So, the latest Star Wars: Force Awakens trailer was officially reveled. Along with that, fans also catching a glimpse of the leaked version of a new Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice trailer.
Oh it’s out there and there’s nothing official about this one. Any big hype Warner Brothers was hoping to surprise folks with to go ‘tweet happy’ has gotten a been nullified. It should be officially released soon though.
Anyway, in order to preempt being asked about my thoughts about these new trailers I figured I would give my quick reaction to both of them. I’m not going into all that analyzing every frame in these things – there’s always plenty of folks who are doing that and are much more excited to do a dissection than I would be.
I have to warn you though, for two of the most highly anticipated flicks headed our way I’m not feeling as geared up for them as I would have thought. Maybe I’ve just gotten immune to falling for the hype these big trailers are meant to generate.
How many times have we gone through this when the actual film fails to live up to the hysteria and anticipation that’s been built up for them for so long? I just keep my expectations in check and while the trailers might intrigue me I don’t have such a strong reaction to them as others seem to.
So, Star Wars: The Force Awakens – yeah, it looks alright. I really wish I was infected with the same enthusiasm as so many other fans have been for this new Star Wars movie. It has all the earmarks of an epic return to the Star Wars universe that all us fans love – or at least the closest we ever thought we’d get. They’re building off the original three films and that prequel crap is a long distant memory.
And some of the images and spaceship fighting looks pretty good. I have been waiting like everyone for our first glimpse of Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher returning to their roles. And here we finally get to see Ford and Chewbacca.
I really hate to say this, I really do, but when Ford and Chewbacca showed up on screen I thought it looked pretty cheesy. It wasn’t the thrilling moment for me that I had hoped.
I immediately had flashbacks when Ford returned as Indy in Crystal Skull and how that ended up. And I also thought Chewie should be sporting some some grey hair at this point. He doesn’t look like he’s aged a day. He looks younger in fact! I’m thinking they just filmed this shot for the trailer and it won’t actually be in the movie.
I think I’m starting to come to terms with that while I’ll always love Star Wars, the ongoing continuation of the franchise is something I’ll never be as passionate about as I was when I was a kid.
My Star Wars highs were rewatching those original movies over and over again on tv, playing with the toys and anxiously waiting out those three year gaps between movies to see if they were ever going to free Han from the carbonite, if Darth Vader was really Luke’s father and finally discover if the rebels ever could win against the empire. I don’t think there’s much more Star Wars can give me. Maybe they’ll be new adventures and characters that will catch my interest, but it won’t have the same impact on me as it did as when I was a kid.
Oh sure, I’ll go see The Force Awakens and perhaps some of the enthusiasm my nephews have for it now will rub off on me when I do see it, but I’m really much more excited to see Spectre.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
I have a confession to make. I really enjoy hearing and reading all the hate that’s been getting thrown at Warner Brothers, DC, Zack Snyder and this movie. I really love it! And I don’t really know why since I would be ecstatic to see a movie with Batman AND Superman – a good movie with Batman and Superman.
And as time goes on and I see more and more of what this movie is shaping out to be I get a feeling that’s less and less likely to happen. Yeah, it will be a Batman & Superman movie, but will it be any good? This leaked trailer doesn’t redeem any of my hope for it.
It’s dark, very serious, very rainy with plenty of voiceovers questioning whether the world can trust Supes or not. It looks to be a real contrast to Marvel’s shinier, brighter and more fun superhero adventures.
Affleck’s Batman voice sounds more gravelly and growly than Christian Bale ever could manage when he asks Supes, “Do you bleed?” (Kinda reminded of Arnold in Predator with his line, “If it bleeds, we can kill it.”) But maybe his voice just sounds like that when he’s wearing his hi-tech helmet.
Since we’ve seen already what Bats and Supes will look like there wasn’t much of a surprise there. The biggest reveal was really the Batwing. Oddly, hearing the voiceovers by the actors reminded me, “Oh yeah, Holly Hunter is in this!”. I’ve always like Holly Hunter. I don’t think her voice inclusion in the trailer was what the studio anticipated reverberating with anyone though, but what can I say.
I just don’t know about this. My feeling has been the same since all this started. This feels like a rush job to cater to superhero fans after the realization hit that there’s money to be made with more than one superhero on the playbill. Warner’s is after that Avengers money they’ve read so much about it, so it only seems natural they would decide to pair up their two biggest heroes and sit back and reap the green rewards.
They’ve been very overzealous announcing a slate of Superehero movies to try to generate excitement in fans. That announcement was funny too. I think it was ten superhero movies they declared will be made up to 2020. I don’t know why they didn’t just announce fifty, or one hundred while they were at it. That would have made it fifty or one hundred times more exciting right?
This DC cinematic universe is being built on Man of Steel, which to me is a very shaky foundation to begin with. I’m not crazy about Zack Snyder being the overseer of all this.
I highly doubt that any of this was planned when Man of Steel was being made and now Snyder is finding himself trying to build a whole superhero universe around that movie, he has to maintain some continuity with what went down in that story and I bet had they known at the time it was going to end up being the beginning of an ongoing cinematic universe that Man of Steel story would have been different. Plus, Cavill’s Superman is a character I barely got to know and who I didn’t like anyway.
I sometimes wonder what Cavill really thinks about all this. When he signed up to be Superman I imagine he must of been contracted for Superman sequels. So when they told him he wouldn’t be starring in solo movies, but be part of a DC ensemble was he disappointed or just ok with that.
