Well, Shazam, that seems to be the current state of comic book cinema. Hopefully, if your first film was any indication of the future, you can help to lighten things up a bit. Anyway, this is obviously a teaser. It’s not a trailer. This is just a reminder that there’s a character named Shazam and he’s got a movie coming out at some point in the future …. actually, it’s not coming out until June of 2023!
Well, hopefully, they’ll find a way to turn on the lights in the next two years. Also, hopefully, people will still remember Shazam in 2023. In the film’s defense, though, production was delayed due to the COVID pandemic so it’s going to be hardly the only sequel coming out a bit later than one might expect.
It’s a new month and that means that it’s time for a new Black Widow trailer. How long have we been waiting for this film now? Where that old lady from Titanic? Has it really been over 80 years? I think that’s an exaggeration but we have been waiting for quite a while now.
Personally, I just hope this movie provides some sort of justice for the character. I’m still massively annoyed with how Natasha was treated in Avengers: Endgame and hearing that Black Widow 1) takes place before Endgame and 2) features Florence Pugh as the character who took Natasha’s place in the comic books does not particularly make me happy. At this point, though, I’ve been waiting so long to see the film that I’m just hoping Scarlett at least gets to beat a few people up with style.
Here’s the latest trailer. Black Widow will finally be released on July 9th!
The Superdeep is a Russian horror/sci-fi film from 2020 that will be making it’s American debut in June of this year, on Shudder. Here’s the trailer, which is atmospheric and kind of icky, as all good horror films trailers should be!
I have to admit that I kind of went back and forth on whether or not to share the trailer for Dear Evan Hansen, the film adaptation for the Tony-award winning Broadway musical.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen a trailer greeted with this much derision. My natural instinct is to be a contrarian and to try to defend it. (Remember …. I proudly put Money Plane on my list of the best films of 2020. I campaigned, albeit unsuccessfully, for Kesley Grammar to receive a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his career-defining performance as The Rumble in that same film. I’ve voted for multiple third party candidates and I still hold on to hope that Degrassi will somehow be renewed for another season. I am not scared of embracing a lost cause.) However, I actually agree with a lot of the comments that have been made about this trailer. For instance, it does give away almost the entire plot. And it does tend to go on and on. (No trailer should be over 3 minutes long.) And, perhaps most importantly, Ben Platt does look way too old to be playing a depressed and insecure high school kid.
It should, of course, be noted that Ben Platt originated the role of Evan Hansen, playing the role from the first reading of the show all the way to Dear Evan Hansen‘s eventual Broadway premiere. He played the role for three years. He won a Tony Award for playing Evan Hansen. One could argue that Ben Platt earned the right to recreate the role on film. However, judging from the trailer, Ben Platt may be 27 but looks at least ten years older. He looks less like Julianne Moore’s son and more like her younger brother. The attempts to make him look like a high school student just seem to age him even more. On stage, this would be less of an issue. However, watching the trailer, it’s pretty much the only thing that you can think about.
That said, this film was directed by Stephen Chbosky. Chbosky also wrote and directed one of my favorite films of all time, The Perks of Being A Wallflower. My hope is that Chbosky can pull it off and that Ben Platt’s performance will be so effective that it won’t matter that he’s way too old for the role.
Anyway, with all that in mind, here’s the trailer:
Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness is an upcoming CGI animated series, dealing with all of the usual Resident Evil stuff. Personally, I’m a fan of anything that features zombies in the White House. The series will be available to stream on July 8th, 2021 on Netflix.
The trailer for The Green Knight dropped earlier today and what else can I say other than that it looks amazing! Dev Patel stars and visionary David Lowery directs. (Lowery previously directed my favorite film of 2017, A Ghost Story.)
Stillwater is a film that I’ve been hearing about for a while. It was directed by Tom McCarthy, who previously did the Oscar-winning (if subsequently kind of forgotten) Spotlight and it stars Matt Damon as a man who tries to prove that his estranged daughter (Abigail Breslin) is not guilty of the murder for which she’s been convicted.
Originally, it was thought that Stillwater would be done in time for a late 2019 release but ultimately, it got a 2020 release date. But then pandemic occurred and everything got pushed back and, as a result, Stillwater is now set to be released on July 30th.
The trailer finally dropped today and …. well, its looks okay. To be honest, it kind of looks like one of those films that shows up, without much fanfare, on Netflix. But McCarthy’s strongest trait, as a director, has always been his ability to inspire and capture good performances and it looks like Matt Damon is very well-cast in the lead role. I’ve always felt that Matt Damon is one of those actors who is so consistently good that he gets taken granted.
The trailer for Venom: Let There Be Carnage was released earlier today. A lot of people on Twitter are really excited. Personally, I have no idea what to make of any of it. Apparently, this is not really an MCU film except that maybe it is. It’s like sitting in this sort of “Made in Association with Marvel” limbo. Who knows? The first Venom film drove my ADD crazy, though I should add that the film itself was liked by quite a few people here at the Shattered Lens.
Tom Hardy’s really cool. That’s the important thing, as far as I’m concerned. Tom Hardy is credited with coming up for the story for this film so hopefully, that means that the film’s plot will be kind of dark and cynical and odd and yet unexpectedly sweet and sentimental, like the Tom Hardy who regularly shows up in interviews. Regardless, it’s nice to see Tom Hardy taking ownership in the franchise. It reminds me of how Ryan Reynolds not only stars in the Deadpool films but obviously enjoys them as well.
Anyway, Venom: Let There Be Carnage will be released on September 24th. “Only in theaters!,” according to the trailer and I have to admit that I was happy to see those three words. Theaters need a shot in the arm.
After countless pandemic-related delays, A Quiet Place II will finally be released on May 28th. Here’s the final trailer, which was released yesterday. As you can tell, it appears that John Krasinski will at least briefly appear in the film, despite the death of his character at the end of the previous film. (It appears that Krasinski’s scene is a flashback to the beginning of the alien invasion.) Krasinski, of course, will also be returning to direct. Also returning to star in the film is my personal role model, Emily Blunt!
Through the Shattered Lens