Welcome to the weekly column Trailing Off in which I take a look at a trailer from the past week and analyze its potential. This will be done using an obnoxious amount of analyzing and personal thoughts on the cast and crew as well as expectations. Coming every Sunday (it's called Trailing Off for a reason), I will attempt to highlight films ranging from new blockbusters to lesser known indies and give them their due. Partially to spread awareness, I do believe that there is an art to the sell and will do my best to highlight why these trailers matter or don't with approval (trove) or disapproval (trash). So please stop by, recommend some trailers, and I will see you next time.
Trailer in Discussion
Directed By: David Ayer
Written By: David Ayer, John Ostrander (comic book)
Starring: Margot Robbie, Jai Courtney, Scott Eastwood
- Preamble -
I want to thank all of you for being patient with this week's Trailing Off. As I was looking for an assignment, I was aware of the events at Comic Con. Every year, there feels like there's a big trailer that makes its way out. This year, it was the first full Batman vs. Superman trailer, which is a film that I have already done for this column. The other major two were Deadpool (which wasn't available in time for this column) and Suicide Squad. Considering their high profile stance and my passing interest in all things Batman, this felt like a good time to see what's in store from the gritty villain movie that is supposedly going to be an amazing experience.
While I cannot claim to be into the comic book culture and that Comic Con increasingly seems less and less interesting, I do feel that there's something to the press portion of it all. When it does work, it gives you great insight into what's going to happen. Otherwise, it's just nice to see people you like playing characters you like in a film you might like one day.
Still, among the most noteworthy entries this year was Suicide Squad. If you have been paying attention to the geeky sides of the internet, you'll know that it has received a barrage of attacks in the recent months. There's Jared Leto's questionable Joker design. Margot Robbie plays a Harley Quinn who is very different from her Batman: The Animated Series design. There's a lot to question just on the visuals. Of course, I am one who chooses to judge not on a series of out of context images, but the film itself.
What better place to start than with the first trailer. There was a leaked copy sometime this weekend that made its rounds. Today, the studio released an official copy, which means that I can give it a look in HD and judge it more respectfully. I am curious to see how this trailer goes, notably because its anarchic tag line to the superhero genre does feel new enough that at worst, it could just be an exploitative, violent film about anti-heroes, which are the rage anyways. I am curious to see if this is a film that will in some way revive a genre that is slowly dying in interest with each passing entry.
- Dissection -
For starters, I want to address a current trend that is starting to bug me. Can we please stop doing ballad-like covers of pop songs? It doesn't add any poetic weight to hear The Bee Gee's "I Started a Joke" played in that rhythm. If anything, it makes the general chaos on display a little more cliche. The song diminishes a lot of the appeal of what makes the trailer inevitably interesting enough to give me hope that this will be a halfway decent film. The whole thing has an irritating falsity to it that makes me wish that it had just used some random piece of classical score that didn't make the action seem so pretentious.
Then there's everything else. It establishes plot and gives us a few images that are in fact rather intriguing. I like what I see. I feel like there's going to be a large focus on Harley Quinn. Her sassy, apathetic nature is on full display. She is in almost every other shot in the back half. I don't even know what all of these images mean (that's a good thing), but I get the vibe of a chaotic film. There's explosions and a lot of anarchy that I would expect from a film about villains running rampant. I don't know what their cause is, but I do hope that something great comes from it.
Though I will say that the Joker is of questionable use in this. He is one of the more iconic Batman characters. We know that he is in this. We know what he looks like. I just don't know that holding him off until the final reveal is necessarily an exciting or at all interesting thing. He is a psychopath, so him threatening people isn't anything new or exciting. At most, we get to see Leto in profile as he dons the outfit. It does have its odd creepiness that will take some getting used to. Unlike Harley Quinn, he doesn't have an immediacy to his new look that makes his appearance fine to me.
As a whole, this is a competent trailer that at least lets me know what Suicide Squad is all about. That makes me happy that it doesn't look conventional in the wrong way. That doesn't mean that it is exempt from some cliches. As stated, that song choice was in poor consideration. It does detract my general interest. However, everything else about the trailer at least promises something more exciting than what we have been receiving. Or at least a lot of emphasis on Harley Quinn, anyways. I don't know what to expect anymore coming out of this, but it does look as good as I would have hoped.
- One Sentence Sell-
Batman villains team-up to fight crime in an action-packed ride through a Gotham you haven't seen before.
- Trove or Trash -
TROVE
Just because I am not ecstatic about this trailer doesn't mean that it does a good job of selling the film. I can only hope that as the date gets closer that we will find something more compelling to invest in from this film than cheesy music and a lot of Harley Quinn looking apathetic.
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