Coming Attractions

Most people who know me know that I'm a pretty big fan of movie trailers. It's an additional incentive to get to the theater early to see a movie. (The other reason is to get a good seat, which could be its own argument/post.) Nowadays, it's no longer as big of a deal because modern technology has brought the movie trailer to the internets. I find Quicktime's site to be a good place to find and view trailers for upcoming movies.

Movie trailers can be a work of art, and often better than the movie itself. They frequently come in two types: the "teaser" and the traditional trailer. Teasers offer a frustratingly small glimpse of the upcoming movie. The new War of the Worlds teasers are a good example.

The traditional trailer tends to give a little more away. Hopefully, it doesn't give too much away; too frequently the trailer includes so much of the story that there's really little point in seeing the movie itself. Of course, there are some movies where you pretty much already know how it's going to end (Titanic and The Alamo come to mind), but you still don't want to give away all of the best scenes. This goes double for comedies; there are few things more annoying than going to see a movie and realizing that all of the best gags were in the trailer.

Trailers are often made before the movie has gone through its final edit, and sometimes it includes parts of scenes that don't actually make it into the movie. This can also be annoying sometimes. But now that movies are released on DVD with bonus features like deleted scenes, which may let you see some of that lost footage.

Based on my recent perusal of Quicktime's site, here are a few of my recommendations:

The newest trailer for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is pretty good. One thing that makes it particularly amusing is its meta-commentary on trailers themselves.

Sin City looks interesting. It has an interesting style to it, kind of a mix of black and white film noir and random splashes of color. I'm not quite convinced that the underlying storyline will be that great though. Though a certain level of narrative deficiency may be forgiven if the scene with Jessica Alba lives up to its potential...

There may be some promise in The Island, provided that it amounts to more than a Matrix rip off.

I'm also looking forward to Batman Begins, and of course Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (not hosted on Quicktime).

Now for a few movies that probably shouldn't have been made:

A remake of Herbie the Love Bug? How many Disney remakes will Lindsay Lohan star in?
Zathura? I don't think we really need Jumanji in space. (Seriously, right down to the board game.)

Ok, enough from me for now. Enjoy a few movie trailers; as they say in the trailer to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, it'll help you plan out the next few months of your life.