Who’s More Grizzled?

In the weekend trailer bin, Will Smith is legend, whether we like it or not, in the full trailer for Peter Berg’s Hancock, also with Jason Bateman & Charlize Theron. And last week’s Indy boot goes legit: Behold the trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. (I dunno…Is it just me, or does Cate Blanchett seem hammier than a drunken Anthony Hopkins?) Also, The Dark Knight trailer follows suit tomorrow.

Update: The Dark Knight trailer is now up. Also, Aaron Eckhart seems to let slip a pretty major plot point in an interview with the LA Times. If you’re staying spoiler-free, don’t read this one (or Moriarty’s telegraphing of the same here.)

It’s all part of the plan.

Along with a slew of new posters (see also the snazzy 9/11ish one at Quiddity), The Dark Knight begins its trailer rollout today with — of course — another worldwide Joker-run scavenger hunt. (I for one am loving the confluence of my interests that is Jokerized dead-presidents.) In any case, once we budding fanboy detectives run the info through the Batcomputer and get to the bottom of it all, I’ll post the new trailer here…

Update: After the scavenger hunt and some anagram work and duck-shooting, it seems the trailer will be here…next Sunday. (Presumably, it premieres before Iron Man on Friday.) Sunday? Now, that wasn’t very nice.

Update 2: “This city deserves a better class of criminal, and I’m going to give it to them.” In pure Joker fashion, it’s been Kramerized and Youtubed regardless. Extremely poor quality, but this’ll do until the trouble gets here. (I could do without the post-title goofiness, to be honest, but Heath’s Joker still seems scarily spot-on.) Update 3: While bootlegs of the clip keep getting shut down (if you haven’t caught it yet, it’s still up here at io9), the “Jokerized” version of the trailer, handed out to raffle winners in the viral game, is nevertheless now on the tubes.

Clowning Around (the world).

If you’ll remember, I posted last week that viral promotion for The Dark Knight would bring back the Clown Prince of Crime for April Fool’s Day. Well, whatever happens tomorrow — and word is it might be the final trailer, although, again, it’s April Fool’s, so who knows — it seems the Joker has set up shop here, at the “Clown Travel Agency.” Tune in tomorrow, folks. Same bat-time, same bat-channel.

Update: Apparently, DA candidate Harvey Dent has been swiftboated by the “Concerned Citizens for a Better Gotham” (a.k.a. some disgruntled cops), and he’ll be holding a press conference tomorrow at 3pm to address the charges made in the ad. This sounds like a prime moment for Joker/trailer-related shenanigans.

Update 2: Never mind tomorrow: The trailer seems to have leaked, and it’s a beaut. (Ok, sorry. I couldn’t help myself…just getting in the April Fool’s mood a day early.) At any rate, more Dark Knight info as it comes.

Update 3: And they’re off: Looks like Step 1 is a worldwide scavenger hunt…apparently to acquire Joker bowling balls and cellphones. The bowling balls have phone numbers and code words attached — presumably that’s Phase 2. Update 4: With all the balls doled out around the globe, the next stop is this Acme Security Systems site…where everyone’s getting “server is too busy” screens of death. April Fool’s! Update 5: For those who did manage to get through, they got a call from Commissioner Gordon, but no obvious link to a trailer or anything. (You can hear it here.) No more updates here unless something big happens (but, if you wanted to play along, this wiki overview of the growing Dark Knight ARG is a good place to start, and most of the spinoff sites have been found via The Gotham Times or the Jokerfied version.)

Update 6: Some spoilerish stills of the Joker appear at a French site. Check ’em out before they disappear.

Let’s put a smile on that face!

Update 5: Hello all. Since this is one of the more popular entries on the site: My review of The Dark Knight is here, the Batman archives are here, and the main page is here. Welcome, and good hunting.

“You’ve changed things…forever. There’s no going back. You see, to them, you’re just a freak…Like me!” Ok, between this amazing new poster (the one in the middle, although all three are grand) and this leaked, really busted version of The Dark Knight trailer (also here and here, and the real thing appears online here Sunday), I am currently geeking out like a twelve-year-old. (Berk‘s wondering why the heck I’m giggling like the Joker right now.) Honestly, this thing hits at the fanboy-gut level, and is just about the coolest darned thing I’ve seen in ages. Explosions, Batbike, and Michael Caine pep speech aside…how about that clown? I think I’m gonna watch it again.

Update: “I believe whatever doesn’t kill us…simply makes us stranger.” Also, in front of I am Legend on IMAX, the first six minutes of The Dark Knight, featuring a Joker-planned heist of a mob-run bank in downtown Gotham City. It was clever enough, and features a good slow build-up to Heath Ledger saying hello. But it’s not nearly as visceral a thrill as the trailer (which, for some reason, wasn’t shown with the IMAX prologue…ah well. Sunday, then.) Update 2: The first six minutes (in Kramervision, of course) have leaked. Get ’em while you can.

Update 3: While we all await the official trailer release this evening, yet another really creepy Joker poster appears online, in the same vein as the earlier glass one. (It’s been added above.) This might be my favorite of the lot. Update 4: And it’s up, in splendiferous hi-def.

Party Crashers.

So, all-in-all, I did pretty well in the Web Goddess Oscar Pool…I ended up going 10-for-12 in the major categories, missing Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture. (And I actually thought I had Adapted right, but forgot to switch my pick after moving Supporting Actor from Giamatti to Clooney….Ah well.)

As for Crash…I finally saw it last night and thought it was a well-meaning but ultimately rather middling flick. On one hand, I liked the central message of the film, which is that people always tend to be more complicated than you’d expect them to be. But, otherwise, Crash was filled with some of the most ridiculous speechifyin’ I’ve ever seen in a movie. As y’all know, I’m generally a fan of politically-tinged message films. But, throughout Crash, the characters never miss a chance to start monologuing about the state of American race relations, usually in barely believable fashion (To take just one of many examples, does anyone under the age of 55 actually use the term “Chinaman”?) Ok, this movie has its liberal-humanist heart in the right place, and mighta been the most daring movie of 1991. But, by this point, I thought it felt relentlessly out-of-date with its stilted verbiage and can’t-we-all-just-get-along grandstanding at every available opportunity. Which is not to say that racism isn’t a serious problem, but, to be honest, I’ve seen more believable disquisitions into L.A.-style racial strife on Curb Your Enthusiasm.

The Academy didn’t embarrass itself this time: Crash is definitely a better movie than Paul Haggis’ entry last year, the egregious Million Dollar Baby. (And I still can’t believe the best film of 2004, Eternal Sunshine, wasn’t even nominated.) But, to my mind, every one of the other nominees, as well as The New World and Syriana, were better films than Crash, which basically amounted, to my mind, to a glorified After School Special.

Trailer Park Xmas.

Hello all…I finished up the end-of-term grading yesterday evening, at which point Berkeley and I started settling in to the christmas spirit down here at Murphy Home Base in Norfolk. Here’s hoping everyone out there is having a safe and merry holiday season, and that you get something better from Santa than Dubya’s warmed-over right-wing judges.

Also, if you’re looking for some trailers to tide you over, here’s Leggy & Liam battling freedom-hating infidels in Ridley Scott’s crusader pic Kingdom of Heaven, Russell Crowe trying to out-Seabiscuit Seabiscuit in Ron Howard’s Cinderella Man, a slew of A-listers vamping and vicing in the Robert Rodriguez version of Frank Miller’s Sin City, MTV Films butchering another needless remake in The Longest Yard, and creepy undead kids claiming yet another victim in Boogeyman. Enjoy, and happy holidays, y’all.(Aragorn pic via Fark.)