If you’ve been wondering how Brett Ratner’s X3 is turning out, you’ll have a few clues soon. ComingSoon.net reports that the first trailer for X-Men 3 will debut December 5 on the Apple trailer site. Better still, it’ll be in gorgeous, high-def Quicktime. The movie may suck, but at least they got the trailer format right.

Actually, I have little doubt that the trailer’s going to look fantastic. Coming Soon has a description of what’s in it, as relayed by some of their writers who were invited up to Vancouver to hang out with Hugh Jackman (in full Wolverine garb no less) and watch it. We weren’t invited… because we’re insignificant, but I don’t need their descriptions to tell me that the trailer is probably going to be pretty good (besides, the trailer is out in just a couple of days, avoid the descriptions and wait for the real thing).

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I have a ton of faith in Brett Ratner or that I’ve suddenly done a 180 on the movie, it’s just that this is a trailer, not the film itself. Ratner is a capable director, with a good eye for action sequences. That sort of thing translates well into a trailer; it’ll be a visual feast of cool things like Storm flying, or Wolverine clawing his way down a building, or the first shot of Kelsey Grammar in costume as the furry blue Beast. Visually, I’m confident that X3 will be a sharp looking film. That’s all a trailer can really convey anyway, how it’ll look. The problems with this movie, assuming it’s as bad as we all think it’ll be, will be with the story It’s the script that stinks, not its special effects. Cool special effects and great characters make for great trailers. But what you see in this trailer, when we see it December 5th, is absolutely no reflection of what’s written down in that reportedly horrible script.

So don’t get too excited.

Check back with us on Monday, and we’ll have the first X-Men 3 trailer for you, assuming it is actually released. Till then, visit the X3 page in our preview database for more info on the film.