Comic Con Trailer Reviews

Man, I've been absent for a few weeks. What can I say? I got busy with other shit.

First, a word of praise for Comic Con and MegaCon and other such things... it's amazing how large and viable geek culture has truly become. This is not going away like we thought. The things we grew up with, all the comics and movies and games, are an integral, powerful force for the culture we've crafted as adults. It's part escapism, sure, like anything – but it's also just the way we've let these characters and stories define us. Fiction can resonate long and wide in the human mind. And none more than that which we grew up with, that which we saw in the formative years.

So it's pretty fucking cool.

Here's some thoughts on the various Comic Con trailers, but not all of them, just the ones I cared about. I didn't bother watching the Kingsman 2 or the Thor Ragnarok ones because I've already seen other trailers for those films, and I also don't care about Star Trek or some of the various TV shows displayed. But there was some interesting stuff I saw...

JUSTICE LEAGUE

Who says there's no money in using millions of Hollywood dollars to recreate playing with your action figures as a kid? I guess this could maybe not totally suck. Hopefully? I dunno. If you had told me that “maybe it won't suck” was the highest aspiration I'd have for a fucking Justice League movie 10 years ago, I would have been extremely depressed. This still mostly just looks like a mish mash of too many random new characters to be good. If DC would quit trying to outpace and outmatch Marvel, maybe they'd make better films. It doesn't help that every line spouted in this sounds like an Ad Lib for action movie trailers. You could play this for a blindfolded person and they wouldn't know what movie it's for.

STRANGER THINGS: SEASON 2

Holy shit – now this looks good! I was unsure where they'd go after the first season. Apparently where they were going was even more awesome shit. I am loving the Halloween ambiance and the weird, Lovecraftian monsters and imagery. These characters and this story are some of the best original stuff on TV right now. If you were concerned about how good this Halloween season would be, well... be concerned no more.

THE WALKING DEAD SEASON 8

I love The Walking Dead like I love a child that sometimes screws up really badly and has to spend the night in the slammer for a DUI or public disturbance. This trailer for Season 8 looks pretty good, although it appears to be every inspirational Rick Grimes speech ever rolled into three minutes. And yeah, they have a weird shot at the end of Rick with a huge beard waking up in a hospital bed, like it was all a dream... yeah, I'm sure this long-running popular TV show is about to end this season with it all being a dream... sure.

READY PLAYER ONE

If our collective 80s nostalgia became some insane chimera, cobbled together with the forces of alchemy, it would probably look like this Ready Player One trailer. I haven't read the book, though I think I should, as this looks like a lot of fun. If anything, it will be very difficult to make anything else that is MORE nostalgic for old movies and games after this.

THE DEFENDERS

This looked pretty cool – basically exactly what I expected, full of highly well-produced action and lots of witty quips, but at least all of that looks very well done here. At least three of the Defenders, I'm really excited to see again. (Hint: the one I am not that excited about rhymes with Shmiron Shmist.)

And finally... the one everyone was waiting for...

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR

What? How am I seeing this one, which was only a secret trailer not released to the general non-attending public? Surely nobody would ever break that cardinal rule and upload it to the internet...

It looks pretty fun. I don't know though. I am worried about the over-saturation of characters in these movies. As well made as it's likely to be, I'm just not sure it's good storytelling to cram so much shit into one movie. I guess if they can do it in a comic book, you can do it in a movie, too. But maybe sometimes less really is more. But that said, I am sure I'll end up seeing this and enjoying it for the batshit insane, colorful, jam packed spectacle it is along with everyone else; who am I kidding?

Movie Trailers: "The Other Guys" edition

As most of you may know, we here at Cinema Freaks have established a new segment where we show you trailers that we see in theaters, and then give you our take on them based on what we see. In this post, I will review the trailers I saw when I went to see 'The Other Guys". You can follow the link onto YouTube; sorry, I am just too lazy to post every single video onto here.

