RogerBW's Blog

Some trailers I've seen recently, and my thoughts on them. (Links are to youtube. Opinions are thoroughly personal. Calibration: I hate everything.)

At Eternity's Gate: it's fine to be an asshole as long as you are a Great Artist. But I do like the visuals here.

Instant Family: there's the vague edge of something real sliding in through the generic fambly comedy. Weird. There just barely might be something here, which is certainly not what I expect from the premise.

Kursk: I love a good naval story. But the emphasis is on story: I already know how this one came out.

Wildlife: it's very stylised, and seems heavy-handed; somehow it just doesn't grab me, from first to last.

The Beach Bum (Teaser): the role McConaughy was born to play, once he accepted his natural skeeziness; but why should I care?

Dust 2 Glory: documentary or fictionalisation? Starts to look like the former. Might be quite interesting it if really does follow through on the people.

Viper Club: these helpful guys are criminals, right? It seems like such an obvious scam to run, and I can see exactly how I'd go about setting it up. If I were that sort of person. Instead I'll probably use it in a game.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs: all these modern westerns look the same. Though this one has rather more blatant tinting than most. Good last line.

Captive State (Teaser): yeah yeah, generic police state stuff. Twist at the end is nothing new.

Mary Poppins Returns: poor, poor, P. L. Travers. At least she's safely dead and can't see this. Yes, indeed, nothing is gone forever; no story can ever be allowed to end.

Captain Marvel: people who say "superheroes, yay" will like this. People like me who say "superheroes, meh" have nothing to bring us in.

Stan & Ollie: if you like L&H, this is them got old and tired; if you don't, you probably aren't interested anyway.

The Marine 6 - Close Quarters: not, apparently, a video game, but seems a lot like one.

Tyrel: an effective growing menace from horrible people. But is that enough? Too confused for me to get much idea of what's going on.

Galveston: stay alert. Trust no-one (especially blondes). Keep your pistol handy.

If Beale Street Could Talk: does a slightly better job than the teaser of giving the idea of a story. It's not one that grabs me, but there's nothing wrong with that.

55 Steps: yeah, heroic crusading lawyer, Helena Bonham Carter, but it feels awfully cliché, taking the most superficial approach possible to what be quite interesting subject matter.

Creed II: so far away from things that interest me that I don't think I can get any idea of whether this film's target audience will enjoy it.

X-Men - Dark Phoenix: this series looks rather premature now, but I guess they're still making the things. What even I (a confirmed non-superhero fan) can see that the MCU films have got right is: not too long an interval between bouts of superpowered beat-em-up action, which is what the people came for, and what intervals you do have should keep up the frenetic pace. This doesn't appear to offer that.