This is generally where the studios premiere the trailers for their summer tentpole releases. This year, based on these four ads, we're in for a 50/50 summer. There were other trailers, such as "Cowboys & Aliens" (which still looks excellent) and "Fast Five" (which surprisingly doesn't look as bad as I first thought), but I've chosen to focus on the true best and worst of the night. We begin by covering the losers of the night...these would be the films that appear destined for my ten worst of the year list.
"Thor"
I think Ace said it best when he compared the look of this film to a raiding of the DeLaurentiis "Flash Gordon" wardrobe vault. Unfortunately, this trailer is not much different from the one that has been circulating theaters for a while now. Dull and uninteresting to say the least, this may be the first time in history that a trailer for a superhero film has nearly put me to sleep.
Unless director Kenneth Branagh has something totally hidden up his sleeve, it appears that we have the worst film of the Avengers setup to have to suffer through when May rolls around. Uh, Marvel...here's a hint, trailers for superhero films are supposed to get us warriors amped up, not ready for a long snooze.
Grade: D
"Transformers: Dark Of The Moon"
More of the same, robots that transform from cars into fighting machines and back again. Some bad, some good, some that I'm sure will flip-flop allegiances throughout Michael Bay's trademark, sure-to-be-bloated, running time.
Looking more and more like another excuse for Excedrin sales to skyrocket due to extremely loud decibel levels, this franchise lost any goodwill that it had. For a first film to go from beloved classic (and the super-deluxe, transforming case edition to be proudly sitting on my shelf along side other classics such as "Raiders Of The Lost Ark") to becoming a film that I likely will never watch again...is a tremendous feat. One which could only have been brought on by a second outing that was so egregiously terrible in every way as to have erased the joy that I found in its predecessor.
This time, Bay has promised the removal of the racially stereotyped twin robots (so criticized by everyone in the last outing). He also has promised a return to what made the first film great. Was that a story? Robots that you actually get to know their names, character, backstory, etc? Or, as the trailer appears, does he mean he's going to deliver what he thinks the A.D.D teenage audience wants nowadays...a shitload of action and shaky camera with less plot, story and characterization to get in the way? Thanks, but no, I am not willing to risk my hearing and sanity on you again Mr. Bay.
Grade: F
Now on to the winners of the night...
"Captain America: The First Avenger"
Joe Johnston, I walk back all my recent criticism of you. It appears, with this trailer, that you are ready to deliver what has the potential to be the best of the Avengers setup films.
Take a large dose of what looks like the surprising elements that made Louis Leterrier's "The Incredible Hulk" reboot such a great film, add in a liberal dash of the spark from Jon Favreau's first "Iron Man" film and give us some of Bryan Singer's "X-Men" backstory model, and you've got the beginnings of a recipe that could use one more thing...a director that can handle it.
Johnston appears to have gone back, done his homework and found what made his "Rocketeer" so special. Because of that, I'm also willing to forgive the casting of Chris Evans as yet another Marvel superhero (not to menton that if Tim Story has been locked away and forbidden from touching a camera ever again, I don't think his services as Human Torch will ever be needed again). Yes, I would have rather seen Jon Hamm behind that iconic shield...but I have some renewed faith that Evans can pull this off.
Grade: A
"Super 8"
So much has been written about this trailer, in the blogsphere, in just the last twelve hours. For my part, I'm going to simply say that J.J. Abrams has got my "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind" radar pinging. Unless I miss my guess here, we are in for the true 'moment' that us Film Warriors have been looking for. It may very well be time for me to once again meet my twelve year old self in a movie theater again.
Notoriously vague in its plot revelations thus far, Abrams at the very least has shown that he is a master of the craft of effective trailers. Just take a look at his trailers for "Star Trek" and "Cloverfield" for proof of this. He is a student of what made the classic trailers of the 70's and 80's work...and by that, I mean salivating every time we saw one. Mark my words, we are in for something special!
Grade: A+
"Lesson Number Three. Always Trust Centauri."
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