GeekOut: Trailers Galore

So if you like blockbuster movies, then last week must have been like Christmas for you. Marvel dropped a new Ant-Man trailer that helped get people interested in the movie and Fox released a new Fantastic Four trailer that continued to show that Fox is starting to understand how to make comic book movies. Those two trailers would have been enough, but we got a new trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens (TFA) and the first trailer for Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice (BVS) as well.

Lets look at TFA first. The trailer showed fans just enough without giving away too much plot wise, but people have already started examining the trailer to see if they can figure out the story for the movie. One of the biggest things that fans rejoiced about was the use of practical effects. From the day that J.J. Abrams was announced as director for the film, he has preached that the film will use practical effects as much as possible. This notion is stemming from the fact that the previous three films that were released were CGI heavy, to the point that whole sets were created in post-production. It just didn’t look right and it wasn’t fitting of the Star Wars franchise since the original three films used practical effects the majority of the time.

The trailer focused heavily on new cast members, Oscar Issac, Jon Boyega, and Daisy Ridley. The trailer suggests that while Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher are all in the movie, the focus will be on these new members and their respective characters. In fact, the only original character that appears in the trailer is Han Solo and its only for a second or so towards the end. I like the fact that Luke and Leia are absent from the trailer. Nostalgia is nice, but in order for Star Wars to be successful, a new group of characters that fans can fall in love with has to be established. The only true reveal in the trailer is that Jon Boyega’s character Fin, is at one point in time a Stormtrooper, but for some reason he leaves the Empire.

Besides the new heroes, the trailer shows just how much respect J.J. Abrams has for the property. He keeps true to the theme of family and the villain is once again a helmet wearing Sith Lord. Abrams even reenacts the scene where R2-D2 peers around the corner with the adorable new droid BB-8. While it’s clear that he respects the history of Star Wars, TFA does have a fresh look and feel to it that should hopefully help it stand on its own by the time this new trilogy is done. December can’t get here soon enough.

Warner Bros. teased a teaser trailer for BVS, stating that fans will be able to watch the teaser at an IMAX theater in a video that was posted online. Unfortunately for Warner Bros. someone leaked the teaser by filming it on their cell phone and releasing it onto the internet. After playing whack-a-mole on various video websites, Warner Bros. decided to just officially release the trailer for everyone to see. I’m personally not the biggest DC Comics fan, but I did like some of what I saw in the teaser. First and foremost, I like the fact that people are weary of Superman and is real intentions. It makes it realistic and he isn’t some knight in shining armor. Hell, Superman even killed Zod at the end of Man of Steel, which I’m sure will play a big part in people’s fear of him.

The statue with the words false god written over it was a nice touch. The other thing that appealed to me in the trailer was the ending shot that featured Batman threating Superman. I’m not a fan of how dark and moody the trailer was. Visually the trailer had a lot of nighttime in it, which I understand when it comes to Batman, but even the one scene with Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne was very dark. I also understand that Warner Bros. wants their DC Comics movies to be dark and ultra-realistic, but if this universe will be introducing both Flash and a reboot to Hal Jordan’s Green Lantern, both of which are humorous characters then I’m a bit worried. Overall though I’m really curious to see the final product.

I’m Out!!!