Welcome to Trailer Round-Up, where I take you through and review all of the trailers released this month (or at least, the ones that interest me)! Let's dive in!
Joker (2019) Teaser Trailer
For me and many people, Joker is the biggest wild card (pun intended) of the year as far as films go. Not only do comic book movies centred around villains without their hero counterpart usually not work (*coughs* Venom), this is a new incarnation of the character already immortalised in film by Heath Ledger's Oscar-winning performance. Even weirder, it's directed by the guy who helmed the Hangover trilogy. Surprisingly, this trailer is pretty great. It's definitely going for a Scorsese-esque look and feel, appropriate since that legendary director is producing the film (a friend of mine wonders if the only reason they hired him as producer was so that they could rip off all his movies). Joaquin Phoenix, a very reliable actor, looks great in the role, and the cinematography is pretty good. The hype just went up for this one.
The Lion King (2019) Trailer #1
This was one I hadn't actually seen until I sat down to write this post. I'm... ambivalent at best towards Disney live action remakes, and usually pretty fed up with them. But everybody was talking about it so I thought I better chime in. Yeah, doesn't look too good, does it? There's nothing particularly offensive in the trailer but it seems kind of pointless to remake a really good film in an almost shot-for-shot way. I thought we learnt this after Gus Van Sant remade Psycho. I'm aware that the biggest talking point of this trailer was the redesign of Scar. I don't really have a problem about redesigning the characters in theory (though making them realistic has made them a lot less expressive), but Scar now looks a lot less distinctive and I have a feeling it will be hard to tell which lion is which is in fight scenes and in ones with less lighting. It's not very practical, which incidentally is how I'd sum up this movie.
The Dead Don't Die (2019) Trailer #1
I know Film Twitter kind of lit up talking about this trailer, which came out of nowhere, but I was somewhat unimpressed. Yes, it's got a great cast, but the tone looks all over the place. Just from the trailer, it looks a little confused. I don't really have much more to say about this one, but it definitely failed to impress me.
Stuber (2019) Trailer #1
I'm not entirely sure why Dave Bautista's acting career hasn't really taken off yet, after Guardians of the Galaxy. He seems content with starring in direct-to-DVD action movies and having occasional supporting roles in things like Spectre, when he could be so much more. That being said, this is a studio film, so it might give his career a bit of a jump start if all goes well. It's an entertaining premise but the trailer doesn't make it look especially special. Also, I felt it gave away a bit too much about the plot of the movie. I feel like I've seen a lot of it already.
The Addams Family (2019) Teaser Trailer
Given the recent trend of animated family comedies that are slightly darker in their subject matter (see also Hotel Transylvania), the Addams Family was not a bad IP to adapt into an animated film. The exaggerated character designs also help. The trailer didn't exactly impress me, per se, but I think there's definitely potential there. It's got a good cast, good animation style, a darker sense of humour (was that a reference to Stephen King's It?) and it'd be nice to see an older franchise like this get resurrected for a new generation.
Dark Phoenix (2019) Final Trailer
Another month, another Dark Phoenix trailer. Apparently this is the final one, though I wouldn't count on that if the release date gets pushed back again. Yet again, this trailer is pretty much the exact same as the previous one, with just slightly different shots from the same scenes, in the same order. They're really not putting any effort into marketing this film. It still looks fairly solid, although this has been in development (or, more accurately, release) hell for so long that the hype has kind of burned itself out at this point. It's hard to get excited for this now because I'm never sure when exactly we're gonna get it, and not in a cool, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote kind of way. Plus, these new X-Men films have gotten pretty repetitive at this point. I'd be willing to bet money that Magneto and Professor X start the movie on good ground, then something annoys Magneto, so that they're no longer friends, and then at the end they're back to being friends again.
Child's Play (2019) Trailer #2
This is one film I'm becoming more interested in by the day. I know a lot of Chucky purists are very sceptical about this movie, but personally I couldn't care less that it's a reboot given that a) I've only seen the original film, and b) that movie wasn't exactly great to begin with. The best kind of remakes/reboots take a flawed property and try to make it better. We don't need reboots of five-star films, but these are the kind I want. This movie definitely seems to be playing up the horror elements of the franchise, which is good because my biggest issue with that first film was that the comedy ruined the atmosphere. Adding to this, Mark Hamill is playing Chucky, which is pretty much perfect casting in my eyes. Plus, this is one premise that definitely could be updated for modern times, and they seem to be doing that by making Chucky more of an AI than a voodoo thing. A lot of people hate this change, but I'm on board with it. I also like how they're mostly keeping Chucky (or at least, the evil iteration of him) in the dark in the marketing. This was a pretty good trailer, much better than that first one.
