Some trailers I've seen recently, and my thoughts on them. (Links are
to youtube. Opinions are thoroughly personal. Calibration: There is
nothing like just indignation for fostering unreasoning hate.)
6 Underground:
Bay does cool vigilantes, apparently. And it's not a sequel. But it's
stil Bay; I prefer my action more about the people and less about the
assault on the senses. (And less Ryan Reynolds-y.)
Birds of Prey:
more picking over the rotting corpse of Batman from when it was still
written by vaguely creative people. Meh.
The Gentlemen:
nasty people do nasty things, but it's all terribly meta. And I don't
care about any of them.
The Personal History of David Copperfield:
Ianucci is at least having some fun with this stuff, which nobody
else in this batch so far seems to be.
Richard Jewell:
Clint Eastwood makes a film about a hopeless loser whom the media
despised. Er, Clint, the difference is that you have poured out a
torrent of hate to any camera that'll pay attention for the last
decade, and Jewell was simply a police wannabe.
Earthquake Bird:
once upon a time Ridley Scott's name was a recommendation, but then
Alien: Covenant happened. And he's only a producer on this anyway.
But I see a lot of Asian exoticisation (slightly more forgivable in a
novel from 1989 than in a film made thirty years later) and a very
obvious plot.
The Turning:
why are people still making this film? For people who want to watch
it, isn't it cheaper to watch previous iterations of it? There's
hardly a shortage.
Onward:
I can see some slight sparks of life here, but mostly they've been
smothered under the blanket of Generic Comedy.
Charlie's Angels (trailer 2):
the attempts to modernise it just make it more obvious how much
everything about this setup depends on showing off hot female bodies.
Jungle Cruise:
maybe I'm just being wildly optimistic after some of the other rubbish
this month, but this could be a gender-flipped Indiana Jones
combined with The African Queen. But it's Disney, so probably not.
Dolittle:
yes, all right, making a film of books is almost always a mistake; but
really, if you want a generic action film with lots of CGI animals,
why not just make one? (Especially since it's been done before, first
relatively straight with Rex Harrison, then as comedy with Eddie
Murphy.)
Bombshell:
there's something to be said here about how working for a horrible
organisation turns you horrible, but I don't think this film is going
to say it.
The Report:
I find Adam Driver's face too distracting to take him seriously as an
actor. Also, where's the payoff? This shit is still going on. It's not
because "people were scared", it's because sadists gonna sade if not
actively prevented. That's what organisational rules and
accountability are for.
Peter Rabbit 2 - The Runaway (Teaser):
not content with the first desecration of a book that some few people
actually still like, they've done it again.
Bloodshot:
what, this story again? I liked it better when it was called
Universal Soldier. A little more sophistication is welcome (the
whole fake-revenge setup), but I'm really not convinced; and this
doesn't look like a film in which Diesel can display his comic chops,
which anyway aren't all that great compared with Statham or Johnson
Star Wars - The Rise of Skywalker Final:
Great big meh. If you can put in one dead actor, why not use them all?
But I think the biggest problem is that this is a Franchise, so
whatever happens, there can't be a conclusion to the story; that's
the one thing that can never be allowed. Even if this seems to bring
the thing to an end, they're not going to stop making the films until
people stop paying to see them.
Antlers:
I suppose, but I don't see anything here to distinguish it from other
horror films.
Little Joe:
desperately insufficient isolation precautions, but hey. Nice work
integrating the trailer graphics into the shots from the film. But
again it falls back so easily on standard horror tropes.
The Aeronauts:
still looks as though it may be quite enjoyable.
The Grudge:
for film watchers who really don't like subtitles, dubs, or Korean
people?
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