After Monday's teaser, we knew something big was coming in tonight's full Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice trailer, but we didn't know how big. Would we see more Wonder Woman? How about Batman's alleged kryptonite-bullet-shooting gun? Would we find out why Superman looked so irritated in the teaser?
Well, no. No to everything but Wonder Woman (who's re-introduced in grand fashion). But at least with this three-minute clip, which premiered during Jimmy Kimmel Live, we're starting to get a sense of what the DC Extended Universe has planned for its grand cotillion in March. Which is good, given that the shared universe has least nine films queued up between now and 2020, and this is no time to be shy.
The trailer begins at a party, with a tense, passive-aggressive conversation between Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) and Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) that's marked by a classic Wayne barb about Superman: "Maybe it’s the Gotham city in me—I have a bad history with freaks dressed as clowns." In swoops Lex Luthor; it's his party, and he milks the tension in the room for a surprisingly funny exchange. As the trailer continues, we learn that Luthor's ultimate goal is to engineer a fight between the two men's heroic alter egos—or, as he says, "the greatest gladiator match in the history of the world: Son of Krypton versus Bat of Gotham!" Part of that plot seems to involve reanimating the corpse of General Zod, whose defeat in Man of Steel caused the destruction that first stoked Wayne's resentment of Superman. We can't front: the CGI looks great, and this really does look like it's shaping up to be a battle for the ages.
Pause at: 1:05 for Lex Luthor's surprising comic chops; 2:12 for a glimpse of General Zod’s corpse; 2:23 for our first full look at Doomsday, one of the movie's biggest threats; 2:35 for Wonder Woman saving the day.