Devil

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYy7igKD21A

Yeah, this movie looks like it sucks. People being trapped on an elevator, end up trying to kill one another, and the Devil is involved somehow? Not exactly a plot that sends shivers down my spine. M. Night Shyamalan produced it? When is the last time he made a good movie again? If he was going to a project with a tile as generic as "Devil" he should have done everything in his power to make an unbelievably epic film, not...this. I am not an expert on these types of films, but this looks like a clunker to me. I will pass on this one.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS0PJSKJoxw

I really do not know how this is going to go. I liked the first "Wall Street" film, but something about this sequel rubs me the wrong way. It might be because of Shia LaBeouf? Probably. He just does not seem fit into this picture. It might be because the publicity for it has be relatively light, though that will likely change in the coming weeks. It might just be because I am afraid that Oliver Stone is going to use the movie simply to get vent about his political beliefs as opposed to telling a really good story, though I admit that one of the criticisms of the original "Wall Street" was lacking in that department. Oh, and since when does Gordon Gecko have a daughter? I only remember him having a son in the first movie. Is this going to be one of those times where the producers try to invent a character and say they actually existed all along and that they just were not mentioned in the original film? God, I hope my memory is wrong or something. Still, I like the character of Gordon Gecko, I like Josh Brolin (even though his last collaboration with Stone was "W", which I hated), and I like the subject matter (which is obviously mirroring real-life events), so I am going to have to wait to hear more about it before I make a final decision to see it or not.

The American

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChQB0vpCQWw

The plot of this movie looks pretty cool and I have yet to see a George Clooney movie I disliked ("Batman and Robin" does not count; it never counts). In fact, I just finished watching "O Brother, Where Art Thou?". I will be looking forward to this one.

RED

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayFfMfN5AvE

This movie looks awesome! I mean, the cast alone is very impressive, but I mean...Helen Mirren with a sniper rifle?! John Freakin' Malkovich blowing up a live missile with a gun?! Is that Ernest Borgnine?! How I really hope this movie is good. I predict that it is going to be absolutely ridiculous, but it will be amazing. It...will be.

Jackass 3D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIsVDn-bOaE&feature=fvst

Ha ha, wow. If anyone predicted a decade ago that there would be a...well, let me just move on. To be honest, I have never watched "Jackass", either the TV show or the previous two films, and I do not think I am going to watch this one. But, if you are a fan, you are probably going to enjoy it. How old are most of these guys now, anyway? I looked up Johnny Knoxville; he is closing in on 40. Eh, whatever suits them best...

Due Date

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGpJUh9j-jU

I like Robert Downey Jr., I like Zach Galifianakis, and I like liked the previous works of director Todd Phillips. That being said, I am skeptical about this film. The trailer just does not seem as funny as it should be. I am still probably going to see it, but I am keeping my expectations in check.

The Social Network

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB95KLmpLR4&feature=channel

I hate this movie! I have never seen it, I am never going to see it (hopefully), and yet I hate it! Why? First of all, look at what you see in the trailer: Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake, the somber, emotional overtones. It has "white-adolescent melodrama" written all over it. Wait, I just found out that the screenplay is adapted by Aaron Sorkin and it is being directed by David Fincher! What the f***?! What made these guys sink to this level?! Do they have no shame.?!

But that is not my biggest problem with this project. No, it actually has to do with the timing: it is just too soon. It is not so much because it is about events that took place only seven years ago, though I have always had an issue with films that do that, even good ones. I just think that if you are going to do that, it should be about a story that has already unfolded for the most part, not about something that has barely begun. In the year 2010, do we really need a fictionalized film to tell us about how Facebook came about and what founder Mark Zuckerberg had to do in order to get his way? No. If this story is to be told, they should do what was done for "Pirates of the Silicon Valley": wait until more time has passed until you have enough material to make something worthwhile. Until then, this movie can go to hell!

My Theater Experience With The Expendables (2010)

First, I would like to introduce you to a new segment called Looking at some Trailers. Which I will find a better name for eventually, but for now, bear with me. Here are some of the movies showed in the previews for The Expendables, and what I thought of them based on the trailers:

Buried

Oh, hell yeah, this looks awesome. I mean, what more could I ask for out of a movie? A race against time, a dark, claustrophobic motif, and characters distressed and not knowing what to do. Just pure bliss for a thriller fiend like myself. I feed off things like this, and seeing a new one really gets my blood boiling. Will definitely be seeing this on opening night.

