This has been one of the biggest weeks for trailers that I can remember. And the Black Mass trailer, which came out of left field, is at the top of a very impressive heap.
A trailer style that has becomeincreasinglycommon is to use the trailer to showcase one specific scene from the underlying film, thus giving the viewers a sense of the film’s pace and editing. This strategy serves as a sort of signal that the creators of the film are so confident in their material that they don’t even need to bother with specially crafting an enticing trailer. Here, I think that decision paid off.
But what I love most about this trailer is that it layers a huge variety of images on top of its focal scene. Viewers begin to sense the larger scope of the film. On a similar note, even Johnny Depp’s brief mention of “Alcatraz” also serves convey that film will deal with the broader historical context of its immediate storyline. My favorite moment from the trailer occurs at :49, when Johnny Depp says “no.”
We hear a foreboding drumbeat and the action pauses for over a second as the viewer slowly begins to comprehend the severity of what just occurred. From there, the tension only builds.
One of the most exciting things about watching the teaser for a long-anticipated movie for the first time is learning what the movie will look like.
This teaser establishes that Batman v Superman—unexpectedly—sets out to explore deep themes about power, heroes, and human nature—themes that have been heretofore absent from comic book movies. The smart narration in this teaser suggests the movie may even have the intellectual heft to do justice to these ideas.
But, even still, I am having a hard time getting over the fact that I just don’t like the way this movie looks. Zack Snyder seems to be a one-trick pony: 300 and Sucker Punch showcased the same claustrophobic visual scheme. Darkness. A slight soft focus. Completely CG sets. Snyder’s style prevents me from ever feeling fully immersed in the worlds that he tries to create. It’s difficult to feel immersed in a cheap-looking video game.
So, ultimately, I’m disappointed in what this teaser revealed about its film.
Wow! THIS is a teaser! In the teaser’s amazing opening shot (with its perfectly mood-setting score), the camera begins panning over a familiar Tatooine (or not). But as the camera continues panning, the revelation that the mountain in the background is actually a demolished star destroyer clarifies that we’re seeing something completely new.
The brief description of the Skywalker genealogy likewise serves as ideal shorthand about the general plot. I particularly like the usage of the second-person when Luke Skywalker describes the newest generation — it makes the viewer feel included in the story.
By no means am I a die-hard Star Wars fan, but the last scene in this teaser conjured in me a level of excitement for a big blockbuster that I haven’t felt in a long time.
I am shocked by the weirdness of this mainstream studio film. On the one hand, I instinctively stand behind any attempt to break the restrictive mold to which big budget movies are increasingly required to conform. On the other, I am put off by just how weird Mad Max: Fury Road appears to be.
More to the point, I think this trailer provides an interesting lens through which to consider the question of whether or not one’s assessment of a trailer depends on one’s interest in the underlying film. Can an unappealing film have a good trailer?
When watching the Fury Road trailer, viewers immediately notice how odd the film’s costume design is. Even more jarring, however, is the film’s editing. Notice the increased speed and quick cuts at 1:07 that create a sense of frantic discomfort. This speed of movement evokes Terry Gilliam—Brazil, Twelve Monkeys, and The Zero Theorem all come to mind—and seems to be the film’s signature style.
As a reviewer, I don’t think it’s fair for me to say that the uncomfortable style and disturbing subject matter throughout the trailer make me personally disinterested in seeing the film. But I think it is fair to say that I find it problematic that the uncomfortable style and disturbing subject matter don’t appear to contribute to any higher-level artistic end. Instead, it all just seems disturbing for the sake of being disturbing.
At exactly 1:30, however, something surprising happens: the trailer slows to a less frantic pace and, for the first time, it says something interesting. If I just listen to the voice-over here, I start to think that maybe Mad Max: Fury Road has some depth, after all. At the very least, I start to think that maybe the latter half of this trailer is pretty good, even if the film itself is still off-putting.
But I just can’t shake my sense that this portion of the trailer doesn’t fairly convey the film that it is supposed to represent. I may be proven wrong when Mad Max is released, but my guess is that this voice-over is taken from a prologue or epilogue that is deeper than the rest of the film warrants.
In other words, I have a hunch that the positive aspects of this trailer lack fidelity to the underlying film, and this concern keeps me from feeling fully immersed in the trailer. My ultimate answer to the question of whether an unappealing film can produce a good trailer is “no”: I don’t think a trailer can be good unless it at least appears to fairly represent its film—and it may be impossible for the trailer of an unappealing film to simultaneously be good a good trailer and be faithful to its film.