To say that the past few days has seen an overabundance of film trailers is a severe understatement. From Monday to Friday, the Internet has been buzzing with countless upon countless of new marketing pieces from the biggest tentpoles to the smallest releases. And with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom now playing in theaters overseas, Ocean’s 8 and Hereditary releasing domestically, and Incredibles 2 arriving next week, it’s understandable why action blockbusters, small-scale dramas, horror films, and animated features are all getting their first looks or new looks.
It would only make sense with so much action to dive into each piece of marketing, and see what delivered and what failed to register.
White Boy Rick (September 14, 2018)
Based on the true story of a real-life teenager who became a drug kingpin and FBI informant at age 14, the film itself looks…fine. There’s some decent lines, Matthew McConaughey looks great, and the supporting cast looks solid as well, with Jennifer Jason Leigh, Bruce Dern, Piper Laurie, and Brian Tyree Henry. The one thing that holds me back is White Boy Rick himself, played by newcomer Richie Merritt. It’s understandable, because this is his first film, but he doesn’t seem to have much screen presence. It also doesn’t help that the film looks to be on the generic side. We’ll see how this pans out.
Operation Finale (September 21, 2018)
Based on a true story, a group of Israeli spies, led by Oscar Isaac, are attempting to assassinate Adolf Eichmann, played by Ben Kingsley. Being directed by Chris Weitz, the film seems to be rather promising, with solid stakes and good acting. Not much else to report frankly.
The Old Man & the Gun (September 28, 2018)
From Pete’s Dragon director David Lowery, this film is based on the life of Forrest Tucker, a career criminal and prison escape artist. Robert Redford, in what is expected to be his final film role, plays Tucker as a suave, charming gentleman, in spite of his criminal activity, and being hunted down by a detective played by Casey Affleck.
Not only does the cast seem to deliver, the film seems to be very humorous, as it focuses on the idea of a kindly old man who is able to rob people of their cash and people seeming to be okay with it, solely because of Redford’s charm. It looks funny, sweet, emotional, and just about everything else one could want in a film, and it will be interesting to see what Lowery has to offer.
Bad Times at the El Royale (October 5, 2018)
Directed and written by The Martian screenwriter Drew Goddard, this crime thriller, featuring Jon Hamm, Jeff Bridges, Dakota Johnson, Cynthia Erivo, Nick Offerman, Russell Crowe, and Chris Hemsworth, details an odd hotel known as the El Royale, and a murder mystery that follows it.
Simply put, from its creative team to its actors, this film has “cult classic” written all over it, in all the best ways. It looks dark and creepy, while also wild and fun, as well as revealing just enough to make one interested, but still seems to offer plenty of surprises in the story department. I’ll definitely look out for this one.
A Star is Born (October 5, 2018)
Focusing on a more country-style angle, this remake of a remake of a remake sees Bradley Cooper, starring and directing this film, as a musician who meets a young starlet played by Lady Gaga, as he attempts to help her find fame, and later love.
Bradley Cooper already seems like the real stand-out here, with a calm Southern tone as well as a beautiful singing voice. Lady Gaga’s acting doesn’t quite seem like it will be as strong, but she seems like she still has good leading lady potential. The story admittedly does feel cliched, but there’s still plenty to like about the film. What will be interesting is how Cooper’s take will stack up against the three previous iterations of the film.
First Man (October 12, 2018)
Damien Chazelle’s follow-up to Whiplash and La La Land, this film is a biopic focusing on Neil Armstrong and the process he endured with NASA in order to be the first man to land on the moon. It certainly delivers on the intensity, showcasing the many difficulties Armstrong had to go through just to get on the moon, while both Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy look to be strong performers. It does seem cliche and retreads on familiar biopic territory, but from a direction, visual, and cinematography standpoint, it really looks like a cut above the rest, although seeing Chazelle go from the wonder of La La Land to a typical biopic is a touch disappointing.
Halloween (October 19, 2018)
From director David Gordon Green and writer Danny McBride, this return of the slasher icon sees Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode for the first time in over 15 years, as she attempts to finally kill Michael Myers as he attempts another slaughter on Halloween night 40 years later.
There’s a lot to enjoy in this trailer. The beginning which sees Myers in the insane asylum, Laurie Strode’s backyard being turned into a shooting range, and of course the slasher goodness that fans know and love. It all seems that will come together and be another hit for Blumhouse.
Serenity (October 19, 2018)
A neo-noir that sees a fishing boat captain played by Matthew McConaughey involved in a conflict involving having to throw his ex-wife’s husband to the sharks, this has a lot of interesting elements going for it.
Not only does it feature Locke director Steven Knight, but it has a great supporting cast, including Anne Hathaway, Diane Lane, Djimon Hounsou, and Jason Clarke. Add in a chilling tone and a compelling conflict, with a twinge of mystery, and it seems like an interesting film to watch out for.
Suspiria (November 4, 2018)
From Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino, Suspiria, a remake of the 1977 Italian cult horror film, follows an American ballet dancer, played by Dakota Johnson, traveling to a prestigious dance academy in Berlin, only to discover a sinister conspiracy with the academy after a series of murders.
I’ll be the first to admit I have very little knowledge of Suspiria outside of the basic premise, so much of the trailer didn’t get much of a reaction out of me. Regardless, the concept is still very interesting, Tilda Swinton seems great as always, and Guadagnino has delivered in the past. The inclusion of Jessica Harper, the film’s original star, also makes me confident this remake will deliver. Reportedly, the footage from CinemaCon stated the film was grisly and hard to sit through, showing Guadagnino is going all in on the chills department.
The Girl in the Spider’s Web (November 9, 2018)
Based on the book of the same name found in the Millenium book series, this film is a reboot of the 2011 David Fincher film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, with Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig being recasted as Claire Foy and Sverrir Gudnason respectively.
While I have heard about the Millenium book series, the Swedish trilogy of films starring Noomi Rapace, and the aforementioned Fincher film, I don’t really know much about the stories or characters to really get a grasp on the franchise or this film’s plot. But from what I’ve seen in the trailer, it does look mildly promising. Fede Alvarez, best known for directing 2016’s Don’t Breathe, gives the film a very dark tone, opening with Lisbeth Salander saving a battered woman in an abusive relationship. The rest of the trailer is a bit indecipherable in the plot, at least for someone like me who has little understanding of the franchise, but it is still a very interesting-looking thriller that does make me curious in seeing the previous adaptations.
Widows (November 16, 2018)
From 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen, and Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn, this heist thriller follows a group of widows finishing the job their husbands originally died doing.
The trailer offers a lot of tension and unnerving moments, and it is heightened by a chilling score throughout the trailer. The real highlight comes to both Viola Davis as the leader of the team, and Daniel Kaluuya as an antagonistic figure. Davis of course shows regality and fierceness, but Kaluuya seems like the real scene-stealer, offering someone who looks chilling, threatening, and a fierce obstacle for the characters.
Add in plenty of other great performers like Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, Cynthia Erivo, Colin Farrell, Brian Tyree Henry (expect his name to pop up a lot in this article), Carrie Coon, Jacki Weaver, Robert Duvall, and Liam Neeson, and it definitely seems like a winner.
Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 (November 21, 2018)
Following up Walt Disney Animation’s 2012 smash hit, this sees Ralph and Vanellope traveling and having an adventure into the Internet after the arcade owner Mr. Litwak adds a Wi-Fi router.
Of all of the trailers released this week, this is the most conflicting trailer of them all. There’s definitely a lot to appreciate; the designs and humor are aces like in the previous film, and the new characters played by Alan Tudyk and Taraji P. Henson seem like welcome additions.
The real downside comes to the Oh My Disney sequence, which shows Ralph and Vanellope interacting with every facet of the Disney brand, from stormtroopers to the Disney Princesses. The Princess sequence is pretty funny, although some of the character designs don’t really translate into CGI or the Ralph style. My problem is that the whole idea just seems unnecessary. It is true Oh My Disney is a real website, but the whole idea, at least what was unveiled in the trailer feels very self-congratulatory and unnecessary. While Wreck-It Ralph featured cameos from video game characters, not only were they sparse, focusing specifically on Ralph’s adventure, it makes sense they would be in it. Wreck-It Ralph‘s a video game, Ralph’s a video game character, and with the film boasting the concept of “what do video game characters do after the game ends,” it makes sense there would be a community full of classic game figures.
There hasn’t been much revealed in the story department in this trailer nor the previous one, but I don’t see why this movie needs a sequence that seems more or less like cheap fanservice. I don’t feel like I’m watching a Wreck-It Ralph trailer, but a Disney commercial. For all I know, maybe there is something important in having Vanellope interact with the Disney Princesses. But it’s still irksome to see a sequel to a solid movie appear to be diminished as just an advertisement for the Mouse House.
