Attack of the Sci-Fi Trailers
The last week has seen a deluge of trailers
for some of next year’s big bucks blockbusters, predominately science
fiction-related and three of which representing something of a risk as they’re
original material. So how do they stack up against each other?
Oblivion
UK Release Date: 12 April 2013
US Release Date: 19 April 2013
Tom Cruise looks to further cement his
career comeback (albeit based on one big hit) by attaching himself to this Joseph Koskinski film. Kosinski’s
debut was TRON: Legacy, which earned both brickbats and plaudits but most agreed
that it featured some stunning visuals. Oblivion will likely continue that at very least but, as with TRON, the script for this may be of questionable merit. Kosinski came up
with the idea, an eight-page treatment that was turned into an illustrated
novella (the release delayed until the film comes out), but there’s little
sense of a meaty premise to this trailer.
Tom’s (as others have noted, Wall-E-like) a
maintenance worker on a deserted future Earth who comes across Morgan Freeman.
And Olga Kurylenko tells him he’s not who he thinks he is. And there are some
monsters/mutants. And Tom may be in the future but don't worry he’s relatable because he
likes the Superbowl and shoots hoops. And there are lots of BWAAAAA BWAAAAA
sounds, so you know this is big and dramatic like every post-Inception trailer.
Sometimes Morgan Freeman can be a real lift to a story, sometimes he makes
Chain Reaction; I’m not getting a hugely positive vibe from him here. Nice eye
goggles, though. And very nice design work generally. Tom’s getting ordered to
stand down. Twice. Andrea Riseborough features quite a bit, which is a good
sign, but no glimpse of Nikolaj Coster-Waldau or Melisa Leo (unless I missed
them).
This looks like it wants to be intelligent
sci-fi, which is to be celebrated. But in this trailer it hasn’t translated into a must-see factor. “Earth is a memory worth fighting for” is a wishy-washy tagline.
Hopefully the next spot will have more of a grip on the story, or make the
mystery more compelling.
Business: By the time this is out, Jack
Reacher will or won’t have become a big hit. Oblivion has about five months to
work out its marketing (provide it isn’t a stinker, in which case nothing will
save it), but right now I’d be surprised if it does much more than $120m
US/$300m worldwide.
***/5
After Earth
UK/US Release Date: 7 June 2013
Oh look, another deserted Earth movie (this
time quarantined), from Cruise’s buddy Will Smith. But is it really a Will
Smith movie, or is it a Jaden Smith vehicle, the young nepote claiming a summer
blockbuster by stealth under daddy’s star power? It’s been suggested that Will
won’t see out the film, so that may well be the case. Along for the ride is M
Night Shyamalan, who didn’t originate the screenplay but has a co-writer’s
credit (Stephen Gaghan’s presence at least suggests it may have a bit of
nuance). With this and The Last Airbender, the director has eased off on
self-originated projects; probably because they have received increasingly
mixed receptions.
So all the animals on the planet have
evolved to kill humans (this seems peculiar, if there are no humans present).
More importantly, we learn that fear is not real; it is a product of thoughts
we create. Fear is a choice. Very rousing, Will. Are these those deadly engrams
we must seek to eliminate? Whether or not Smith is espousing a doctrine, it has
that whiff.
As trailers go, it’s better put together
than Oblivion. Yet I have no interest in seeing a Jaden Smith movie, and I
didn’t bother checking out Shyamalan’s last picture. What it does with the significance of the revelation that this is
Earth is more questionable; it appears to be all about Jaden’s quest for
survival (the imdb synopsis tells us he is trying to recover a rescue beacon,
and that Will’s playing General Cypher Raige; I kid you not).
Business: Will this do well for Will? I
can’t see it making much more than $100m US/$300m worldwide, unless there’s
some added ingredient that makes it a discussion piece (the Shyamalan factor,
basically)
***/5
Pacific Rim
UK/US Release Date: 12 July 2013
More BWAAAA BWAAAA. Big robots. Big
monsters. Duking it out. It’s like Transformers meets Cloverfield. Or
something. Fanboys have been getting all over-excited by this because it's
Guillermo Del Toro directing. And I can understand that; he has a rock solid
track record (even Mimic is okay), he’s an unashamed geek and presumably this
premise is tickling an itch for many. And it features Idris Elba (although
that didn’t stop Prometheus getting a drubbing).
But I’m not sold on this, or excited.
Enlisting actors rather than stars (Charlie Hunman, Elba) can add credibility
to your project (see Ridley Scott’s 2012 film) it won’t save it if you
can’t tell people why they need to see the film. Alien life came from a beneath
the sea, a portal between dimensions? Lovecraft lives on. The premise is so
cheesy that the self-importance of the trailer makes the whole thing look no
fun at all. The robot designs aren’t all that, and the control suits’ virtual
movement doesn’t come across very well. Worst of all is the dialogue, which is
all-round terrible (“Let’s go fishing”, “Today we are cancelling the
apocalypse!”)
This could be one of those movies that the
internet goes wild for but the general public can’t see the attraction (Scott Pilgrim vs The World).
Business: I’m iffy at the moment, I can’t
see this getting Transformers numbers, or being the hit Del Toro really needs
to get In the Mountains of Madness off the ground. It may do decent business in the
rest of the world, but at the moment I reckon $70m US/$250m worldwide.
**/5
Star Trek into Darkness
UK/US Release Date: 17 May 2013
Who Benedict Cumberbatch is playing is all
everyone (everyone who gives a shit, anyway) can talk about. That, and how J J
Abrams should quit already with being such a perpetual tease. Except Sherlock is
playing John Harrison, a footnote in Trek lore. Is he actually someone else? An
agent for Khan?
More voice overs, ominous BWAAAAs and
proclamations (“I have returned – to have my vengeance”) and exciting glimpses
of things you want to see more of; the Enterprise underwater, an alien planet
with flora of a peculiar reddish hue, a provocative shot that echoes Kirk/Spock in
Wrath of Khan (hands meeting against a glass wall). And de rigueur mass
destruction.
Nothing terribly original, but effectively
brief nevertheless.
Business: It will likely build on the success of the 2009 film, that only made $128m in the rest of
the world (peanuts compared to the expectation for most films to now do the majority of their business outside the US). It will probably end up with something not too far off the
original’s $250m US tally, but what’s the ceiling on the series abroad? $250m
US/$450m worldwide.
***1/2/5
Man of Steel
UK/US Release Date: 14 June 2013
I really liked the first Malick-esque teaser;
this comes across as a little more generic, and all together more portentous
than the Reeves era (but with Christopher Nolan producing, it’s little surprise
that Clark has been dirtied up – why, he’s even sporting an unruly mass of
whiskers!), particularly with the heavenly choir accompaniment. And glimpses of
Zod and Lois (not sure about Crowe’s armour as Jor-El, but Costner seems like
perfect casting). There’s not much plot here, but it neatly re-positions the
question of how Supes would work in today’s era but I assuming that he would be
rejected.
Business: For such a definably homegrown
superhero, the films have historically done about 50/50 US and rest of the world.
So far this is being sold with finesse and care, and expectation (and the
desire) for a rebirth for the hero to take away the bad taste of Superman
Returns is high. $300m US/$600m worldwide.
****/5