“Is it really surprising that the most powerful man in the world should be a figure of controversy?”
No, not really. But that rhetorical question kicks off the highly anticipated trailer to Zack Snyder’s upcoming DC Comics superhero blockbuster Batman vs. Superman. The film, not due until 2016, pits Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne/Batman against Henry Cavill’s Clark Kent/Superman in a battle royale.
The trailer for Snyder’s film was supposed to premiere on April 20 in IMAX theaters:
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Well, the trailer has apparently leaked online a few days ahead of its planned debut. The subtitles are in Portuguese, so it stands to reason that the footage was bootlegged in Brazil. Either way, it’s… something. The footage—if it is indeed authentic, though it looks pretty legit—shows glimpses of Snyder’s film, including Cavill’s Superman being cornered by a group of face-painted men straight out of a Dia de los Muertos parade, followed by cheers and jeers from the citizens of Metropolis who have apparently turned on the man who recently saved their asses, as you see a gigantic Superman statue spray-painted in red with the words “False God” on it being taken down Saddam-style. There are also vague voiceovers courtesy of Lux Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg), who says, “Devils don’t come from hell beneath us… they come from the sky,” and Batman’s loyal butler Alfred (Jeremy Irons), who utters, “That’s how it starts…the feeling… the powerlessness… that turns good men… cruel.”
We see a brief flash of Affleck outside the costume before he lumbers forward, looking like the bulkiest Batman yet, before he squares off against Superman with his illuminated white eyes, grumbling in a gravelly baritone: “Tell me… do you bleed? You will.” The white eyes, by the way, come from Batman’s “detective mode” built into his cowl from both Grant Morrison’s Batman: Arkham Asylum and Frank Miller’s seminal series of graphic novels Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, which gives him not only heightened detection skills and night vision, but also white eyes.
Still no sign of Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman, Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor, or Jason Momoa's Aquaman here, but for that perhaps we'll have to wait for Trailer Nos. 8, 9, and 10.
You can check it out here:
UPDATE: Due to the leak, director Zack Snyder has tweeted out the #notblurry #notpirated version of the trailer, which is much higher quality:
