Trailer Watch: X-Men: Days of Future Past

Piggy-backing on my comments from last week, if I were a more ardent fan of the X-Men comics, I’d be rightly pissed off that instead of Kitty Pryde being sent back to her younger self to warn the X-Men of 1980 of a horrific war that would spell the end of mutantkind, they chose to use Wolverine. However, I’ve come to accept that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is its own continuity and it’s okay.

While some of the shots in the trailer look gorgeous, I have to wonder if in order to watch the movie, you need more than just a Wikipedia-fed knowledge of who the X-Men are. There were people in the scenes in the “past” that I didn’t recognize and if I have to watch X-Men: First Class just in order to understand this movie and it’s not available to stream on Netflix, then I’m probably not going to bother.

The iTunes price is $14.99, which to me seems steep for a title that isn’t even in HD. And both Marvel Studios and Fox are crazy if they can’t find a way to bring that price down a bit before the new movie comes out or maybe do a limited streaming on Netflix or somewhere else for a month or two prior to the new film’s release so that the fans they lost with X-Men 3 (like me!) can get back up to speed.

Directed by Bryan Singer, X-Men: Days of Future Past is scheduled to be released in the US on May 23, 2014.

Trailer Watch: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

I loved seeing Captain America interact with the Black Widow in these scenes from the trailer, and it shouldn’t matter to me that in the comics they worked together; their relationship now seems to be just as interesting and still as exciting as those old stories were when they were first published. I may be the only person in my household going to see this movie during the release weekend, and I think I’m totally okay with that.

The more I cover “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”, the more I internalize that the new Marvel movie-verse is for folks like me who like their properties and their heroes but don’t want to be bothered with umpteen years of comics continuity or having to catch up with all the comics continuity on a weekly basis. And there should be nothing wrong with that.

Trailer Watch, Pass or Fail edition: Machete versus The Social Network, plus a bonus trailer

Good Lord, we’re behind on our movie trailers, aren’t we? Let’s get down to it, then!

Continue reading “Trailer Watch, Pass or Fail edition: Machete versus The Social Network, plus a bonus trailer”

Trailer Watch: Easy A first full trailer

At first I was afraid (I was petrified) that the adaptation of the novel The Scarlett Letter into the live-action film Easy A would be a “torturous hack job” but I recanted that when I learned more about director Will Gluck and his screenwriter Bert V. Royal.

I became even more optimistic with the casting of Emma Stone as the lead, and the addition of a kick-ass supporting cast that includes folks like Thomas Haden Church, Stanley Tucci, and Lisa Kudrow.

After having watched the first trailer, I gotta say…? I’m totally digging it:

Here’s a synopsis:

After a little white lie about losing her virginity gets out, a clean cut high school girl (Emma Stone) sees her life paralleling Hester Prynne’s in The Scarlet Letter, which she is currently studying in school—until she decides to use the rumor mill to advance her social and financial standing.

I like how Stone’s character Olive Penderghast is a smart girl who is secure enough not to be overly cowed by the uproar over her actions. I desperately hope that this thread of sassiness remains through the entire movie, and I also hope that none of her sass gets sacrificed in the name of “restoring” her reputation.

Easy A is out in U.S. theaters on September 17.

Trailer Watch: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 first official trailer

Here’s a synopsis:

Part 1 begins as Harry, Ron and Hermione set out on their perilous mission to track down and destroy the secret to Voldemort’s immortality and destruction—the Horcruxes. On their own, without the guidance of their professors or the protection of Professor Dumbledore, the three friends must now rely on one another more than ever. But there are Dark Forces in their midst that threaten to tear them apart.

Meanwhile, the wizarding world has become a dangerous place for all enemies of the Dark Lord. The long-feared war has begun and Voldemort’s Death Eaters seize control of the Ministry of Magic and even Hogwarts, terrorizing and arresting anyone who might oppose them. But the one prize they still seek is the one most valuable to Voldemort: Harry Potter. The Chosen One has become the hunted one as the Death Eaters search for Harry with orders to bring him to Voldemort… alive.

Harry’s only hope is to find the Horcruxes before Voldemort finds him. But as he searches for clues, he uncovers an old and almost forgotten tale—the legend of the Deathly Hallows. And if the legend turns out to be true, it could give Voldemort the ultimate power he seeks.

Little does Harry know that his future has already been decided by his past when, on that fateful day, he became “the Boy Who Lived.” No longer just a boy, Harry Potter is drawing ever closer to the task for which he has been preparing since the day he first stepped into Hogwarts: the ultimate battle with Voldemort.

When the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book came out in July 2007, my then-roommate wasn’t going to read her copy right away, so I decided to read it all in one day, just to prove I could. Six hours later, my conclusion was that it was a great read, I cried like a little child when Dobby died, and I was able to successfully cite Ernest Hemingway in defending J.K. Rowling’s use of a train station to symbolize the afterlife.

I did not keep up with the Harry Potter movies in a similar fashion, mostly because movies are damn expensive and borrowing a book is free. However, I think that based on just how damn epic the movie looks—and my own curiosity about how the trio of Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint have matured as actors over the last nine or ten years, depending on when you want to start counting—I’m going to try and start re-watching the series again, just to get caught up before the movie’s release on November 19.

Trailer Watch: The Green Hornet first trailer

I’m going to come right out and say it: I totally believe in Seth Rogan as the Green Hornet now.

Here’s the synopsis:

Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) is the son of LA’s most prominent and respected media magnate and perfectly happy to maintain a directionless existence on the party scene – until his father (Tom Wilkinson) mysteriously dies, leaving Britt his vast media empire. Striking an unlikely friendship with one of his father’s more industrious and inventive employees, Kato (Jay Chou), they see their chance to do something meaningful for the first time in their lives: fight crime. But in order to do this, they decide to become criminals themselves – protecting the law by breaking it, Britt becomes the vigilante The Green Hornet as he and Kato hit the streets.

Like many geeks, I was dubious at the thought of Rogen as an action hero, but then I was correctly reminded by the trailer that it wasn’t Van Williams who kicked ass in the 1960s TV show, but Bruce Lee as Kato.

I think I’m also fond of what Rogen seems to understand about Britt Reid as the movie-going audience of today will see him. He’s not as smart or as hot as Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark, nor is he as tortured and angst-ridden as Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne, and that’s perfectly fine with me.

The Green Hornet comes to theaters in the U.S. on January 14, 2011.

Trailer Watch: The Norwegian Ninja first English-subtitled trailer

To all you schlocky film fans out there, I heartily apologize for not mentioning anything about this sooner:

Here’s the synopsis, courtesy of the gang at TwitchFilm.net:

Kommandør Treholt & Ninjatroppen is the true story of how Commander Arne Treholt and his Ninja Force saved Norway during the Cold War. The story takes place in the time right before Treholt’s arrest on espionage charges in 1984, and reveals a spectacularly different version of our recent past than has been previously known.

A mix of true story and unabashed flights of fancy, the movie will premiere in Norway on August 13. An English-language blog is here, and I really hope someone decides to release this in the U.S.