahead, but this is a pretty damn enticing look at a movie that's anticipated by comic book geeks and film fans alike. Starring Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman and Michael Caine, “The Dark Knight Rises” arrives in theaters on July 20, 2012. Watch below, or in HD over at Apple