THE THIRD 'DARK KNIGHT RISES' TRAILER (UPDATED)

I'm not going to waste your time writing a bunch of stuff here. This it the third Dark Knight Rises trailer. Watch it now. Oh man, there was some other superhero movie coming out this weekend, but I've completely forgotten what it was now.




OK, so what do we have here? I think I stopped breathing while I watched this trailer, so give me a second to get some oxygen to my brain.

First things first — you can completely understand what Bane is saying now. Excellent. I would've hated to have this movie tarnished by a villain that no one could understand.

We can all agree that this one isn't going to turn out well for Bruce Wayne, right? We see Bane beating the crap out of him, throwing him down wells, holding him hostage. "Hope is lost. Faith is broken." Those taglines don't bode well for the Batman. And if your response to someone telling you that you've given a city everything is "Not everything. Not yet," you probably don't have much hope for the way things are going to turn out.

From the looks of this trailer, Christopher Nolan is going to not only draw on the Knightfall storyline (the one where Bane breaks Batman's back) but also the No Man's Land storyline, isolating Gotham by destroying its bridges.

This trailer is going to play before The Avengers. Take a second to think about that. You're going to have you mind blown (again) by this trailer on the big screen. Then you're going to watch a superhero movie that is already critically acclaimed. Nolan basically shrugged his shoulders at The Avengers, and then dropped this trailer. Pretty much the most badass film mic drop ever.

UPDATE: It goes without saying, but I've watched the Dark Knight Rises trailer a few more times since writing this post. Here's what I'd like to add to my thoughts above. This is a haunting trailer. The solitary piano in the beginning, the silent collapse of the bridges — this trailer could win an Oscar for Best Trailer if there were such a category.*

Up until this point, The Avengers has dominated the pop culture hive mind. This trailer changes that. This trailer is a giant wakeup call, a massive reminder that we're going to have a ton of awesome, awesome fun at The Avengers this weekend, but there's something else on the horizon. We still have the final film in a Batman trilogy from one of this generation's most-talented directors. A sequel to a film that forced the Academy to expand past five Best Picture nominees. We're going to get something special on July 20.

*Note to self: Start petitioning the Academy to make Best Trailer a real Oscar.