The Town

This sent chills down my spine. First of all, directed by the guy who made Gone Baby Gone? Sign me up! But it just looks really cool. The espionage, the dreary, drab settings, the off kilter and creepy Halloween masks…this just looks like a really cool movie. I can assure you this will be on many top 10s for the year, and I’ll review another horrible Japanese horror remake if I’m wrong!

…please, please don’t let me be wrong…

The Green Hornet

Alright, somebody needs to fire Seth Rogen’s agent. What’s the deal with this guy? Can’t he ever appear in a movie that is an actual film, and not just some cheap-ass bucket of “awkward” laughs and hammy acting? It’s insufferable. Also, “let’s act like villains so nobody knows we’re the real heroes”? That’s retarded, get this off my screen and never bring it back. Phew.

There were also trailers of The Last Exorcism, which looks so lame that I’d rather bash my head against a wall seven times than watch it, and SAW 3D, which if anyone thinks it’s really the end of the franchise, you need to get a reality check. But I’m not going to post those trailers, because I’m better than that, and this segment is going on too damn long already.

So, without further ado…drum roll please…THE EXPENDABLES, directed by Sylvester Stallone and starring more people than you can count!

Yes, this was all set up to be the action movie extravaganza of the summer, and did it live up to those expectations? Well, let’s just say it had an unfair disadvantage. But it’s still a hell of a ride. This movie is so jam packed with explosions and so completely action packed that your head will just about explode even just thinking about it! Of course the main draw was all the big names. I mean, they got Bruce Willis, they got Jason Statham, they got Jet Li, they got Mickey Rourke, they even got Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnold Schwarzenegger, back on the silver screen at last! What a treat.

I’ll just go ahead and tell you that the best scene of this movie is sadly one of the shortest, and it’s where Schwarzenegger, Willis and Stallone meet in a church. Willis does his typical latter-day role where he plays an almost mobster-like character who keeps in the shadows and intimidates through words rather than through guns and punching people like in the old days. Schwarzenegger is a pompous older mercenary who doesn’t have time to help out Willis’ cause, and it results in one of the best lines in the movie – I won’t even spoil it for you, it’s that good. This scene is just great. Seeing all three of these huge icons on screen together even for a few minutes is a ton of fun.

But the rest of the movie doesn’t slack off too much, either. The plot is pretty simple – a bunch of ragtag, weathered mercenaries are hired to go take down a governor in South America (who is played by Angel from Dexter…). One of them, Lee (Jason Statham), is having troubles with his girlfriend. Which means…he finds out she cheated on him because she didn’t know what he did at work even though they had been living together for a year and a half. Got that? Good, because it doesn’t come up very much again, even if they do try to shoehorn in a positive message about how he’s trying to find himself. It doesn’t really take any kind of precedence over the main story with Stallone, though. Speaking of Stallone, he’s trying to fight his way to save a pretty girl who he got the hots for the second he saw her. A noble cause, and I will ignore the clichéd nature…sometimes that’s just what you need after a long day’s work.

And the explosions, oh, man, the explosions. They’re all over the place here. They’re so abundant that by the end they’re even happening on top of one another; it’s flat out ridiculous. But it’s also really awesome. It’s like Stallone just went, “Hmm, we need explosions in action movies. Okay, put in about fifty times the usual amount. That ought to do it.” I love every second of it.

If I had to pick out any real problems with it, it’s not so much about what the movie did wrong, but more about what it could have been. This movie is a lot of fun, but with the pedigrees of acting involved, it should have been a real epic as opposed to a short, quick film like this. This should have blown us away and given us a transcendent work of action masterclass. But the fact that it did not really live up to our expectations doesn’t mean much, because this is still a pretty solid film.

The Expendables uses a lot of action movie clichés, but it never actually feels dated or trite for all that, and its quick, snappy pacing and huge doses of explosive fun are really enjoyable. It’s clear that Stallone really loves action movies (and I would hope he does a lot, for what he does for a living), and I really enjoy the earnest, balls-out way The Expendables executed its foray of action-packed goodies. It’s an action fan’s action movie. I can’t picture any fan of the genre hating it. This is Stallone’s latest contribution to the genre he loves, and if you want an explosion-filled action flick, I can recommend this with no caveats.