Mortal Engines (December 14, 2018)
Produced by Peter Jackson and directed by first-timer Christian Rivers, even though with how the film markets itself as “From the filmmakers of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit,” one would think this was all Jackson, Mortal Engines is based off a novel which depicts a steampunk future where entire cities, with a focus on London in this movie, being on wheels, traveling across the land, preying and fighting other cities, and features a young Resistance fighter attempting to kill a powerful figure played by Hugo Weaving.
This is easily the worst-looking trailer of the bunch. I admire the film’s steampunk look and its focus on largely unknown actors, but the plot seems incredibly generic and the acting looks rather weak, making the product almost feel like a CW show, with an obviously bigger budget.
This film only makes me wish Peter Jackson was in the director’s chair, as it would likely make the product more engaging and interesting.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (December 14, 2018)
The first animated theatrical release for the famous Webslinger, this film focuses on Miles Morales, the Afro-Latino Spider-Man, and his origin story, being mentored by a much older Peter Parker.
There’s a lot to appreciate, not only in the film bringing a breath of fresh air to the property, focusing on a new character and aging the Peter Parker audiences are already familiar with, but also in the art direction. Straight up, this doesn’t look like any other animated film in recent memory, having classic comic book and pop art aesthetics, blended in with the computer animation typically found in other Sony Animation films like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Hotel Transylvania.
As an animation enthusiast, it is absolutely refreshing to see a film take full advantage of the medium and deliver a look that has never been seen in theaters before, easily making it my favorite trailer out of the bunch and probably my most anticipated film for the rest of the year.
Bumblebee (December 21, 2018)
A prequel to the Michael Bay Transformers series, this is not only Bay-less, being directed by Laika founder and Kubo and the Two Strings director Travis Knight, but focuses less on the Autobot-Decepticon battle, and more of an Iron Giant story, taking place in the 1980s, and following a teenage girl discovering Bumblebee, and forming a bond with the Autobot while also trying to protect him from the government, led by John Cena.
I have never seen anything Transformers-related in my life, and while I didn’t get much out of this trailer, I do appreciate the different direction this movie seems to be going towards. These kinds of “Boy and his X” stories (or, I guess “Girl and his X” in this case) are stories I’ve always had a soft spot for, and I also appreciate the simplistic designs from the previous Bay films. Instead of the mechanical and metallic looks of Bumblebee and Starscream, they have a much more streamlined and likable design that looks closer to the 1980s cartoon. Also, the very idea of such a charismatic figure like John Cena being threatening sounds so ridiculous that I’m very curious to see what will happen.
I don’t know if I’m necessarily “hyped” for this movie, but I am more interested in this than I have with any of the previous Transformers films.
The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part (February 8, 2019)
Taking place five years after the events of the first movie, Bricksburg is in shambles, with the city now stuck in a Mad Max-style wasteland. Another invader from outer space soon arrives, kidnapping most of the LEGO characters, leaving it up to Emmett to save his friends once again.
The previous film’s directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller are only producers and writers on this, with Trolls director Mike Mitchell now in charge, but there’s still a lot to like here. The animation looks as wonderful as ever, and the idea of Emmett being unfazed and chipper in spite of the world going to hell is hilarious. The rest of the gags also seem to deliver, as Lord and Miller, as well as Bojack Horseman creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg, are in charge of the screenplay. Definitely excited for this one.
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (March 1, 2019)
Following up the 2014 film, The Hidden World is the conclusion to the How to Train Your Dragon film series, featuring a new antagonist and a new love interest for the Night Fury Toothless. There’s a lot to appreciate within this trailer. The animation and production design drop-dead gorgeous, with some incredible colors, and while most of the plot focuses on Toothless and his attempts to swoon a Light Fury, the main plot involving a dragon hunter and the village of Berk being forced to find a new home for their dragon friends is a very compelling one. The design for the Light Fury is a touch lazy, basically just being a recolored Night Fury, and the romance subplot does seem a touch cliche, but the film does still promise some more interesting content underneath the surface, and the previous Dragon films are some of the best films Dreamworks has produced, so there’s still plenty to get excited about.
In fact, all of these trailers, including the weaker ones, have a lot to get excited about, whether it be in their actors, directors, concepts, presentation, and so on, and it’ll be interesting to see how all of these movies pan out once they are released.