Just released is the first (teaser) trailer for Christopher Nolan‘s final Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises. Fresh off Inception, and with The Dark Knight being arguably the best Batman film yet, Nolan will no doubt look to completely blow us away with his last outing. Despite this only being a teaser, you get the feeling we are going to see some bad guys get their backsides handed to them when Christian Bale‘s superb incarnation of the bat the comes back from exile. Bam! Biff! Pow!

The trailer also brings us our first glimpse of Bane, played by the fantastic Tom Hardy (Inception, Bronson). According to imdb.com ‘Bane is considered one of Batman’s most deadly and powerful foes. Bane’s strength is only matched by his superior IQ.’ For those not famillar with the comics, or the animated series, your only experience of Bane will be from the pile of guano that was Batman and Robin, where Bane was used as a moronic henchman to Uma Thurman’s Poison Ivy. Not so here, fortunately.

Enjoy!

If I’m honest, the trailer is not really ‘all that’. It doesn’t really give us much, but that’s a good thing. What it does do is build a sense on impending awesomeness – yes, awesomeness! You feel this film is going to be epic. You know this film is going to be epic. And that’s what a good teaser does.

In fact, the trailer feels very similar to Inception’s teaser trailer in more way than one. Aside from not giving anything away, Nolan uses buildings as a way to imply what is about to happen. It worked for me with Inception… and it works for me here. And Nolan’s magic appears to have worked for several of his Inception cohorts too. Although not in the trailer, the incredibly talented Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard are on board for this one too.

As for Bane as a villain… it’s going to be hard to beat The Joker from The Dark Knight. But I expect Nolan’s Bane will be one of the best Batman villians yet and I’m sure an epic ‘down and dirty’ brawl will be in store for us in the final throws of the film.

I can’t wait for the first full trailer to come out.

Do you think Nolan can top The Dark Knight with his last outing? Do you think Bane will make a good villian? Who’s your best Batman villan of all time?

There’s no official plot synopsis available for The Dark Knight Rises but I’m sure it will be something like.. ‘Batman and his ridiculously raspy voice are back, and together they’re gonna kick some a** and take some names.’

Directed by Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight Rises stars Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Nestor Carbonell and Matthew Modine.

The film is due for release here on 19 July, 2012 – one day ahead of it’s US release date.