Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Comic Con Trailer Looks Joyless

The first teaser trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was leaked and then officially released in April, almost a full year before the planned March 2016 release date. We weren't big fans of the leaked Batman v Superman trailer and at San Diego Comic Con 2015, director Zack Snyder was there to show a more detailed look at the same footage.

There's some context to Batman now, and we know why he wants to find out if Superman will bleed. Check out the action packed trailer for yourself:

That said, many of our original complaints still hold true. Snyder's vision of Superman didn't exactly blow us away, and the new Batman - played by Ben Affleck - was a chance to reinvent the character and move beyond Christian Bale's trademark cheesy growl. But it looks like we're not getting that here either.

The movie looks tonally similar to Frank Miller's comics, and that's something you'll celebrate - or not - based on your own feelings about Miller. As someone who outgrew his rebellious teenager phase a long time ago, this writer isn't a fan. Plus, from the perspective of a movie watcher, this stuff has gotten needlessly done to death. The upcoming Fantastic Four movie also promises to be "grounded in science", but what this really means is people blowing up, and various shades of grey and brown everywhere.

(Also see: Hunger Games Mockingjay - Part 2 Teaser First Look)

One of the things that Marvel did a great job of was bringing colour back into action movies, and making room for humour to breathe. That's one of the big reasons for the runaway success of Guardians of the Galaxy, and we're really hoping to see more of the funny side of Marvel in Ant-Man. Batman v Superman on the other hand just looks like a grim and dreary slog.

The other big problem we had with the teaser trailer was that there was no sign of the huge cast of characters that makes up this film. The Comic Con trailer is better in that way - you can see Lex Luthor and Wonder Woman here, and a uniform hanging in the Batcave that is a tantalising hint at the fate of Robin.

There is a lot of action in this trailer, and scenes of Affleck's Batman on the ground level, watching the devastation being wrought by Superman (perhaps from the end of Man of Steel?) that tries to address our biggest problem with the Superman movie - that Man of Steel simply ignored the tremendous collateral damage from the climactic battle. There are some big action scenes with groups of soldiers, and while Wonder Woman's shots are fleeting right now, they look exciting. Batman looks to have a good number of gadgets, and Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor looks very promising indeed.

At the end of the day though, all this adds up to make a trailer that's more promising than the one we saw in April, but it still looks like a grim and dull film that might be impressive, but looks joyless.