It really marginalizes the audience immediately. It's at least 1/3 harder to pick up buzz these days than it used to be, after you lose what goodwill you've already garnered through marketing during production by releasing a "meh" teaser!
So what if it's artsy? So what if it gets released in an egregious overnumber of formats? So what if it's a WWII film? So what if it's a D-Day film? So what if the shots are pretty? Snore BORING.
And yeah, I get it, when you see the trailer in the IMAX screen, you hear the planes soaring past, and it roars through the Dolby sound system...and the audience thinks "oh I have never really seen a WWII movie at the height of film technology!"
But what is that really worth?
Lickey-*hit to Millenials, that's what. Remember "American Sniper" and its first trailer? What a suspenseful, controversial eye-grabber. "Dunkirk"? Broody beaches and memories of seeing "The Longest Day" on cable one night with a beer in one hand while the other was scratching my balls. There's a significant chance this doesn't even make what "Interstellar" made a couple years ago, despite the pretty summer release date.
Sorry Christopher Nolan, you're gonna have to go back to marketing movies for American audiences just like everyone else, and leave these types of pensive teasers to what used to be the UK, alright? We want cerebral material, yes, but we are Americans. We want it dressed in American marketing that's excitable, opens discussion and leads to speculation. "Do you think those were Japanese on that plane flying overhead? I wonder what interpretive designs they decided to go for to recreate the historically accurate--" WHO CARES? Michael Bay can open movies to big numbers because all his trailer imagery looks pretty, despite it being misleading because when you see it extended by 2.5 hours it becomes rather hideous--and Nolan, it's clear it doesn't take a Batman for you to open a film, but you can bloody do it better than this. I remember the "Inception" teaser trailer. I saw that my freshman year in college. Where have THOSE ambitions as a filmmaker gone, Christopher?