With Marvel and some other big powers opting to sit this year’s San Diego Comic Con out, DC & Warner Bros. had the stage almost entirely to themselves.  Fortunately for comic book fans everywhere, they’ve decided to take advantage of that platform by releasing the first full-length trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.  Have a look:

As the guys at HISHE put it, Man of Steel was not inspiring.  Many people, myself included, thought Superman’s careless disregard for the safety of those around him whenever he engaged in battle seemed completely at odds with the character, and even if we give him the benefit of the doubt because it was his first time out and so on, it was hardly something that would’ve inspired people to think of him as symbol of hope.  His existence would be a nightmare scenario for the entire planet.

It appears that Synder & Co. have decided to run with that concept as the impetus for the conflict between Superman and Batfleck (who will in fact have his own movie directed and co-written by Ben Affleck himself.)  Frankly, I’m totally on Batman’s side in this one.  Here we have guys with Superman patches on their arms kneeling to him and his mom telling him he’s perfectly within his rights to tell humanity where to stick it.  That does not inspire confidence that this guy will ever be anything other than a menace.

What Wonder Woman has to do with it is still unclear even from this trailer, but Gal Gadot looks much more convincing in the part than I expected.  It also seemed like they might be going with the Bruce/Diana romance that the animated Justice League series did so well.

The other big point of fan contention, at least as far as casting goes, is giving Jesse Eisenberg the role of Lex Luthor.  Sadly he’s even less intimidating in the trailer than the bald headshot they released not too long ago. How is anyone supposed to take him seriously with that goofy mop? Is it because he quite obviously has a piece of kryptonite with him?  He’s got that cute “red capes are coming” line, but it was all I could do not to just laugh at him when he said it.

Beyond all that though, it’s hard to trust anything in this trailer, even the stuff that ostensibly looks really good, because of how easy it is to lift a few really epic moments (like Batman using the grapple gun to dodge away from Superman’s heat vision), throw a pounding soundtrack behind it, add a dash of voice-over, and make something look way more awesome than the finished product.  That’s what happened with Man of Steel, so while this ultimately feels more promising than the teasers they released, I just can’t get excited for it.

I will say, if I had to choose between this and the Ghostbusters reboot just based on what I’ve seen so far, I’d take this any day of the week and twice on Sunday.  What say you, oh HotAir commenters?

Exit question: is that shot of the kid going swimming supposed to be an Aquaman reference?