Nordling at Aint It Cool News says the latest trailer for “John Carter” is “…the best (official) one yet.”

And I agree with him.  It tells what the film is about, as well as the stakes, better than any of the trailers that came before.

That being said, the problem  is, when your film costs upwards of $200 million dollars, you don’t get too many chances to get it right because most people aren’t going to wait till they see something of interest in the trailer before deciding whether or not to see your film.

In other words, if this were a low-budget film–or something virtually guaranteed an audience, like “The Dark Knight Rises” or “The Avengers,” or you happen to be Ridley Scott, releasing a film that may be somehow connected to the ‘Alien’ films–then I can see pursuing a strategy of playing it close to the vest, coyly revealing the interesting bits at your own pace.

But John Carter isn’t either of those films, and it can’t afford (nor can Disney, to be honest) to eventually get it right.

And speaking of Scott and “Prometheus,” the first trailer was so good that I want to see it on the strength of that alone, despite that I think the original “Alien” (which I expect this film to be somehow connected to, despite comments to the contrary from various camps) was interesting, but a bit more clinical than it needed to be.