A Fire Bear Storm Of Movie Trailers

There have been a large number of new trailers dropped in the last week or so, with one assuming there is some correlation between all these trailers dropping, and that thing going on in San Diego. I present to you the following 10 trailers in a ranked list, for your enjoyment…

#1 – Thor: Ragnarok 

Marvel has doubled down on what they initially promised with the Thor: Ragnarok teaser trailer, and are furthering the promise that the film will be a neon drenched fun action/adventure movie. The trailer really doesn’t give us any more details about the plot, just giving us more of a glimpse at what the teaser showed us. I think tonally the film is hitting all the right notes, and truly is promising the world. I do like the fact that the Team Thor promo from last year that had Taika Waititi plugging the Marvel character into his What We Do In The Shadows format, seems to be an accurate portrayal of what Thor’s character will be like in Thor: Ragnarok.

#2 – Bright 

Netflix’s biggest movie to date is promising a lot, and honestly from the trailer, seems to be exactly the type of movie that Will Smith would want to be in. This is certainly in the MIB and I Am Legend zone, at least for the second half of the trailer. Given that the film is toting that the film is from David Ayer, the director of End of Watch and Suicide Squad, it is not surprising that I liked the first half of the trailer, which is more akin to End of Watch, than I did the second half, which reeks of Suicide Squad. I’d say that I am on board for the film, simply because of the talent involved, and for the fact that I have already paid to see it, because I have a Netflix account. I should admit though, that Max Landis’ involvement as the writer of the film has me concerned, because he has never impressed me as a writer.

#3 – Leatherface

So the director’s of Inside have made a prequel to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, telling the origin story of the titular Leatherface. While I think the trailer does a decent job of quickly showing all the debauchery that will be in the film, I certainly have no interest in the film itself. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series, at least until the remakes, is full of dark humour, and this trailer is advertising a film that completely ignores that. As well, the trailer is certainly playing in well tread territory, with the use of It’s Over, which is a classic (over done) horror movie trope of playing some innocent sounding song that is in contrast with the horrors being shown.

#4 – Jigsaw

As an example of how over done using a piece of music to contrast a horror movie’s nefarious nature is, check out another recent trailer that does exactly that, with Roy Orbison’s Running Scared. I think the song is used to decent effect in the trailer, and for the most part the trailer is well constructed, but what it is promising is certainly something that we’ve seen before. I’ve never seen a single Saw film, though I’ve seen some of the kills, but I would have to imagine that if you were a fan of the series, that this trailer would have you excited. I also have to give the trailer credit for getting me back on an Orbison kick while I am slaving away writing this nonsense.

#5 – Wonderstruck

Looking at this many trailers you’re bound to start seeing some similarities and use of over done trailer tropes, and the trailer for Wonderstruck features two such over used tropes. The first is yet another use of a song to help contextualize what is happening on screen, and in this case it is the use of Bowie’s Space Oddity. Of course, you can’t just use the song, you’ve got to get a children’s choir to open things off, and then you can switch to Bowie. The whole children’s choir things seems about ten years too late, so I’m docking marks for that. I am also docking marks for referring to director Todd Haynes as a “visionary” director in the trailer. What is even more heinous is that the two film’s that he’s being touted for as being “visionary” aren’t even his debut film Safe, which is the only thing that he has done that could be considered “visionary”. Overall, this trailer is pretty vanilla, though to see Haynes do something a bit different than what he has been doing as of late certainly has me intrigued.

#6 – Only The Brave

This trailer gets the award for the trailer that you have to watch to the end to see who the film was directed by, because this trailer is trying so hard to make you think that it is a Pete Berg film. Everything about it screams Berg, and certainly this film is playing the Berg’s well established wheelhouse, but alas the film is directed by Joseph Kosinski, the director of Tron: Legacy and Oblivion. I certainly wouldn’t blame someone who wasn’t paying attention to the credits at the end of the trailer for thinking that this was a Pete Berg film though. The fire bear opening even kind of smells of the “my daddy tames the dinosaurs” opening of the trailer for Berg’s Deepwater Horizon.

#7 – The Snowman

Here is a super vanilla thriller trailer that did nothing for me on a first watch, and even once I realized that Tomas Alfredson directed the film it is advertising, still did nothing for me. I can’t think of a goofier final shot from a recent trailer (okay, maybe down there in slot #10), and there is nothing about this trailer that is on the level of the film maker and actors involved.

#8 – The Shape of Water

This is the trailer that I am most conflicted about, because the cast is stacked with people I love to see on screen (Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Michael Stuhlbarg), and G Del T is a director to be excited about (for the most part), but this just seems like G Del T playing it very safe, and I am not interested at all. The trailer is selling a movie that is Hellboy meets Amelie and this combination just doesn’t seem to work. There is also that shift near the end of the trailer that suggests that this flick is going to go in a horror direction, despite G Del T stating that this is not a horror movie. Despite the poor trailer, I certainly will be seeking this out, but the movie that is being sold here does no seem very promising.

#9 – Justice League

What this trailer is showing, is scenes that look like video game cut scenes. All the sets look extremely plain and digital, and this certainly gives the movie a unique look, though not one that I find appealing in the least. This trailer is selling a brutal looking movie, but in a strange way, because of the film’s video game cut scene look and feel, I am actually curious in seeing what will inevitably be two and a half hours of that is like. I will say that The Flash joke at the end did deliver for me, so despite the entire trailer being a mess, it did (almost) end on a good note.

#10 – 9/11

I heard about this a couple week’s ago, because the Film Junk guys were talking about it on their show, and boy does the trailer pretty much look exactly like one would expect it to after hearing who was in this film about September 11th. Everything about this trailer is just bad, and now I will let you watch it and see for yourself. And yeah, the elevator shot in this is worse than the last shot in The Snowman trailer.

And there we are, a bunch of trailers for your enjoyment. I feel like there were probably some trailers missed, so If you’ve got one that you dug (or didn’t), drop it in The Pit below, and give us your thoughts. I can guarantee at least two people will read it, and at least one will provide feedback.