Written by Kenny Fischer

That was strange.

I showed up at Hollywood and Highland around 6:00 PM and saw hundreds of Batman fans running across the street like I was in a Roland Emmerich disaster film.  They weren't even at a crosswalk.  They were sprinting in between parked and moving cars in the middle of the street.  You don't see that every day.  At least a quarter of these enthusiastic sons of bitches had their faces made up to look like The Joker.  I really wished I had a video camera so I could set it to the Chariots of Fire theme.

I wasn't sure where I was supposed to go and I approached the first person I saw with a "bat-nametag."  I asked him, but before I could even finish my question he cut me off and said, "This is a scavenger hunt.  You have to figure that out on your own."  "But I'm press," I replied.  He pointed at the idiots in the street and told me to follow them.  What the hell else was I supposed to do?  Being smart, I walked to the intersection and did it the safe and legal way.  I figured it wouldn't be hard to catch up with some excited dudes in make up.

I found a line of 400 to 500 people around the corner.  After several more disastrous conversations with borderline retarded employees*, I found a guy who knew exactly what I was supposed to do and where I was supposed to go.  I'd like to take this opportunity to thank that guy.  You are good people.  I made my way to the Mann's Chinese 6 and found some other people that looked like press.  The 400 or 500 people made their way to the theater eventually and were ushered through the whole metal-detector-wand-song-and-dance-routine.  We were eventually let inside and I, along with a crowd of screaming fans, got to see the new trailer.

In short, the trailer's fucking fantastic.  It's about on par with the last one, but now we get to see more of Aaron Eckhart's take on the Harvey Dent character.  I like what he's doing.  We see a brief glimpse of how he's going to become Two-Face and it's brutal.  The basic rundown of the trailer is this.  We see Batman on a rooftop.  Then Joker gives a speech to a group of big deal mobsters about how killing Batman will be the end to all their problems.  We then see Maggie Gyllenhal give a better performance as Rachel in 15 seconds than Katie Holmes gave in the entire first movie.  Harvey Dent seems interested in Rachel.  Alfred makes a funny.

Then there's a lot of fun chaos.  I dig Dent's line, "You either die a hero or live long enough to become a villain."  Somehow it's not cheesy or as on the nose as it seems.  I love how it feels like a big, dark, sweeping crime movie with these absurd comic book characters in the middle.  I keep thinking of Heat when I see the footage.  Still, there's nothing mind blowing in the new trailer.  If you loved the last one then you'll love this one.  If you were excited to see the movie you'll still be excited.  I don't need any more trailers.  I don't need any TV spots.  I just want to see the movie yesterday.

*I'm sure everyone at Warner Bros. is wonderful.  I'm also sure everyone involved with The Dark Knight is a class act and competent.  The employees inside the theaters were extremely helpful and knowledgeable, but the young guys working in the street were morons.