Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Trailer #1: An In-Depth Look

The first trailer for Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice just hit the streets, and it was wildly different than most people were probably expecting.

Quiet and philosophical, it eschewed hyper-speed and massive explosions for a trailer that focused mostly on the impact Superman has had on the world around him -- something that has long been discussed as a probable theme of the film.

So what'd we see? What'd we miss? Read on...

The music

The score is a high point of the trailer -- no surprise with Junkie XL and Hans Zimmer.

The opening notes are very Batman-like, especially compared to the staccato drones of later in the trailer, which bring to mind the Man of Steel climax with the drone of both the music and the World Engine.

This is rhythmic and repeating as well, but it washes in like a wave and recedes, rather than slamming down and retreating. Considering that Batman is older and more experienced than Superman in this universe, that may be somewhat metaphorical of how the characters are approached, with Batman being subtle, methodical, stealthy, as opposed to Superman's heavy hand as he's so powerful and relatively inexperienced.

The quotes

Some of these are easily-identifiable and others are not, as the world discusses Superman. Lets take a look:

"Is it really surprising that the most powerful man in the world should be a figure of controversy?" Asks Charlie Rose.

As this is uttered, we see a shot of what we take to be the Metropolis skyline (see below) and a large statue of Superman -- which we later learn has been defaced.

"We, as a population on this planet, have been looking for a savior."

Paired with this quote, we get an image of Superman standing and looking solemn among a crowd who are all reaching out for him, some painted in what appears to be sugar skull makeup. In that shot, it's worth noting, the background on Superman's shield is yellow, rather than the black that was seen for most of the Man of Steel promotion or even the washed-out, faded yellow that was in the movie.

"We're talking about a being whose very existence challenges our own sense of priority in the universe," says Neil DeGrasse-Tyson.

Interestingly, this isn't the first time he's interacted with Superman. In 2012, Tyson located Krypton -- both in the comics and in real life.

"Human beings have a terrible track record of following people with great power..."

This one comes as Superman carries what looks to be a piece of a rocket or missile out of a burning area. It looks a lot like a Russian flag on it. A wink and a nod to Superman IV: The Quest For Peace when they say "terrible track record?" 

(We kid, we kid!)

"Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." - This one isn't entirely clear, but sounds a bit like it could be Holly Hunter, who is rumored to be playing a politician in the film, possibly one with ties to Lex Luthor.

"Maybe he's just a guy trying to do the right thing," says one angry voice.

Another says, "We know better now, don't we? Devils don't come from Hell beneath us; no, they come from the sky." That sounds a lot like Lex Luthor, and while the first bit doesn't sound too much like Jesse Eisenberg, it does by the end.

It's worth noting that bridging that quote and the next one is a shot of Superman floating midair over someone's outstretched hand, again looking very angelic. It actually resembles a piece of promotional art from the heavily-Bible-quoting Kingdom Come Elsewords series:

Heck, the image of the man who has his hand outstretched looks a bit like he's wearing robes and has long hair. Is it possible we could see the origin story of Gog, who following the events of Kingdom Come started a church in Superman's honor and ultimately became a villain when Superman told him that he wasn't in fact God? Seems like a hell of a stretch, but who knows?

More on all the messianic imagery below.

"The world has been so caught up in what he can do, that no one has asked what he should do," says another woman's voice -- or is it the same as the "absolute power" voice? It's hard to say.

Given the players, it seems plausible enough that these voices could be coming from a Senate hearing or something similar.

"Go home"

Well, that's simple enough. The crowd chanting for (we assume) Superman to "go home," accompanied by the aforementioned "false god" graffiti clarifies that, yes, we've got a pretty vocal opposition, and not just Lex.

"That's how it starts: the fever, the rage, the feeling of powerlessness. That turns good men cruel," says Alfred Pennyworth.

It seems as though he's advocating on behalf of Superman here, and certainly if it's true that he's got the Batman: Earth One origin story and is a military man, he might be speaking from some experience. If rumors that it's Lex who pits Batman against Superman are true, perhaps we'll see a version of Bruce Wayne who is turning his back on his "father" and taking the side of a peer/contemporary in this debate?

Anyway, as Alfred says all that, Bruce looks at the costume, which is in a closet/storage/whatever. We talked a bit about the lighting and architecture of that room the other day, so we won't belabor the point here.

That said, the longing look at the empty costume and then the music as the camera gets closer...feels significant. Perhaps by now, Bruce has hung up the cape and cowl and is being drawn back out, a la the start of The Dark Knight Returns, upon which a number of elements of the film are said to be based or at least inspired by?

The locales

As far as the rumors we'd heard, Chicago (seen above, identifiable by the Crain Communications Building on the right) is Metropolis while Detroit is Gotham. That seems to be backed up by set photos of Superman flying through Chicago with Lois, although obviously we do assume the pair will visit one another's cities in the movie.

That said, the statue on the waterfront is kind of a giveaway, isn't it? It would be odd if there was an arbitrary Superman statue in Gotham City.

...Oh! And is that skyscraper with a decidedly L-shaped top, just to the left of the Superman statue, maybe LexCorp tower?

