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Trailer Review: The Avengers - Fanboy Flameout

When is the big superhero crash going to happen? If it doesn't with The Avengers then I have to eat my cape. Based on an all-star comic combining the greatest Marvel hits, Avengers are a club of Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, Hawkeye and Black Widow battling an army of CGI destruction. It looks as out of control as the Transformers with people and populations having debris falling all around them like a demolition blizzard. Snarky comments are made of the mayhem, especially zingers by Robert Downey Jr., that ring of imperial indifference.

This pop establishment is being directed by fanboy favorite, Joss Whedon, who engendered loyalty from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and added another denomination with cancelled TV series Firefly. This is his biggest budget badass, with the studio's patronage of coordinated marketing with prequels to cash out for at least five years, and the film delivers with lots of POW!

But I've been hit with BANG! CRASH! and WHACK! enough to have a serious headache. Unless this has the quiet laziness of Whedon's Serenity, then I don't know if anyone beyond fandom will want the abuse. It's a crowded summer of movies, from caped crusaders to alien invaders, hinting at originality instead of origin stories that these Avengers may end up dead enders.

Opening May 4, 2012, Verdict: Wait for the Critics

Update: This cape is really hard to tear into bite-size pieces.

Trailer Review: 96 Minutes - Speeding through America

All movies are reflection of their times, but some put their finger better on the underlying pulse, the nerve of our present sensations. Zeitgeist. In the arts, it's an elusive prize to capture. A sum of the now. Hollywood loves to catch this lightning in the bottle because it can translate into big box office (Saturday Night Fever). The risk is these movies can look dated as time flies (The Breakfast Club).

The trailer for 96 Minutes doesn't tell much of what the story is about. It has a young bright cast and cars racing around. There are threats of violence and ends with the sound of a gunshot. But this one minute ad feels right now. The kids are from opposite sides of race and class and nothing in between. There's no middle because it's becoming an endangered species. The notes say this is about a carjacking gone bad, but I couldn't find it. What's in the foreground is the mood, tension and struggle for our next generation trying to make it in this new America. It doesn't feel marketed, a product for how to improve, but a genuine mirror of where we are. I'm wondering how far past nighty-six minutes this will go.

Opening April 27, 2012, Verdict: Wait for the Critics

Trailer Review: The Grey - Weather and Wolves

Liam Neeson, like George Clooney, is able to cross between serious art house and big-bang box office movies. The Grey looks like a mashup showcasing his repertoire. Playing someone providing expert protection for oil-rig workers in the Alaskan wilderness, he rides escort on a plane when it goes down in a remote winter wasteland. Suddenly, it's a survival story, with the major threat being not themselves, but a pack of hungry wolves.

The best scene in the trailer is Neeson lying in bed with his wife under white sheets blowing in the wind when the image explodes, sucking her away and Neeson wakes up covered in snow in a blank landscape. This backstory of Neeson with a broken heart, shows signs of a dramatic thread through this action laden flick.

Since Robinson Crusoe, the survival tale has been a storytelling staple. But when it turns from a solo to a group, my favorites are Flight of the Phoenix, about a crashed plane in the desert and Pitch Black, the sci-fi version with a crashed spaceship.

Truth be told, I don't think I can watch this, because being an owner of two dogs, I can't stomach watching wolves get killed. Too close to home. But that shouldn't discourage an open mind. If the drama is effective in making more at risk with the action, then this will be a fun ride. Neeson has the vulnerability and toughness to pull it off.

Opening January 27, 2012, Verdict: Wait for the Critics

Trailer Review: The Dark Knight Rises - Gotham's Glorious End

Wow. That's pretty much all I can say. I've seen muddied photos of shooting on the final chapter in Christopher Nolan's Batman series, and the most worrisome sign was Anne Hathaway as Catwoman. Pictures of her in the catsuit didn't look pretty and bolstered the argument that she was miscast. She lacked a certain edge required.

But the best part of this trailer is Hathaway as Catwoman's real world alternate, Selina Kyle, in dancing embrace with tuxedoed Bruce Wayne. She whispers a threat to him that a storm is coming against the wealthy and the privileged that "live so large and leave so little for the rest of us." This sounds like revenge of the 99%. Hero defending the rich, villains fighting for the poor. Occupy Gotham. I was wrong. Her bite is razor sharp.

Other highlights: The masked villian Bane looks like a high-tech terrorist with his gas mask strapped over his bald head. There's a football game with a sprint to the end zone for a touchdown for life. The lovely Marion Cotillard is in it. And the batwing looks like the baddest transformer not even Michael Bay could blow up. Rises. More like soars.

Opening July 20, 2012, Verdict: Must See

Trailer Review: Immortals - Golden Boyz

It's no surprise Immortals is made by the producers of 300. The whole thing is never filmed in daylight, but inside sound stages against blue screens so warriors can be manipulated in slow motion killing people with swords and shooting them with arrows - the golden kind, like laser bolts.

