Whetting the Appetite

First off, I have to say that I'm smack in the middle of the targeted audience of this movie poster for The Dark Knight Rises, and as such, I can attest to the fact that this ad will get every fan of the past two batman movies by Christopher Nolan excited for next, and apparently final, installment of the series.

This poster is designed to be a total tease for the large number of people who have seen the other movies, and it foreshadows a lot.  The symbol of Batman's broken mask, as well as the line "The Legend Ends" suggest that Batman may actually die in this movie, which would be unprecedented for a number of reasons.  For starters, how often does the hero of a movie die--especially the superhero in a superhero movie?  I'm struggling to come up with another mainstream superhero movie example that would be equivalent.  Even more so, this just further cements Nolan's reputation for taking the Batman franchise and creating dark, realistic movies that just happen to be about extraordinary events.  By Batman dying, Nolan would essentially be saying that he's not in it for the money of churning out blockbuster movies (although the last two have definitely been blockbusters), but for creating great movies where the storyline will not have to dovetail to classic Hollywood endings.

The ad also so simply captures the dark, edgy mood of the series that has appealed to so many people-- bad weather, black moods, and nighttime action.  A the same time, we see that the villain of the film, which is always crucial for superhero movies, will be Bane;  this answers the main question that all the fans of the movie are asking: who will Batman fight?

Overall, I just really like the understated, yet revealing nature of the ad, I feel like it is the perfect ad at the point that it came out with still a year before the movie is released.  It may only give us just a taste of what's to come, but that taste lingers.