Trailer Time Returns

It's been awhile, but there's been a couple big trailers released recently that deserve a bit of attention:

GREEN LANTERN - Dir. Martin Campbell - 6/17/11



The trailer release for this film has been highly anticipated and will accompany HARRY POTTER 7 this weekend, but someone in charge was kind enough to release it on the web a few days in advance. Making a GREEN LANTERN movie is a tricky thing and a lot of my interest in it stems from my curiosity about how it will turn out. Hal Jordan's story is fun and new in that it incorporates this galactic realm while most superheroes are tethered to Earth. All indications point to the primary conflicts in this film taking place on Earth and all of Hal's training being out in space. I guess this makes sense as things will inevitably move further away from Earth in the sequel, but still, I feel that the more this story remains grounded, the less special it will be. I'm not terribly sold on Hector Hammond as the primary antagonist, but I think Peter Sarsgaard has the potential to sway me.

Ryan Reynolds is a pretty good fit for Jordan (as he showed before at Comic-Con), but his look in the Green Lantern garb falls short of impressive. As a matter of fact, all of the CG showcased in the trailer could be described the same way. To me, it looks more like a video game than a big-budget film. However, the film doesn't hit theaters for another 8 months and the effects department likely won't be sitting on their hands for that duration. I'm optimistic about improvement. Anyway, I'm hoping this film does well as I'm interested in seeing more high-profile DC films in the near future.

YOUR HIGHNESS - Dir. David Gordon Green - 4/8/11



I've been pretty jazzed about this film for a while. It was supposed to come out at the end of this year, but was pushed back. Pretty much everyone involved in this film is very likable (excluding Zooey Deschanel), so I can't imagine not liking it. I appreciate what they're going for, which appears to be a fun, medieval adventure film with a lot of comedy. I found the effects and amount of action apparent in the trailer to be very promising. However, I hope that most of the film's juvenile humor was showcased in the trailer and that there isn't a ton more of it. This film could be so much better than that.

RED RIDING HOOD - Catherine Hardwicke - 3/11/11



So far, the most appreciated TWILIGHT film has been the original and a lot of the credit for that has to go to the director, Catherine Hardwicke. Frankly, I didn't really notice anything special about her style since the movie was too mired in dreck to have me appreciate anything about it, but the buzz around her has me optimistic about her talents. RED RIDING HOOD is her follow up and the trailer is...interesting. The story seems solid. A werewolf is terrorizing a village - is a plot I can get behind. Even the overly stylistic look of the film doesn't necessarily turn me off. What bothers me about what I see in the trailer is the similarities to TWILIGHT. Why do all the male leads look like such douche-bags? Is it really necessary for them to have such hip, gelled-up hairdos? Don't tell me one of them is the werewolf, because that would suck. I'm just hoping Gary Oldman can tether this film to some sort of respectability.

BATTLE: LOS ANGELAS - Jonathan Liebesman - 3/11/11



The alien-invasion film is certainly making a comeback with a vengeance. Some people find this to be a tad irritating, I don't. This isn't a sub-genre that lends itself to quality filmmaking, typically, but I believe there's potential there for something special if everything is done right. Will BATTLE do everything right? I don't know, probably not. The director has never really proven himself to be a world-beater and the trailer actually gives away very little about the film. It is, however, a fantastic trailer. It's dark and ominous and very dramatic. The music used in it is called "The Sun's Gone Dim and the Sky's Turned Black" by Johann Johannsson and it's kind of a masterpiece. This opens the same day as RED RIDING HOOD and I must say I'm more likely to see this.

I've included the music video for "The Sun's Gone Dim" below (and actually, I think might start doing a "Music Video of the Week" post):




Speaking of alien invasion movies...I gotsta add this one too:

COWBOYS AND ALIENS - Jon Favreau - 7/29/11



This looks like it might be a lot of fun. I've been following this film's production for a while. It was announced after the first IRON MAN, but the starting date got pushed to after IRON MAN 2 and Robert Downey Jr. dropped out as the lead. It appears to be an ambitious follow up to the those films though, even without RDJ. Frankly, from everything I'd heard about the plot, I anticipated something a bit more campy than what I saw in the trailer, and I'm not at all disappointed by this. I like that the movie seems to be taking itself seriously. However, I'm most interested in this film because of its cast; Craig seems to fit his role nicely. Olivia Wilde is a fresh face. It was awesome to see Deadwood vet Keith Carradine in the preview. It's also good to see Harrison Ford acting in something that people might like again. Clancy Brown and one of my personal favorites, Sam Rockwell, also star.

Having Orci, Kurtzman, and Lindelof ("Fringe" "Lost" STAR TREK) for screenwriters is a pretty good sign for this film as well.