The new trailer for the forthcoming Batman movie, The Dark Knight has been released. The centerpiece of the trailer is The Joker, played with maniacal menace by Heath Ledger. The late actor certainly makes the character appear menacing and it's quickly apparent this is not your father's version of the character, played on TV by Caesar Romero and in the 1989 big screen version by Jack Nicholson. This film reinvents the story from the standpoint that Batman and The Joker don't appear to have met previously and Gotham City is getting a grim introduction to the crazed villain. I hate to say it, but I didn't like the trailer. Ledger's appearance is unsettling, but he looks like he just stepped out of a Friday the 13th sequel. He looks like some of the punks you might find wandering about after hours in London's Soho district. There is no attempt to capture the qualities of the traditionally larger-than-life Joker aside from mixing some witticisms in with the mayhem. Additionally, if the trailer is any indication, the film will be yet another action epic to emulate the long-tired formula of endless explosions, racing cars and eye-popping CGI effects. At one point The Joker is seen walking the streets shooting bazookas and machine guns - actions far too mundane for the criminal mastermind of D.C. Comics legend. I was a great admirer of Batman Returns and believe that director Christopher Nolan has great reverence for the character and franchise. Hopefully, my reservations about The Dark Knight will be unfounded when the final film is unveiled. - Lee Pfeiffer

UPDATE: I've been chastised for my article by England's "Grumpy Old Man of the Year", my own partner Dave Worrall. He says I should point out that while the new version of The Joker may be blasphemous to dinosaurs like us who grew up on the older version of the character, it is totally in line with the Dark Knight graphic novels on which the film is based. Fair point. He also says that director Christopher Nolan has gone on record to state that the film will have a minimal amount of CGI effects. That may be true, but I was critiquing the trailer, not the finished movie - and for my money, the trailer has too many explosions and action scenes. Worrall counters that by pointing out he was with a group of college kids today who were raving over how great the trailer was - so, old farts like us aside, it looks like the marketing campaign is resonating with its intended audience. Now I hope this ends this bickering, because he and I are starting to sound like George and Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - Lee Pfeiffer

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