Inspired by Greek mythology, mortals and gods battle it out in the heavens, seas and deserts for domination. It doesn't really tell much about what the struggle is about, but gives us quick profiles to the heroes, villains and gods in action and threatening of destruction or victory. In truth, a lot of this is like the video game God of War also based on Greek myths. The movie is in 3D, which is not a big surprise, but reminds me of Clash of the Titans which was heavily criticized for its quick 3D conversion to cash in that looked cheap when putting on the active shutter glasses. What's impressive about the trailer are the costumes. Typical for movies from Tarsem Singh, he has good taste in dressing high fashion in his films. Everything is gold or black and there's fancy helmet designs everywhere. The more I think about it, this trailer reminds me of many Italian sci-fi flicks from the seventies (Star Crash) that were full of cheese and flashy effects. Spaghetti Odyssey.

Opening November 11, 2011, Verdict: Wait for the Critics

Trailer Review: Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol - Spy vs. Spy

The first Mission Impossible was a lot of fun. Beyond all the action and effects, I thought it was special because the plot kind of made no sense. After a while, I didn't know why they were running around, but didn't care because the chase was thrilling to watch. Looking back, it foreshadowed modern action/CG pictures like Transformers which also make no sense.

Another thing that makes this series interesting are the directors. Since the first, with the hiring of Brian DePalma, they've always had someone from the interesting fringes of cinema try and raise the tent-pole. This fourth film is directed by Brad Bird, of Pixar's The Incredibles. That deft choice makes me want to see it alone. His amazing design and coherent fight scenes are a perfect choice for this movie. Cruise is the center of the franchise, and it pushes him to his action figure limits. Because he's part of a team, the films always cast well. This fourth movie has Jeremy Renner (Hurt Locker), Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead), and Tom Wilkinson (Batman Begins). They're unexpected choices.

The unique impression from this trailer is Cruise always falling. He's descending in frantic expression: shooting a gun, tumbling in a crashed car, running down the side of a building. There's a scene ripped from the first film where he falls just short of a sharp thing sticking from the ground to be saved by a wire. I don't think all this mayhem portends a fall from grace. Just an amazing ride that works hard to keep us at a high.

Opening December 16, 2011, Verdict: Must See

Trailer Review: The Debt - Mission Recall

Three agents (Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson, Ciaran Hinds) of Israel's secret Mossad go on a mission in East Berlin to assassinate a Nazi war criminal believing the mission was accomplished. But when rumors circulate that their target maybe still alive they have to retrace their steps. Using flashback, "The Debt" returns to the days of the cold war using some of Hollywood's new talent (Jessica Chastain, Sam Worthington, Marton Csokas) to retell the earlier mission as their younger selves and find out what they left unfinished. It's a generous way to put older talents in the mix with newer ones to appeal to a broader audience and the pairing is nice. Especially the great Helen Mirren with her younger Jessica Chastain who made a favorable impression with "The Tree of Life" this summer. It's always great to see Ciaran Hinds who played another Mossad agent in Steven Spielberg's "Munich" a few years back. He's one of the best character actors working in cinema today. Tom Wilkinson rounds out the stellar trio.

With a big screen adaption of John LeCarre's "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" arriving later this year, the cloak and dagger spy craft of the cold war is regaining interest. This looks like a smart piece of genre work.

Opening August 31, 2011, Verdict: Must See

Trailer Review: Drive - Change Gears

There's a lot of buzz about "Drive." I've heard it's a perfect thriller, but also an artful ride about people. First impressions of the trailer is how clunky it feels weighed down by a predictable plot. Ryan Gosling is a stunt car driver for the movies and moonlights as driver for hire at night. He doesn't ask questions which gives him risky business. But after falling for Carey Mulligan he gets dragged into her shady past which involves ex-criminals, hostages and money. Deciding to save her, he risks their life and his to make right by going after her pursuers.

Gosling delivers a voice with a quiet seriousness of purpose that makes you believe he's someone with a tortured past. This is the most complicated he's ever been, enough to give him the mystery of the lone cowboy in town. Mulligan plays the bright pixie waiting to be saved. Albert Brooks is a shocking change as a villain with a deep voice making threats you want to heed. There's not a lot of action in this trailer except for cars approaching the camera at fast speed. Most of the time is spent telling the story in step-by-step intros to protagonist, love interest, villains and the chase. At the end, I wondered what all the fuss is about and if the buzz is the fact that the cast is trying on new accents and tearing down type-casts. I hope this movie is on manual instead of automatic drive.

Opening September 16, 2011, Verdict: Wait for the Critics

Trailer Review: Battleship - Floating Scrap

CG Junk.

Opening May 18, 2012, Verdict: Skip

Trailer Review: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - Sleuthing and Slugging

The strength of the rebooted "Sherlock Holmes" from 2009 was the casting of Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law as the famous Holmes and Watson. Their chemistry was able to lift that movie through all the action set-pieces and special effects to make it diverting.

This new trailer for the sequel reconfirms their rapport, while also allowing the action and special effects to return in equal measure. What "A Game of Shadows" offers up new is Holmes's nemesis Professor Moriarty played by Jared Harris. He's someone who is always fun to watch and I think perfectly cast with his soft but raspy voice that conveys a searching and cunning intelligence. I think his addition will make this more fun than the original.

Downey now leads two action franchises that appreciate his verbal wit. In an age of "Transformers" hyper-action, this series still gives computer bits to human actors and dialogue which gives this series an elementary charm.

Opening December 16, 2011, Verdict: Wait for the Critics