This week is a very special Christmas Trailer Talk with three absolute crackers waiting to be pulled.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

In a year where highly anticipated tentpole films are competing for attention, The Dark Knight Rises has got to be at the forefront of 2012. This trailer does a great job of cementing that excitement by showing that Christopher Nolan’s final entry in the Batman saga will not be playing nice.

In The Dark Knight, the Joker drove Gotham to the brink of complete collapse. It seems like Bane is the man who will finally tip the scales. We saw the Joker bomb a hospital, Bane bombs a football stadium. Everything about this film seems to be bigger and more dangerous that before, Gotham is becoming a war zone. It’s a fairly radical place to take a lucrative superhero franchise, when so many others prefer to play it safe and stick to a formula.

Let’s discuss the elephant that has been parading around the room ever since the IMAX prologue and trailer premiered: Bane’s voice. There has been a lot said about how incomprehensible Bane is in this trailer, but I have to wonder if people just aren’t making the effort to listen? I understood him straight away. In fact, I only struggled with two of his lines in the 6 minute prologue. This isn’t such an insurmountable issue that it can’t be fixed with a tweak of the sound mix, a complete ADR do-over is probably a bit extreme.

Now let’s discuss the politics of the film. Batman Begins was a fairly straight forward rebooting of the series, but The Dark Knight elevated the material to become one of the more impressive and uncompromising commentaries on 9/11 and the War on Terror. It would be disappointing if this sequel did not rise (sorry) to the challenge.

It appears, based on Catwoman’s dialogue in the trailer, that this movie may be dealing with an extreme version of Occupy Gotham. This is about the 1% living large in Gotham while the 99% suffer, and action being taken to correct this mistake. What we have seen of the trailer are attacks on the wealthy of Gotham, mansions being ransacked and overpaid athletes being killed. The League of Shadows (who Bane appears to represent) wanted to destroy Gotham in Batman Begins for becoming too decadent, for the people. It seems that the day has finally come. It’s a pretty extreme case of class war but it’s thrilling to consider.

Christopher Nolan has yet to make a truly disappointing film, the worst that can be said of films like Insomnia or Batman Begins is that they are “just good”. After stepping into the A-list with The Dark Knight and Inception, I have nothing but faith that Nolan can defy the threequel curse and deliver a worthy conclusion to his epic saga.

THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY

I try my best to resist nostalgia, I have no interest in revelling in the past but this trailer for The Hobbit is pure nostalgia. It reminded me how having a new Lord of the Rings movie every Christmas was a rare treat, there aren’t many real reasons for a grown adult to give a crap about Christmas but the promise of another journey through Middle Earth was one Hell of an incentive. Then the trilogy ended and Christmas became just another excuse to get very drunk, like music festivals and the World Cup.

This trailer brings us back to The Shire, reintroduces the raggedy charm of Gandalf the Grey, Howard Shore’s beautiful score. The film looks gorgeous, the RED camera is producing a brighter, softer look to the trilogies grainy film look. While that’s just a symptom of the new format, it fits the difference in tone.

The dwarves are introduced swiftly and establishes their unique appearance and personalities. It helps that their names rhyme, it gives the montage a fun energy, setting it apart from the ever building gloom of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The song, something prevalent in Tolkien’s work but often skipped over in the movies for sake of time is given the center stage here and Howard Shore’s musical accompaniment is magnificent, every bit as enthralling as his iconic work repackaged from the previous films.

Martin Freeman was born to play a Hobbit and he channels a young Ian Holm in a rather uncanny way, without being a simple impersonation. The return of the One Ring and Gollum is a perfect way to conclude the trailer, bridging this film to the events of Fellowship of the Ring and beyond.

I feel that giddy anticipation for Christmas once more, without the need for alcohol. It’s a Christmas miracle!

PROMETHEUS

Out of all the films I am looking forward to next year, Prometheus might win overall. I adore the original Alien films (Resurrection and the Versus Predators do not exist in this dojo) but the Ridley Scott original may be one of the best films ever made.

Scott is not the most reliable of filmmakers, often missing as often as he’s hitting, but he is two for two on science fiction films. Returning to the genre appears to be doing him the world of good. This Alien prequel looks magnificent. Beautifully shot, immaculate production values and truly epic scope.

The use of fading in the titles and the specific sound effects mirror the original Alien trailer, while adding some ever popular Inception-style foreboding foghorns. It makes an impression without revealing too much.

Some cool images glimpsed in this teaser include a Space Jockey skull, the Space Jockey’s ship and cockpit, directly tying this film to Alien. Whether we will see anything else from the original film is entirely up for debate and I am sure more eagle-eyed viewers will analyse this and all remaining marketing materials for extra clues. I will just admire a well executed trailer that succeeds in its primary function; creating anticipation for a film that is an unknown quantity when compared to The Hobbit or Batman.

For comparisons sake, here is the trailer for Alien. Call it a Christmas bonus.