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.
Trailer in Discussion
Directed By: Simon Kinberg
Written By: John Byrne & Chris Claremont & Dave Cockrum (Story), Simon Kinberg (Written By), Jack Kirby & Stan Lee (Comic Book)
Starring: Evan Peters, Jennifer Lawrence, Jessica Chastain
- Preamble -
There's a lot to unpack with the latest entry into the X-Men franchise. For starters, it stands a great chance at being the last for the Marvel characters before 20th Century Fox's merger with Disney. There's no telling what their future will hold, though there's been suggestions by the likes of Kevin Feige that they will be joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe before too long. For now, the studio takes another attempt at the Dark Phoenix story, which itself was an iconic X-Men story that in some ways defined the property. While it never came to fruition, there was an attempt near the start of X-Men's first go on screen that ended up resulting in one of the franchise's first maligned movies: X-Men: The Last Stand. Can it be done any better this time around?
For starters, many would consider Simon Kinberg has had a successful run with the recent set of X-Men films, including X-Men: Apocalypse, the last to feature these specific characters. There's plenty of relief that there's reliable filmmakers at the helm for this particular story, of which is probably going to be more anticipated than the average entry. It's a bit tough to say if audiences prefer the First Class era of characters, but it's the one that's going to tell the story. Considering that last year's Logan featured a subtle end to the original cast of characters - including heavy hitter Hugh Jackman as Wolverine - there's little to hope for any crossovers to happen. Still, it's going to be interesting to see if the series can take this mulligan and do a better job with the material this time around.
For me, the tougher sell in general has been the X-Men style of film making in general. While they have produced quality movies, I have generally been disinterested with what they produced - with X-Men: Days of Future Past being my least favorite - and could do without them even entering the MCU. However, it is in hoping that the merger will transcend its cynical and hollow meaning for film as a medium and go for something more interesting. Maybe this will mean that the dozen X-Men films are now part of the MCU, or maybe it will just continue to be as good as they ever were. However, this is going to be an interesting swan song for the 20th Century Fox era, unless New Mutants eventually gets released before then. Still, its Valentine's Day release seems odd and maybe is less reassuring as to how well the film will do long term.
For starters, many would consider Simon Kinberg has had a successful run with the recent set of X-Men films, including X-Men: Apocalypse, the last to feature these specific characters. There's plenty of relief that there's reliable filmmakers at the helm for this particular story, of which is probably going to be more anticipated than the average entry. It's a bit tough to say if audiences prefer the First Class era of characters, but it's the one that's going to tell the story. Considering that last year's Logan featured a subtle end to the original cast of characters - including heavy hitter Hugh Jackman as Wolverine - there's little to hope for any crossovers to happen. Still, it's going to be interesting to see if the series can take this mulligan and do a better job with the material this time around.
For me, the tougher sell in general has been the X-Men style of film making in general. While they have produced quality movies, I have generally been disinterested with what they produced - with X-Men: Days of Future Past being my least favorite - and could do without them even entering the MCU. However, it is in hoping that the merger will transcend its cynical and hollow meaning for film as a medium and go for something more interesting. Maybe this will mean that the dozen X-Men films are now part of the MCU, or maybe it will just continue to be as good as they ever were. However, this is going to be an interesting swan song for the 20th Century Fox era, unless New Mutants eventually gets released before then. Still, its Valentine's Day release seems odd and maybe is less reassuring as to how well the film will do long term.
- Dissection -
To be honest, there's not much that's particularly exciting in this first trailer for X-Men: Dark Phoenix. There's definitely a sense of levity and purpose behind its tone, but there's also a general sense of familiarity that goes into every image. The peril has been something that audiences have known for years now, and there's not a lot that has stakes to it. What is there is characters acting out their own character arcs, of which have been done already in the previous induction of this franchise. People know who is going to turn evil and who will be devastated by this news. There's a lot that is done a disservice by audiences knowing the other films, and it doesn't help that the general structure of the trailer is to highlight the peril in ways that aren't all that interesting.
It's a good trailer at capturing a somewhat vague tone. There's enough edges that aren't answered for, and there's a sense that there will be some repenting by some characters. However, there's not much that stands out as the money shot of the trailer. There's more hype on the chance of the Dark Phoenix story being brought to life than any one moment in the trailer. There's nothing here that excites any more than the past five or six X-Men movies did. The trailer is fine at raising awareness that a new movie exists, but there's nothing here that won't sell a fan that was already going to see the film anyways.
- One Sentence Sell -
The X-Men are back, and here to tell one of their most iconic stories.
- Trove or Trash -
TRASH
It's a decent trailer with a lot of memorable moments, but the big issue is that there's nothing riveting about seeing an X-Men trailer after a dozen movies. The tricks have been done and the audience investment is already there. It's almost like the marketing doesn't even need to exist to get audiences in. Still, this trailer exists because that's what tradition dictates.
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