Batman 3 Teaser Trailer!

Batman has learned a few tricks of the trade in The Dark Knight Rises

What can we learn from a teaser that shows/tells us nothing?

Captain America Theatrical Trailer!

This trailer is hella good; if the early screenings are any indication, the movie should be just as badass. Thor  was better than I ever good have anticipated, but this has had a good word of mouth from the the get-go, so I can reasonably say my expectations are at a different level.

Live Action Mortal Kombat Comes to the Web

If you aren't familiar with the original piece released last year on the web, a young director did a strikingly decent low-budget Mortal Kombat concept reel. The premise was, at that time, to ground MK back into reality; the short-flick  went so far as to even adapt and re-interpret extreme characters, like Baraka and Reptile, as real-world serial killers.

Check it out below:

The fact that they worked in Harlequin-fetus still blows my mind - as those mutant babies are the stuff of nightmares. Still though, the mood of the whole concept piece was very Seven. It played so well to the masses (mostly 26 year-olds like me who will argue with nostalgia-clouded judgement that there has actually been a good Mortal Kombat movie) that Midway, the company behind the storied game franchise, chose to fund the continuation of the series through weekly-released "webisodes" (what a lame word).

Here is Episode 1 of this new series:

This official series seems to have continued where the fan-made concept piece left off, but it's too early to tell (especially with official company money) whether or not the stories and characters will remain grounded with some semblance of realism, or if the webisodes go to further the official "canon" (I use that term loosely, because trying to understand the official canon would be like trying to understand this cat on LSD).With the new rebooted videogame coming out this month, it's hard not to smell an elaborate marketing ploy.

Personally, I hope this series remains true to it's original promise, rather than sell out to pimp the upcoming game.

     

(IRONY)

Classic Trailers: Zack Snyder Edition

Since 300, Zack Snyder has vaulted to the level of young-auteur: he has assumed some level of near or complete control over each of properties he is associated with or created. His visual flare and love of the slow-mo "money-shot" revolutionized the way graphic novels and action films could be married effectively without compromising the identity of the source material.

Yet since 300, each of his films have declined in quality and received increasingly negative reviews. 300 benefited from the co-director, Frank Miller, also being the creator of the graphic novel; left to his own devices though, each of his films have been decried as increasingly flawed; audiences had problems with the major changes to the canon and the poor pacing of Watchmen,  while SuckerPunch suffered from kinetic overload, a half-baked story, and overuse of some of Snyder's visual signatures and framing.

Snyder has recently been given the keys by Producer Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight director) to reboot the Super Man franchise. As 300 and Watchmen have proven, Zack Snyder is probably the best in the world at bringing comic books truly to life and action. Here's hoping that he is able to reign in some of his bad habits, most notably treating the story as a necessary evil rather than an integral part of the film-making process.

One thing is certain, the man can produce a trailer:

300 

Potential:  *****
Reality:  ****1/2

Watchmen

Potential:  *****
Reality: ****

SuckerPunch

Potential:  ****
Reality:   **

Classic Trailers: Inaugural Edition

I was planning to do some sort of "Top 10" article on the best trailers of all time, but the list quickly became too daunting. Think about all those trailers you have seen in your lifetime - you know the ones I am talking about: those trailers that just got your geek juices (which really aren't that sticky) flowing, making you crave the release date.

Sometimes badass trailers blow the whole story, or reveal almost every "money shot" in the entire movie in order to pull in the big business. It is definitely not a truism that amazing trailers yield an amazing movie once everything is said and done; still, you have to give the studios and trailer editors credit for putting the best face on a looming turd.

So, as the inaugural post in this section, I present two sides of the trailer coin: LOTR: The Return of the King, and Transformers 2.  With these two movies, I will place a POTENTIAL score (out of 5) which basically grades the trailer on effectiveness, and then a REALITY score that grades how the movie actually turned out.

Without further ado:

LOTR: Return of the King



Potential: *****
Reality: *****

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Potential: *****
Reality: **

Look out for more classic trailers, and some more in-depth reviews in the coming weeks!