Cinematical

... has just hit YouTube, and it's in very low quality. At least we think this is the first teaser. You be the judge. This is a bootleg version of the teaser that is supposed to play before The Simpsons Movie this weekend, as well as at ComicCon. No word yet when the teaser will officially land in good HD quality online, but I'm thinking Warner Bros. will have to do something. I mean, they can't let folks watch this cruddy bootleg thing. But if you want to get a taste of what we should expect from the highly-anticipated sequel to Batman Begins, then head on over and check it out ... while it's still around. In case it's gone by the time you read this, I'll try my best to give you the play-by-play (don't worry, there aren't any spoilers).

The most annoying part of the teaser is that it's a, well, teaser. As expected, none of the footage was ready to show yet, and so all we get is a black background (that slowly becomes the bat symbol) and a voice-over exchange between Bruce Wayne/Batman (Christian Bale) and Alfred (Michael Caine). Wayne tells Alfred that "he" crossed the line, and Alfred fires back: "You crossed the line first, sir." He later adds: "Some men aren't looking for anything logical. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn." The bat symbol flies into the picture -- we hear some brief dialogue from the Joker (Heath Ledger doing his best Jack Nicholson impression), a Joker playing card flies across the screen and we're out. The Dark Knight. Summer 2008. I'm sure a lot of fans will be disappointed in the fact that no actual footage is shown, but keep in mind they're still filming this puppy. Just the fact they were able to cut something together (using dialogue already filmed) in time for ComicCon and The Simpsons Movie should be good enough. Keep it tuned in here, and we'll let you know when the trailer hits in better quality. The Dark Knight will arrive in theaters on July 18, 2008.