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| Scene Pride and Prejudice and Zombies |
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: Burr Steers
Written By: Burr Steers (screenplay), Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith (Quirk Books novel)
Starring: Lena Heady, Lily James, Matt Smith
- Preamble -
I will admit one thing up front: I don't like zombies. As it has been well documented, I have trouble understanding their value as nothing more than a faceless thing to destroy. Where's the fun in that? It's not like a monster or something with power. It's just a walking thing that will tear you apart. It's also just not great from a story's perspective. To be honest, if the outbreak is unstoppable, what exactly is the conclusion to any story ever? It doesn't end. The protagonist nearly escapes every time only to fight them somewhere else. That's not great story telling. That's just lazier than anything else.
So, I am hoping that this will be one of the more enjoyable versions. To be frank, there have been good zombie movies, even recently. While not great, I do think that films like Warm Bodies do have their charm. Also, iZombie is a pretty fun show. I just wish that zombies would be so much more. I like when they are personable and have something to do beyond be intimidating. It's more frustrating than anything else. At a certain point, it makes for the dullest antagonist in film history. I want them to be so much more. They can be fun, but movies don't want to really explore that too often.
I don't know a lot about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. The only thing that I do know is that I have been hearing about it forever. It has felt like a novelty that I don't know that I want to explore. It's basically "x... and zombies!" What good is that? That's lazy. I could call it Pride and Prejudice and Vampires to have similar effect. For all I know, this is similar to Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Of course, that would require me seeing it to have an idea of how similar they are. I... I don't have a lot of expectations going into this. All I can really say is that sometimes I pick populous movies because I want to stay in touch. This is one of those cases.
- Dissection -
Yeah, no. This is a fake trailer right? There's nothing here that in the least bit hooks me. I would only be surprised if I didn't know that I was watching a trailer for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. As it stands, the reveal only works if you have no idea what this is. Speaking as most people likely will, there's no value in this. It looks like a gimmick that is more in tune with the parody trailers as of late. This is fake, right? I have a feeling it is.
- One Sentence Sell -
People fight zombies in Jane Austen-era.
- Trove or Trash -
TRASH
It's been rare that a trailer would be so underwhelming. I get that it was a teaser, but even that wasn't enough to make me care. This is the worst one I've reviewed since Pixels.
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