Trailers That are Better Than the Actual Movie
Disappointment
A few weeks ago, I set out a plan for multiple writing projects that I wanted to accomplish this summer. I also hoped to write more frequently. Fortunately, I’ve been a little busy and haven’t had as much time for watching movies or writing. I say “fortunately” instead of the usual “unfortunately” because it has been a very fulfilling past two weeks of busyness. Spending time with family, maintaining my garden, reading books, concert going with friends, and traveling have all created great memories. To be honest though, I hit a point this weekend where I need the therapy of writing so here’s update on these projects plus an attempt to get one done.
Making the Case for Rocky V - This is a great movie and I’m going to prove it. I just need to sit down and watch it. I’ve already started to hype myself up by watching scenes on YouTube.
Mad Max: Fury Road - I read an amazing oral history about the making of this film. I love it even more after reading the book, but I want to watch all movies in the Mad Max lore before writing. I am 2/5ths of the way there.
The Best Movie That Never Got a Theatrical Release - I’m not going to say what this movie is, but it’s really really good and I wish more people could see it. A little hint, it was a Hulu-only release during the pandemic. I can’t wait to watch it and write about it.
“The Only True Currency in this Bankrupt World…” - The essay on Almost Famous which I really enjoyed writing and I’m really proud of how it came out.
The Lost Boys (this one will be a Halloween special) - Obviously this won’t be until October when the leaves are falling and the weather is cool.
Trailers That are Better Than the Actual Movie - This evening’s work. Trailers are a huge part of promoting films, especially blockbusters. Have you ever seen a trailer so good that you walked out of the theater thinking more about the movie that hasn’t come out yet than the one you just saw? I know I have, but unfortunately there are times when the film doesn’t live up to the promotion and it gives you sad emotion and you cry when riding the locomotion….. (Time to quit writing and join a Spoken Word Poetry Slam!)
Okay, let’s do this! Let’s watch some trailers and air some grievances!
The Creator
This one hurts to write. Let me be clear, The Creator is not a bad movie. It’s fine. I’ll even say it’s good. It’s just not great and this is a great f***ing trailer. You have Aerosmith’s “Dream On” and John David Washington. You have Gareth Edwards as Director and he also directed the best Star Wars movie. You have a war between humans and artificial intelligence. I’ll add that Sturgill Simpson plays a role in this movie. We LOVE Sturgill Simpson here at Charlie Don’t Surf. There’s an Apocalypse Now! feel to the entire thing. The sequence about “What is Heaven?” and “We can’t go to Heaven because you’re not a good a person and I’m not human” cuts deep, but it’s in the first 30 minutes of the movie and it doesn’t get any deeper later on. This movie was billed as a game changer for the science fiction drama. The trailer is legendary, but the movie is fine. The fact of the matter is, just being fine doesn’t get you into the Hall of Fame.
Suicide Squad
Let’s go back to 2013 for a second. Warner Bros. was a year past the venerable Dark Knight Trilogy from Christopher Nolan. The Marvel Cinematic Universe was exploding with Iron Man, Captain America, and The Avengers. It was time for DC to show their mettle and get into the game. They gave us a very good Superman movie in The Man of Steel and it was time to build from there. Sadly, the very dark year of 2016 would occur. Warner Bros. and DC gave us a stinker in Batman v. Superman: The Dawn of Justice. I re-watched this a couple years ago, and man, it STINKS….but there’s a movie worse than that one. Two words: Suicide Squad. I remember sitting in the theater stunned by how cool this film looked. A MOVIE ABOUT THE BAD GUYS? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? On paper, a movie with Viola Davis, Margot Robbie, Will Smith, and Jared Leto should absolutely crush it. Nope. Here’s what happened. Marvel is soaring and building an empire with fun and semi-lighthearted super hero movies. DC went dark with Batman v Superman. People didn’t like Batman v. Superman so Warner Bros. panicked. Instead of getting a dark and intriguing movie about Harley Quinn, Joker, and a bunch of bad guys, the movie went through a bunch of re-shoots with a lighter tone and it’s a mess. The antagonist is a hollow CGI nothing burger and the film goes nowhere. A Rotten Tomatoes score of 26% and 5.9/10 on IMDB are probably too high if we’re being honest with ourselves….but the trailer was pretty dang cool.
The Rise of Skywalker
I just want to say f*** this shit and move on, but you guys come here for a deeper analysis than just that. This is another case of the movie studio panicking and ruining a film. Disney purchased the LucasFilm studio for $4.05 billion in October 2012. They set out the goal of expanding the Star Wars universe and it has been a really mixed bag ever since. Disney’s original intentions seemed to want to give directors that love Star Wars the opportunity to direct their own film in the series. JJ Abrams was the first director and he continued the story with a very fun Episode VII The Force Awakens. It was Rian Johnson’s turn with Episode VIII The Last Jedi. The Last Jedi turned out to be a really divisive film. It’s not a perfect Star Wars film, but I personally like it. Johnson takes some risks that cause a really toxic fanbase to express their toxicity on the internet. Disney panicked, took creative control from Colin Trevorrow, and had JJ Abrams make a movie that spends half the time dumping on the previous one. It’s stupid. I’m still pissed about this movie and I’ll never get over it.
That’s a Wrap
I was going to write about Spider-Man 3 and Iron Man 3, but I’m tired of thinking about disappointing movies. I know there are other movies out there that sucked, but they had really good trailers. Bad movies just happen to be depressing to think about. It’s late and I have some comics to read.