Francis Ford Coppola used the venue of the official (and second overall) trailer for his much-anticipated, self-financed $120 million Lionsgate epic “Megalopolis” – which dropped Wednesday morning – to launch a preemptive strike on anyone considering trashing the film he logged decades writing, producing and directing and that hits theaters in the United States on September 27. Watch the new trailer above.

The reel opens with the line, “True genius is often misunderstood” as dramatic music plays underneath. It then quickly cycles through a collection of high-profile critical pans of three of his most legendary movies: “The Godfather” (“A sloppy, self-indulgent movie” – Andrew Sarris, The Village Voice; “Diminished by its artiness” – Pauline Kael, The New Yorker); “Apocalypse Now” (“A spectacular failure” – John Simon, National Review; “Hollow at its core” – Vincent Canby, The New York Times; “An epic piece of trash” – Red Reed, New York Daily News); and “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (“A triumph of style over substance” – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times; “A beautiful mess” – Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly).

The premiere of “Megalopolis” at Cannes in May inspired mixed reviews, to be sure, though it also generated a seven-minute standing ovation for that first screening. It logged in at a lukewarm 53% on Rotten Tomatoes from 68 reviews. The consensus from those early critiques was that the movie was a beautiful, imaginative, erudite disaster, bolstered by flashes of brilliance.

SEE ‘Megalopolis’ trailer: Francis Ford Coppola drops dazzling teaser on Cannes opening day

The trailer continues past the critics’ snippets with the narrator intoning, “One filmmaker has always been ahead of his time,” followed by, “From visionary writer and director Francis Ford Coppola comes an event nothing can prepare you for.” The colorful, grandiose, quick-cut series of clips that follows is fairly mesmerizing, with star Adam Driver featured throughout. Besides Driver, the cast includes Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Kathryn Hunter and Dustin Hoffman.

Here is the synopsis: “Megalopolis” is a Roman Epic set in an imagined Modern America. The City of New Rome must change, causing conflict between Cesar Catilina (Driver), a genius artist who seeks to leap into a utopian, idealistic future, and his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Esposito), who remains committed to a regressive status quo, perpetuating greed, special interests, and partisan warfare. Torn between them is socialite Julia Cicero (Emmanuel), the mayor’s daughter, whose love for Cesar has divided her loyalties, forcing her to discover what she truly believes humanity deserves.

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