Warner Brothers and DC Films have done a great job this week of building up anticipation for the first trailer to superhero blockbuster Justice League, releasing 15-second teasers on Thursday and Friday (which also played on TV during programming like the NCAA Tournament and Good Morning America) with posters of each character, building toward a big Saturday release.
Saturday seems like a curious day of the week for such a rollout. But with everyone online these days and social media a constant presence, that sort of thing probably doesn’t matter like it used to. The first Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer, for instance, was released on Thanksgiving 2014. Alien: Covenant pushed out a trailer this past Christmas Eve.
Just as many of us (of a certain age) used to wake up on Saturday mornings to watch the Super Friends, Warner Bros. provided a new look at its superhero spectacle to enjoy with a bowl of cereal. (Or maybe toast and coffee, since we’re older.) And the trailer is definitely worth the wait, with fresh footage of Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Cyborg and the star of this two-and-a-half-minute preview, Aquaman. (Early buzz says Jason Momoa as the King of the Seven Seas is the breakout of this movie, and the trailer does nothing to dispel that notion.) Enjoy your Saturday superhero fun fest!
Personally, I’m a big fan of trailers that start out looking like a different sort of film to draw in a wide audience. Some people watching a trailer in theaters might tune out right away if they see Batman or Wonder Woman on screen immediately. But get them thinking they’re seeing some kind of adventure or drama about a man on a quest, riding a horse across frozen terrain, and they’re intrigued. The Batman Begins teaser released in 2004 did that brilliantly, depicting a movie that looked like a suspenseful, globe-spanning adventure thriller starring Christian Bale. Then at the very end of the trailer — BAM! It’s a Batman movie!
The Justice League trailer doesn’t draw out its tease that long, nor does it largely obscure what the movie truly is. However, it’s a compelling way to start out the trailer, even if you know what’s coming. The fun is in the build-up, and there’s just a few more seconds of it here tying into what we saw in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Silas Stone (Joe Morton) has an alien device — which DC Comics fans will recognize as a Mother Box from the New Gods saga — that’s coming to life, and the imposing threat of a Para-Demon emerges from it. The invaders are here! Let’s get it on!
From there, we essentially get the Justice League roll call (and the roll call was always a big part of the comic books on page one, if you’re an old-time Justice League of America fan). Hey, Aquaman! There’s Cyborg (Ray Fisher), arguably the least familiar character to the audience at large. But he looks a little bit like Robocop and the Terminator — and is also a black superhero, which is something we haven’t seen enough of during this superhero boom. The Flash! You know him; you’ve seen him on TV, even though this is a different guy running fast in the red suit.
And just in case you need one big name to tie it all together, there is Ben Affleck’s Batman swinging in, more dynamic than any of the Caped Crusaders previously seen on screen. What’s his superpower? He’s rich.
With a harder-edged version of The Beatles’ “Come Together” booming on the soundtrack, the trailer gives us our look at the full team, topped off by Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot). And since we’re talking about a Zack Snyder film, there is plenty of slow-motion action with Aquaman impaling Para-Demons with his trident and Wonder Woman taking out other bad guys.
In addition to the heroes, we also get a glimpse of the supporting characters who keep these titans grounded, such as Lois Lane (Amy Adams), Mera of Atlantis (Amber Heard), and Barry Allen’s father, Henry (Billy Crudup). Oh, and the best of them is Commissioner Gordon (J.K. Simmons), who is there to playfully nudge Batman in the ribs about putting together his super team.
But the real elbow comes from Aquaman, who makes fun of the leader of this whole enterprise dressing up like a bat. (See? He’s the real star. Keep your “talks to fish” jokes to yourself, man.)
Is that humor? A joke in a DC Comics superhero film, which have previously been devoid of fun? All right, Warner Brothers, DC Films and Zack Snyder may have learned some important lessons from fans and critics after all. Or they knew, deep down, that these movies had to bring some laughs to keep the audience engaged. Whatever the reason, the jokes at the end of the trailer are more than welcome. There may yet be hope for the DC Films side of the superhero movie coin.
(By the way, it’s pretty cool that each of those teasers included at least one clip that wasn’t seen in the full trailer, such as the shot of Batman atop a gargoyle seen above. Teasers for trailers are often a silly exercise, seemingly built toward getting page views for movie and pop culture blogs while flooding social media. At least this time around, the Justice League teasers included some exclusive type of content. Well done.)
Justice League opens in theaters on Nov. 17, 2017.