The same with Amy Adams. She probably thought she was going to be the co-star/love interest in a few big-budget superhero movies, then they tell her they’re going to focus on all their superheroes and she’s going to be a supporting character in them. “Don’t worry we’re going to include one scene of you typing up a news story”.
I still think Warner’s is banking on the wrong guy with Snyder for this job. Then to compound the fact every few weeks we’ve heard about additional superheroes showing up in this movie – more superheroes will equal bigger box office, that’s the theory right? And this is all to just set things up for a pair of Justice League movies (it’s right there in the title!) and ongoing solo films for characters. Oh boy.
Imagine if this movie fails. What kind of repercussions would it have on Warner’s superhero plans? The fallout would be huge!
With all my skepticism about this I’ll admit I’m still very curious what the end result will be. I’d be very happy if this turns out alright, but I’m not holding out much hope for it. As my one friend who is much more jaded when it comes to this movie said – “I’m really looking forward to ‘hate watch’ it when it comes out.” That seems like the attitude a lot of fans are viewing this movie with.
However this falls, I am certainly going be ready to read and listen to what I predict will be a loud, vocal reaction when fans finally do get to see this thing opening weekend.
Unfortunately, I didn’t come close to Matthew McConaughey’s reaction to the Star Wars trailer.
Since the leaked version of the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice trailer has been floating around out there I guess Warner’s decided there was no point in holding onto it now and released it early. Here it is.
It's really funny: while ignoring all the hype surrounding THE FORCE AWAKENS, I have found myself very recently returning to the original STAR WARS after so many years. And when I say original, I mean how it was released in 1977…no episode, no subtitle, Han shooting Greedo first, the original/non-special edition effects and end credits which doesn't include Rick "It's So Dense" McCullum's name and no stupid THX phone number. I was born in April of 1979, so it's difficult for me to imagine what it was like when STAR WARS opened back in that summer of '77, and how it practically inspired/healed the nation after the devastating effects of Vietnam and the Nixon debacle. I'm not a STAR WARS fan by any stretch, although I'm sure I would be had I been there in the summer of 1977 to catch it on a 70mm screen in fresh Dolby Stereo; like many kids, I simply grew up watching the original version on VHS.
Recently, I finished reading "The Secret History of Star Wars," which I found absolutely fascinating: evidently, it concluded that Lucas did not perceive of Vader as being Luke's dad until April of 1978, right after he received EMPIRE's first screenplay draft from the Queen of Space Opera herself, Leigh Brackett. Brackett had died in March of 1978 and, reportedly, in her script Father Skywalker and Darth Vader were still two different characters, as it expanded upon a 1976 novelization written by (?) Lucas where the saga was just known as the THE ADVENTURES OF LUKE SKYWALKER from "The Journal of the Whills" or whatever. Anyway, what "Secret History" essentially revealed was that Lucas has always been full of crap when it came to having this entire epic written from the beginning and that he just made everything up as he went along.
And I do think Lucas has always received much too much credit for "creating" STAR WARS…in fact, I would give more credit to his ex-wife Marcia who won an Oscar for editing the first picture, as well as the 3 Johns (Williams, Dykstra, Barry) and the ILM team who really made the entire film something special. All Lucas did really was say "Faster" to his actors and Marcia was one of the few who dared to say NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO to him many times when it came to originally crafting the movie; in fact, it was her idea to have Han come in near the end to save the day before Luke gets blown away by Vader. It was only AFTER that first EMPIRE draft in which Lucas decided to change the focus of the franchise to "The Tragedy of Darth Vader" and away from "The Adventures of Luke Skywalker." By the way, I also had no idea until very recently that Willard Huyck & Gloria Katz were recruited to do a final polish of the STAR WARS script without credit, and reportedly injected much-needed humor to Lucas' prequel-style storytelling.
Finally, last but not least, I also dared to watch the Rifftrax version of THE STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL. I highly recommend you listen to it! My favorite portion is when they riff on the '70s commercials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn3VPHmob6I (Part 1) & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa80e9OYwxM (Part 2), including Kenner's promotion of the toys which came over a year late. When I was 2 years old, I actually had the Death Star toy complete with the trash compactor! Hearing them riff on those commercials was a real trip, although the CBS NewsBreak was hilarious even without their riffs as the anchor actually said this: "It was nine months ago when the blizzard of '78 hit New England and the medical community predicted this would be a busy time for the maternity wards but it hasn't happened. One nurse said that 'most of the men must have been out shoveling snow'." Oh Lord, XD
Jeremy Irons sounds like he'll make a good Alfred. But Affleck looks so chubby in his Bats outfit. I don't know, I will try and keep an open mind about it though. I seriously think Warners and DC should have waited a few years after Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy till the dust had settled (like that would be pretty easy?!!) Now with the internet promoting hype and opinions, four years in between films doesn't sound so long.
THAT was a fantastic teaser trailer! 2016 NEEDS to hurry up and arrive!
I couldn't agree with you more. Snyder and Nolan are simply the wrong people to be driving this train. Nolan did a great job with the first two Batman films in his trilogy. But Superman is different. There should be much more joy, wonder, hope and FUN in Superman films. And this trailer looks like it will carry over that Dark and Somber tone of Man of Steel. Ugh. And I was never really that impressed with any of Snyder's films anyway.But, DC and Warner have hitched their train to the Nolan / Snyder express. We'll see if it stays on the tracks or not…