Trailing Off: Comic Con 2018 Edition

Jason Mamoa in Aquaman

Welcome to the sporadic 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. 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.

Over this past weekend, the annual San Diego Comic Con happened and it produced a lot of anticipation for upcoming pop culture events. One of the biggest things that happened was the release of new trailers for upcoming films. This year was no exception, with five specifically geared towards 2018 and 2019 film releases like Aquaman, Shazam!, and the M. Night Shyamalan film Glass. The following is a rundown of those trailers, including some thoughts on whether or not they're up to par.

Glass

One of the most anticipated trailers of the group was from a superhero franchise that didn't come from comics. Last year, M. Night Shyamalan did the impossible in revitalizing his career with Split: a horror film that also served as an unexpected sequel to Unbreakable - one of his career bests. With Glass, he tops a trilogy with three of his more iconic characters, but the question is how. Split had the ability to be subtle and hide its intentions underneath a unique premise and a very fun James McAvoy performance. There's plenty to like here, especially in seeing these three characters team up in meaningful ways. However, what is really going on here that's making the team-up any more exciting? It has everything that you'd expect, but hopefully there's more mystery than seeing McAvoy and Samuel L. Jackson team up to fight Bruce Willis. It's a good trailer, but it's a bit underwhelming at giving enough to raise excitement for this film than the final minutes of Split did.

Trove or Trash: Trash

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

At this point, everyone knows what to expect from a Harry Potter franchise trailer. It has the whimsical music that we associate with the series. It has the unique artwork and character designs, which actually look really fantastic this time around. As a whole, it expands upon the first trailer with some intriguing ideas that look to be a lot of fun. In that way, it's a very good trailer that only raises curiosity for a film by giving more story (and sadly more Johnny Depp) while recognizing the humor and history of this world. It's more of the same in a sense, but it's also more in the right way.

Trove or Trash: Trove

Shazam!

Of every trailer that came out of Comic Con, the easiest breakout was Shazam!, in part because nobody going in probably cared about a Shazam movie. While that's the major reason, it's also peculiar given that it's the other D.C. movie at the Con, and it's also tonally sillier and maybe a bit more retro in a lot of the best ways. It's the story of a boy who controls a superhero, and it's all sorts of fun if viewed as a family movie. It looks to be going after a friendlier audience, and it may be the antidote that audiences need after films like Aquaman find the dour limitations of the medium. With that said, it's goofy enough that it might just work. The only concern is that since Shazam!'s other name is Captain Marvel, what are the odds that it's all just a cynical move to compete with Marvel's Captain Marvel? It doesn't seem that cynical, but there's still room to be proven wrong.


Trove or Trash: Trove

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Another highly anticipated trailer is this one for the Godzilla sequel. While I will confess that I really like that film, there's just something underwhelming about this one. Much like Glass, part of its charm is lost because there's more beauty in mystique than giving destruction up front. The idea of seeing Godzilla blowing into the sky feels like a deceitful element for a teaser, and the choice to have Debussy's "Clair de Lune" play over it may be meant as a classy touch, but it only makes it seem a bit sillier and pretentious, especially given the unfortunate trend of slow covers of pop tunes in recent years. It feels a bit hackneyed, and it only makes the whole thing feel a bit more underwhelming. It may look decent as a Godzilla movie, but it has too much going on to raise intrigue for the film besides pointing out that the cinematography is, at times, pretty great.


Trove or Trash: Trash

Aquaman

After the D.C.E.U. finally hit a wall last year with Justice League, there is a good sense in thinking that they'll revamp their approach to the movies. It shows extensively here in ways that are both great and awful. For starters, Jason Mamoa's buff underwater dude routine is far from the vision of a blonde-haired guy wearing orange, and it's tough to fully think it makes the film seem cooler. Also, Mamoa is maybe a bit too stagy to be fully effective as a lead. Yet the film feels like it'll be a lot of fun in ways that are both inventive (think Wonder Woman), but also in its poor attempt to make one of D.C.E.U.'s least essential characters into something cool and trendy. Still, it continues D.C.'s run of premiering trailers at Comic Con that actually look kinda cool for films destined to let us down. Still, it's a fascinating hit and miss trailer that creates a world that is maybe too good to be true, but also knowingly stupid going in. 

Trove or Trash: Trove

Best: Shazam!

Worst: Godzilla:: King of the Monsters