Trailers!
Wow, looks like the studios have all started selling their 2015 movies pretty hard lately! This past week has seen a flood of new trailers for some big upcoming films.
It all started, of course, with that look at Star Wars: The Force Awakens. What a great trailer. As I wrote last week, I remain dubious that this film is going to be any good (though I am beginning to dare to hope), but wow, this is a pretty perfectly cut trailer. It’s been very interesting to see how universally loved this trailer seems to have been, across the internet. Let’s watch it again, shall we?
Oh man.
Moving on, soon after the Star Wars trailer dropped we also got our first peek at Batman v Superman:
Unlike the Star Wars trailer, this trailer has been pretty roundly criticized across the interwebs. I think the hate is a little much, personally. This is a not a home-run trailer, but I don’t mind that DC is giving us a more serious, grim version of their super-heroes, in contrast to the Marvel approach. I am glad a main story-point for this film seems to be the public’s questioning perhaps rejection of Superman as a hero. That’s certainly understandable after the carnage that Supes was involved with at the end of Man of Steel. And while I think Batman’s line about making Superman bleed is pretty dumb (and I’m definitely not yet liking the highly-modulated new Bat-voice), I do have a lot of love for the Frank Miller The Dark Knight Returns inspired look of Batman’s anti-Superman armor. I am very intrigued by this film. I can see a lot of ways in which it can stumble, most primarily under the weight of all the announced cameos as Warners seems increasingly desperate to ape Marvel’s success with The Avengers. But boy, wouldn’t it be cool if this Batman/Superman crossover film — something we’ve never seen before — was actually good?? We’ll see…
We also good our first good look at Fox’s upcoming Fantastic Four film:
I’m very uncertain what to make of this film. I love the FF dearly. This might prove to be a great film, and I am certainly hoping it will be. But it feels like it’s a decade too late. After the last few years of Marvel films, in which we’ve seen superhero films that were able to be both compelling and also incredibly faithful to the essence of the characters from the comics, what I want to see on screen is the FF I know from the comics, not this weird un-superhero version. I am not very excited right now for this film. Prove me wrong, Fox.
This is our best glimpse yet at Tomorrowland:
I have huge faith in Brad Bird, and I love the sense of adventure and imagination in that trailer. Very eager to see this film.
We also got a new look at Jurassic World:
Well, it looks like it could be big dumb fun, but right now I’m not hoping for too much more than that. The problem is that all of these sequels feel pretty much like retreads of the great first film and so far this new versions feels like a lot more of the same. As with the FF, I’d love to be proven wrong.
We began with Star Wars, and we’ll end with Star Wars. I can’t believe how jazzed I was watching this in-depth trailer for Star Wars: Rebels season two!
Captain Rex!! I can’t believe how excited I am to see Captain Rex! And I love his grizzled new look. With the appearance of Ahsoka in the season one finale and now with Captain Rex in season two, it’s clear to me that Rebels, far from ignoring the prequels and the previous Clone Wars series, is embracing the idea of tying up the many loose ends left dangling by the untimely cancellation of the Clone Wars cartoon. As someone who grew to love that Clone Wars show, I couldn’t be happier. There’s a lot of other great stuff in that trailer. All of the Vader stuff is amazing. It’s so great hearing James Earl Jones speaking new Vader dialogue. I will admit to being a little worried that Rebels has brought in Vader so early in its run, and that this trailer shows us that Vader will be facing off this season with the heroes of the show. Because Vader really can’t lose to these guys, otherwise he’d be totally defanged as a villain. I assume the show-runners are well aware of this potential pitfall and have a plan to avoid it. At least, I hope so!! I am very curious to see how that is handled. But in the meanwhile, this glimpse of Vader battling Kanan & Ezra is awesome. Hearing the Emperor is awesome. There are some really gorgeous space-battle shots. I am glad that it looks like the Rebels heroes will be leaving the Lothal system. (That was my most major criticism of season one, that it was ridiculous that these characters, on the run from the Empire, kept hanging around the same planet all the time.) I love seeing Imperial Walkers. I love Rex’s disdain for the Storm-troopers. It’s pretty cool to be excited for new Star Wars again!!