When you go to the movies as much as I do, you realize and very quickly accept that you’re going to end up seeing certain trailers a few thousand times before you actually get to see the film being advertised. (By this point, I can pretty much recite that trailer for Cowboys and Aliens by heart.) In the case of a good trailer, this can make an otherwise forgettable film into a must-see event. And, in the case of a bad trailer, it can literally make you shout out at “Agck!” at the thought of having to sit through it again.
What follows are three trailers that, as of late, I’ve found myself sitting through on multiple occasions. The first one makes me go “bleh,” the second makes me say “Agck,” and the third inspires a cautious but hopeful little “Yay!”
First off, here’s Page One. This is one of those trailers that you look at and you think, “Everyone in this trailer is so physically unattractive that this must be a documentary.” And it is!
I have a feeling that Page One is going to be widely acclaimed and it’ll probably win awards from the same people who thought the shrill Inside Job was more thought-provoking than Exit From The Gift Shop. That said, I can’t help but admit that watching this trailer inspires me to say, “Who cares?” Seriously, yet another documentary where a bunch of old people whine about how they’re no longer relavent? Yeah, sounds thrilling.
In fact, the prospect of sitting through Page One sounds almost as thrilling as sitting through a movie, made by the same people who gave us 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow, about the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays.
Anonymous, I imagine, will be quite popular with people who found the Da Vinci Code to be a mind-blowing experience.
Luckily, all is not lost. True, it does appear that we’ve got a lot of Anonymous films in our future, but we’ve also got Another Earth.
I have to admit that, just on the basis of this trailer (which I’ve caught a handful times down at both the Dallas and Plano Angelika theaters), Another Earth is the film that I’m probably most looking forward to seeing (with the exception, of course, of Harry Potter.) When compared to the self-importance of the trailer for Page One and the almost comical slickness of the trailer for Anonymous, the the low-key aesthetic of the trailer for Another Earth feels almost defiant.
Obviously, there have been many bad films that have had wonderfully effective trailers. In fact, I’d be willing to say that 75% of most movies actually work better as a 2 minute trailer as opposed to as a 2-hour film. And some good films have had terrible trailers.
In theory, Page One could turn out to be the greatest documentary since Exit Through The Gift Shop and maybe Anonymous will prove that Roland Emmerich is actually an artist as opposed to just a wealthy pyromaniac. I certainly hope that’s the case because, believe it or not, I’d much rather sit through a good film than a bad one.
However, on the basis of trailer alone, of all the upcoming films that don’t feature Harry Potter and Voldermort, Another Earth is the film I’m most looking forward to.
Speaking of which, here’s the 2nd trailer for the film of 2011: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2:
