Pop Culture for Fun

‘Tis the season…to be watching trailers. A bunch of previews for big upcoming (sooner or later) movies dropped recently. And once again results (and reactions) were mixed. Probably the biggest story was the trailer for the Hobbit – it’s one of the most anticipated movies, and yet the trailer felt lacking. It probably didn’t help that it felt like it was cut by someone that ran out of ideas halfway through and decided to mix the good parts with some that didn’t belong. But, all in all, it was still alright: hobbits, dwarves and a certain wizard showing up had something to do with it, but mostly it was the Howard Shore score feeling just right.

Some time ago, I found myself watching the trailer for Dream House. At first, it felt promising. Rachel Weisz, Daniel Craig, Naomi Watts, Rachel Weisz, Jim Sheridan (one 50 Cent movie doesn’t erase all those Oscar nominations), Rachel Weisz…But the trailer did something unfathomable: it gave away a big twist. Not the twist at the end, but, in my opinion, the most important one. A twist that, when going to see the movie knowing it, somehow lessens the experience (imagine knowing who Keyser Soze is at the start of The Usual Suspects). And that has been a plague on trailers from times immemorial. It’s probably most noticeable for a slew of comedies – you see all the memorable, worthwhile jokes in the trailer, the rest of the movie is just a shell. And, in a twisted executive’s mind, that sees everything through the lens of “immediate returns”, that’s a good thing. Having the best parts in the trailer piques the moviegoer’s interest. And first weekend receipts matter…

But, it doesn’t have to be this way, there are countless others that succeeded in garnering interest and word of mouth without giving away much (something almost giving away nothing). Case in point: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo initial trailer. You know the one: loud cover of classic rock song, bits and pieces of the movie only glanced, Muppets parody… The best part of that trailer? It felt like it showed you everything, but at such a pace that nothing was clear, nothing stuck, except maybe for the faces of the protagonists. And it worked.

One other such example is the recent The Dark Knight Rises trailer. It has a lot of content, but no context. So you can’t really say it gave anything away. It showed the villains, the heroes, the background characters, bits of the biggest action set pieces, and more. It was basically saying: “Hey, this is the same team behind the previous movies, we know you have high expectations of us, and this is our way of showing you there’s no reason to panic!”. The one thing I didn’t like was that I felt there was no emotion. It felt cold, but then again, Nolan (even though I don’t think he made the trailer) is a more a director for the rational, than the emotional. It did not leave me with that “OMG! I can’t wait to see this!” feeling (though if I were forced to see a single movie next year, TDKR would still be it).

Heart (and story) was what was lacking from the Wrath of the Titans trailer as well. Though I am not surprised. That one is but action set piece after action set piece (though he tried for something different with The Debt, I’m afraid Sam Worthington will only wind up as one of this generation’s action men). I wonder if it’s odd putting The Expendables 2 trailer in the same category of the emotionless. The trailer for the first one showed you exactly what to expect. And the new trailer did the same: action stars doing action. But it somehow feels wrong since it does pull one string: nostalgia. Having Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Willis, Norris, Van Damme & Co. together on screen is something of a fantasy for many older action fans that grew up with “I’ll be back!”, mindless Vietnamese slaughter, wisecracking cops, bearded martial artists and ballet kickboxing.

There were plenty other trailers, that more or less made me wish I’d have a time machine. Jack the Giant Killer seems cool (might be an actual comeback for Bryan Singer), Salmon Fishing in the Yemen seems to be next year’s feel good movie (and shows us it’ll be one of those years Ewan McGregor is in everything, not that I’m complaining), Beneath the Darkness has a dark Dennis Quaid, that seems to enjoy playing the bad guy, Rock of Ages will probably not live up to the hype (also, Tom Cruise megalomania alert!), The Dictator seems more like Ali G than Borat (I’m very afraid it’s Sascha Baron Cohen’s The Love Guru) and the next G.I. Joe actually looks a lot better than the first (though I’m afraid people won’t show up to see it).

My personal pick as best of the recent trailers to hit? The very new Prometheus trailer. Ridley Scott, back to Sci Fi. The new star in Hollywood, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce (always a pleasure seeing him), the talented and gorgeous Charlize Theron (has she done anything remotely Sci Fi after Aeon Flux?), the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Idris Elba too. That being said, we don’t get to glimpse that much from the trailer. But it looks great and there are plenty of references to the first Alien movie for those willing to spot them, though we don’t really see any of “the” aliens.