We also get that structure that looks at first glance like some kind of temple. Seeing it for a second, we thought it might be the mysterious structure built in the desert which, when it was being used for filming, fans wondered whether it could be Themyscira or Nanda Parbat. We're not sure whether it is or isn't the same structure, but it looks too dingy and disused to be either of those, barring some major story developments that we haven't heard about yet.

What it does look like is that it might be the train station where Superman killed Zod, closed and condemned, and Batman's there looking for...something.

A stylized question mark spraypainted on one of the pillars has some fans wondering whether this could be in Gotham and that could be a nod to The Riddler. Zooming in closer seems to back that up a bit, since the paint definitely appears to be green or green-ish.

The rest of the graffiti seems to be largely meaningless.

And where is The Batman?

Following the shot of the temple, we get what appears from the way the trailer is cut to be a jet following and firing on the Batmobile. The cut is jarring, though, and it's likely safe to assume that there's some kind of trickery at play, just my brain putting two disparate images of explosive destruction together.

In fact, as we noted previously, the back of the plane and the exhaust pipe in the middle of its back make it look like that plane might actually BE the Batmobile.

Shortly thereafter, though, we do see our first and only really clear shot of Ben Affleck in the classic Batman costume, as he rises from shadows in an area ringed with fire. We then see him clinging to what looks like a gun, high above a city, and then a cut to the shot that's been circulating since Comic Con International, with Batman threatening Superman while wearing armor inspired by The Dark Knight Returns.

(The gun is likely a nod to The Dark Knight Returns too.)

Note: Yes, I originally thought he was clinging to a skyscraper antenna. I guess I was thinking of Batman images I've seen a hundred times. What the hell is Batman doing with a gun?

The voice modulator will likely be controversial in some quarters -- especially if he uses it while not wearing the metal suit. But it's proven to be something that fans have gotten over on Arrow, and it avoids the often-comical Batman voice from previous films, most notably the Nolan trilogy.

Another last note: As seen above, the Batman cape is scalloped at the end, at least in the version of the costume we're seeing from behind here. The cape and cowl they've been driving around the country for conventions was not, and some fans had expressed disappointment in that. I'm not sure whether the scalloped cape is a practical or digital effect -- but there it is.

Salvation

The overt messianic symbolism in Man of Steel was one of the things for which critics took the movie to task. It seems they're not only doubling down on that, but playing off it, as the graffiti on the Superman statue calls him a "false god." That said statue first appears to us in the trailer just before the "looking for a savior" line is pretty self-explanatory.

We also get a kind of inexplicable moment where Superman appears to be entering some kind of underground chamber and a number of soldiers kneel as he enters. As Lucas Cantoni notes below, they're wearing the Superman symbol/House of El sigil on their shoulders.

What's that about? Could there be a Cult of Superman to offset people calling him a false god? It seems a bit out there for a movie, but it's happened a few times in the comics, including during 52 and The Kingdom. It could just as easily be something staged to make Superman look bad -- or even just these soldiers reflexively surrendering as soon as this incredibly powerful being enters.

Controversy

This entire trailer plays with the controversies created by Man of Steel, which is very kind of oddly meta.

There's been talk that the movie was crafted in response to those complaints, but I don't believe it. At the DC Comics party at Comic Con 2013, David S. Goyer told me that the plan at that time -- just a few weeks after the movie had been released -- was to play on those same discussions. They would have had to be turning a massive feature film on a dime to know days or weeks after the film's release that the discontent would last long enough to justify not only addressing it in the next film, but making it a major plot point. That's just not believable.

It also plays nicely into Lex Luthor's post-Crisis on Infinite Earths mindset, which was essentially that he would present himself to the public as not a bad guy, just somebody who doesn't trust the metahuman community to know what's best for us.

Final thoughts

This is definitely Superman's trailer. While we get some Batman at the end and he's the only one who gets to speak, more than the first minute is devoted entirely to Man of Steel fallout and Supes gets probably the coolest visual of the trailer when he's hoisting that rocket over his head.

The thoughtful approach is an interesting choice. It's likely they're hoping to echo the first Man of Steel trailer, which was quiet and asked some interesting questions about what motivated Superman. Fans loved it, and response was less and less enthusiastic with successive, more action- and plot-based trailers.

Here, it seems unlikely to work the same way. Fans want to see action, they want to know what the heck is going on with this crazy plot and all the superheroes, they want to know how Luthor and Wonder Woman will play.

Batman's helmet looks like it could be made of lead. Perhaps he's not protecting his HEAD but his FACE and his secret identity when he's in the presence of Superman.

They're still holding a lot back; this tells us very, very little that's concrete about the plot of the film or even the motivations of the title characters. Somebody on Twitter asked, "Why does Batman sound like a bad guy?" and that's probably going to be a big takeaway for casual fans.

This is definitely a thematic continuation of Man of Steel, which filmmakers at the time called a "first contact story" as much or more than a traditional superhero movie. It fulfills the promise of that statement, examining the sociological ramifications of having a massive-powerful extraterrestrial being show up and live among us.