We have movies not available at Redbox or NetflixWe have movies not available at Redbox or Netflix

Mysterious final 'Batman v Superman' trailer appears - and it's great!

Posted Thursday, February 11, 2016 at 2:20 PM Central
Last updated Thursday, February 11, 2016 at 2:22 PM Central

by John Couture

I admit it, there's a conspiracist running around in my head at times. No, I'm not quite in the don the tin-foil hats club, but I do love a good yarn as much as the next guy. Most people will probably greet the news of a new Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice trailer with open arms and no skepticism, but I'm not most people.

Earlier today (as far as I can tell the first discovery came right around midnight which makes sense), a "shady" company called MKJ Film Distribution dropped the following trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice out on YouTube. I call it "shady" because this is the only video that they have ever uploaded to YouTube and beyond this social media presence, they don't seem to have any other digital footprint. There's no website, no Twitter, not even a Facebook page.

In this day of omnipresence, they are a ghost. Again, most people wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, but how did that work out for the Trojans again? The trailer is not available on any of Warner Bros.' channels, both domestically and internationally. It is not on the official Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice website, nor does it show up on any of its numerous social media imprints.

And yet, the trailer is undeniably legit. Even Lex Luthor doesn't have enough money to get Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill together to film throwaway footage for some Internet joke, no matter how epic. That brings up an interesting question, why?

Warner Bros. isn't exactly known for being forward-thinking and pushing the envelope. They thrive by mitigating risk and this move seems to be all about risk, but perhaps that's the rub. If the trailer is panned and hated, they can theoretically claim that the some rogue editor posted it without their permission. On the other hand, if people love it (and the early returns suggest that they do), then it's just an enigma and one of many to come hopefully with Suicide Squad coming down the pipe later this year.

I do, however, have to point out one interesting, albeit most likely coincidental, detail about this video and that's the YouTube video token. What's a YouTube video token? It's basically the unique code that is assigned to each video. It's the critical little bit of code that allows videos to be embedded and keeps YouTube running smoothly. It's the jumble of letters and numbers following the "v=" in any YouTube link. Well, the link for this video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cle_rKBpZ28. The video token is "Cle_rKBpZ28."

How did I first learn of this video? From Mr. Clerks himself, Kevin Smith.

Of course, Smith links to a different version of the trailer without the "Clerk" video token, so that deflates my conspiracy theory a bit, but I'm a true believer. Again, the tokens are created automatically and dynamically when you upload a video, but man, I want to believe.

Whatever the case may be, the trailer is a revelation for me. I had been strongly on the fence about Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice before this trailer, but it's so good that I want to build a time machine for the sole purpose of traveling to March 25 to see it. I have been incredibly critical of movie trailers in recent years, but this proves that when you put effort and thought into a trailer, it can lift up just about any film.

What do you think?