Skin (2019) Trailer #1
Another month, another A24 trailer. This is a feature length remake of the infamous 2018 short film, which took home the Best Live-Action Short Film Oscar earlier this year, which was very surprising since it was much derided (it holds a 2.3/5 average on Letterboxd and the majority of people I follow on there gave it a 1/2 star rating). I listened to YMS describe the ending of the film and it sounded, to put it politely, a tad silly. I haven't watched the 20-minute short yet but it is on YouTube so I might give it a look. Anyway, this is the feature length version and it looks pretty good. Apparently the ending is different from the short, so that's good. Expect this to be in the Oscar race this year.
Hobbs and Shaw (2019) Trailer #2
As someone who has never watched a Fast & Furious film and really has no interest to do so, it's constantly surprised me how much I've enjoyed the trailers for this film. It just looks fun, over-the-top fun unconcerned with realism or physics. You don't really get many buddy cop movies these days, so it's fun to see one getting a lot of attention. The fight scenes look well-shot and choreographed, as I'd expect given that it's directed by David Leitch (one of the men behind John Wick). This trailer basically told you the whole story but I get the feeling that the plot isn't exactly the focus of this. Johnson and Statham have fantastic chemistry and I might just see this one.
21 Bridges (2019) Trailer #1
Well, that good run of trailers was bound to end sometime, right? I don't have much to say about this. It's nice to see Chadwick Boseman's career taking off, but this looks like the most generic dark action movie about cops. There is nothing really of note at all in this trailer, I must say.
Men in Black: International Trailer #2
I've actually never seen Men in Black or it's two sequels, but they must be better than this to have become so popular. The trailers for International make it look like little more than yet another low-effort Sony Entertainment cash-grab. Chris Hemsworth is basically just playing Thor 2.0 again and Tessa Thompson looks like she could not care less about this movie. Plus, it's sad that the only high-profile roles Liam Neeson can get these days are supporting ones in Sony blockbusters. Cliched plot, questionable CGI and bad jokes mean I'll be skipping this one.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters Final Trailer
In an American summer season that looks like kind of a mixed bag, this is one blockbuster I'm very hopeful for. Godzilla: King of the Monsters (or Godzilla II: King of the Monsters, as it's been labelled over here in Australia) looks like it has a thoughtful plot, and it has striking cinematography and use of colour. This looks like it might be one of the best looking movies of the year. Add to those factors a fantastic cast, and this should be a highlight of the blockbuster season.
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker Teaser
Finally, we have what was by far my most anticipated trailer for this month (to be fair, it was pretty much the only one that I knew was going to be released in advance). There's a lot to talk about in this teaser. There's some nice cinematography, the sequence of Rey vs a TIE Interceptor on a sand planet looks really cool. It's nice to see Billy Dee Williams back as Lando Calrissian, and it's especially nice to finally see the three main characters of this trilogy actually sharing scenes. I'm assuming that the planet right at the end with all the Death Star debris was Endor, although it could very well be Yavin IV. I wouldn't have thought that that much debris could have survived either of those explosions as we saw them in the previous film, but I don't think there'll suddenly be a third Death Star that, what, crashed by itself? As for Emperor Sheev Palpatine, I don't think he's back in any physical way (as in, he didn't survive Return of the Jedi, and he wasn't cloned). I would guess that it's either a Force ghost or a hologram recorded when he was alive. Maybe said ghost or hologram has been pulling the strings all along, which I like the idea of since it would link the sequel trilogy a bit more tangibly to the previous films. If there is one overarching villain, it feel much more like a nine-film saga than a collection of three trilogies.
But enough about my fan theories. What was your favourite trailer or trailers of the month? The highlights for me were definitely Joker, Child's Play, Skin, Hobbs & Shaw, Godzilla and Star Wars. There were a lot of forgettable ones, like The Lion King, The Dead Don't Die, Stuber, The Addams Family, Dark Phoenix and especially 21 Bridges. The only one that I thought was bad was Men in Black: International.
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