Okay. So I’m just back from the latest Dark Knight Viral. After running around for almost an hour, getting separated from the group and almost not getting in, we totally rocked the newest trailer.
For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about here’s the (very brief) rundown:
The people at Warner Bros. are going farther than anyone has ever gone to engage their fans and harness the raw power of the internet nerd to promote a product. In this case, it’s a movie. THE movie of the summer, some say. An entire network of websites has sprung up making Gotham City seem like an actual city. There are sites for Gotham Bank, Gotham City Cab, Gotham Police Department (GCPD) and many more local sites (such as pie shops, delis). It goes so far as to be called an ‘alternate reality game’. I’m only scratching the surface for all of this, so I strongly suggest that you check out the Wiki here. They have so much more detail than I could ever.
For this particular viral, we all had to meet at Nathan Phillips Square. At 5:30 stuff started being posted. We followed the stuff.
(My husband, The Joker)
Then we had to run and follow a bunch of clues and eventually, were rewarded with a joker card (see above) and then off to the Scotiabank Theatre at John and Richmond in the big T.O. for a 3:30 trailer for The Dark Knight.
Unfortunately, we got separated from the group and this ‘goon’ above wasn’t very nice to us. There was this one tall, pretty pregnant lady who assured us all that we weren’t going to miss it. As it turns out, we got all the stuff and enjoyed all the fun. Then there was the ‘give away’ at the end. The guy who won is super nice and is an active member of the Super Hero Hype board (just Google it, you’ll find it). It was a film can (pictured below) with some film in it. Don’t know what it was, but it came with instructions to ‘share’. We thought that they were going to put it on right away, but no. So he’s gonna check it out and post up about it as soon as he can. I refer you to SHH for that though. I honestly can’t keep up.
But that’s not why you came. You came to find out about the new trailer. Well. It’s good. It’s really good. Chris Nolan, as usual, has done fantastic things with this movie. He never rushes, he never compromises. He’s just slow, steady and always wins the race. There’s more Heath. There’s more Maggie. There’s more Aaron. There’s some stuff you’ve seen lots of already and there’s stuff that’ll blow your mind. It’s fantastic. I’m sure this trailer will be online over the next couple of days, but today I’m a happy kid. I got to go play Batman. My only major concern here is that, not unlike the 1989 Batman franchise, after the first movie Batman stopped being the most interesting thing in the movie. There was too much going on and too many things to focus on. Batman just seemed like a hokey add on to a movie that would be pretty good, if only The Dark Knight wasn’t there. I do have the utmost faith in my buddy Chris, but I also hesitate. Please don’t let this turn into a Hellboy II. I just don’t think I could take it.
UPDATE: Well…. this morning I woke up feeling not so good. At first I just thought that it was because I foobered my back running all over Queen West yesterday with two bags hanging from my shoulder, but then I realized it was because we — those of us who got separated from the group last night — got treated pretty badly by the people running the show down there at the Scotiabank (please note, I’m not talking about the STAFF at the Scotiabank Theatre, who were nothing but great for the entire thing. See pic below for reference. I’m talking about the marketing people who were actually running the event. Different thing.)
On the one hand, I completely understand that they needed to be equitable to the people who just showed up at the theatre without doing any of the online stuff, but apparently there wasn’t any concessions for the people who DID play the game, just didn’t play it very well and got screwed. We didn’t get raffle tickets. We didn’t get good seats. They kept saying that it was for ‘the people who played the game’ and then everyone else comes next. The tall, nice, pregnant lady did seem to pause when I said that we HAD been at Nathan Phillips and we just got separated, but the ‘goon’ in the mask was pretty mean. “You were supposed to work together”. There was close to 150 of us. We just got separated and, as such, treated poorly by the people running the event. Not to mention that with the group we were with, we worked pretty damn well together. I must say, that for 3 minutes and 30 seconds, it wasn’t worth it. Especially considering the amount of time, effort and energy my husband put into all of this. To get lost and then considered to be less than everyone else was a total insult. In the end they decided to pony up some of the stuff and treat us slightly better, but it still feels wrong and bad. As a total aside here, the people who did the 6 minute preview in London also got some swag. We got none. We got joker cards. They also refused to play it again. The reason? “There’s a screening in here after this…” Huh. THREE MINUTES THIRTY SECONDS. I feel confident we could have watched it one more time. I think for the next viral, I’ll stay home, because even though I got to see it before everyone else, and it did turn out fine in the end, it still left me with such a bad taste in my mouth for something that was supposed to be good clean fun.
UPDATE 2: I understand that you fine people at SHH have linked to me. First off, shout out to the guy with the laptop, whose name I can’t remember. Second, here ya go parkdaledude…. I understand you hate pics of you being posted, but you’re such a great guy, you deserve a little noteriety. A big thanks to all the SHH people we met yesterday. You were honestly the highlight of the day and , frankly, made it worth coming out. Cheers!
