What does a trailer say about a movie? Well, not a whole lot, actually. Sometimes trailers make movies look better than they are; other times they make brilliant movies look like garbage. What’s worse, sometimes they create totally wrong expectations in the audience and harm the movie (see The Village, a love story sold as a horror movie).
But we like trailers, because they tell us about movies we haven’t seen yet. And so, every now and then, we’ll write a Trailerwatch article to tell you about trailers that we’ve seen.
An oddly mixed trailer. Some of its individual parts look funny and even exciting; others look like they’ve been cut out of completely different movies. The older Vikings seem to belong in a humorous fantasy (which is what this movie seems to be), but some of the children – especially the awfully-written fat one – are straight out of a dumb highschool comedy. And how did they end up with American accents when their parents all have British ones?
We’re of mixed opinion when it comes to the dragons (Verena likes them, because they’re dragons; Jonas thinks they look like run-over eels), but the movie has Craig Ferguson in it, so it’s probably worth watching. We love Craig Ferguson.
The trailer starts with two impressive things: the visual effects, and Bruce Boxleitner’s voice. This is a big plus, and enough to convince us that the creators are taking the movie at least a little seriously. The original is flawed but deservedly a classic; the sequel seems to have enough respect for it to continue the story instead of simply retelling it. Will it be any good? Impossible to tell from the rest of the trailer, which doesn’t reveal much.
But it does look pretty. Very pretty.
We’re looking forward to this movie a lot, and at least the trailer does not make it look like crap. That’s a good start.
Speaking of crap, this trailer should win some kind of Most Inane Dialogue award. The effects and cinematography look fine, of course – these people know what to do with their money. (Unlike, say, Peter Jackson.) And you can’t really judge the story from a trailer. But the writing… oh Lord, the writing! The characters seem to be speaking fluent Exposition, giving summaries of their motivations instead of actual dialogue. Whatever happened to “show, don’t tell”?
And did they really have to feature another topless werewolf?
Not really looking forward to this one all that much.
Mixed opinions again. Jonas (who thinks of the first movie as funny, high-gloss fascism) isn’t terribly impressed, even though Robert Downey Jr. is his charming best and the effects are excellent. He also thinks Mickey Rourke seems rather silly.
Verena agrees that Mickey Rourke seems kind of silly, but thinks the positive aspects of the movie will probably outweigh any negatives. She thinks the movie seems a lot like its predecessor, which she quite liked. She hopes it won’t be too “edgy and dark” and that it won’t focus too much on the antagonists.
A serious, thoughtful ghost movie starring Ciarán Hinds and Aidan Quinn? With pretty cinematography and haunting music? With performances that will probably blow our minds? Yes! This looks fantastic, and we’re quite excited about it. If it is what the trailer promises (and it doesn’t seem that unlikely), it should be an emotional as well as creepy journey, and a movie that we won’t quickly forget. And it’s Ciarán Hinds. Ciarán Hinds can break your heart just by looking at you.
Please note that Aidan Quinn was also in Haunted, a wonderful and underrated ghost movie.
We’re both very excited about this movie, and Jonas is practically delirious over it. In Agora, director Alejandro Amenábar, who brought us masterpieces like The Others and Abre los ojos, takes on the story of Hypatia and the destruction of the Library of Alexandria. Since we consider this to be one of the most important (and tragic) stories in the entire history of mankind, and Amenábar appears to have made a movie truly representative of the spirit of reason that the Library stood for, we can’t wait to see it. And it’s got Rachel Weisz, who is one of those actresses we’re always happy to see in a good film. (Still haven’t gotten over her being in Eragon. The pain! The pain!)
Sadly there’s still the question of if we’ll be allowed to see Agora at all. Apparently some major distributors are far enough into the pockets of Christian conservatives that they’re treating this like our Mohammed cartoons and won’t be carrying it at all.
Yes. Much sadness.