Okay, my “don’t watch any more trailers!” phase lasted about two whole months or so before I started getting bugged by a few folks to, you know, go watch some trailers. I really didn’t want to because in my mind, they make me less likely to want to see a film thanks to too many of them being more or less edited in such a similar fashion that they tend to blend into “CG… or not CG” affairs with performance a secondary consideration. But that’s just my more jaded take. That and hey, I find seeing films totally cold makes them a lot more enjoyable.

In any event, I finally sat down and caught a few trailers for upcoming or already released films and as predicted, liked a few and didn’t like others. Here are a few I liked:

Underwater:

Okay, I’ve liked seeing Kristen Stewart really getting into some roles where you forget she was in all those Twilight films, so this not quite new (it was supposed to be released in 2017) 20th Century Fox release has my interest piqued. There’s an ALIEN vibe here that I like but the film seems to touch a few bases I hope get tackled well. It certainly seems to be more action-oriented than Ridley Scott’s 1979 film, though. But then again, modern trailers tend to make everything in a genre look like it’s going to pack in endless action scenes. I’m hopeful this one explores more than expected and can stand alone without a need for sequels galore. We shall see, of course.

The New Mutants:

I saw a trailer for this, what, two years ago? It seems the film got quite delayed for some reason (Reshoots? Marketing issues?). But this new trailer for the long in production film still comes off nicely. “How much Sienkiewicz” has been my major concern from the start (I loved LEGION and it’s weirdness when it emulated his art style). The casting here seems perfect, but I sure as hell don’t want to see the actors after so long a production doing mandatory cheery interviews about the film because I’m sure that it’s going to be far from what was intended from the start of the project.

If test audiences didn’t respond well because they didn’t like the surreal stuff and “helped” mold the film into yet another mainstream horror flick that just happens to have Marvel mutants in it, I’ll be disappointed but will watch this and wonder what could have been. The jury is out for me, but I’m intrigued enough to be slightly hopeful the results are worth all the delays.

Parasite:

This trailer got me thinking about director Kim Ki-young’s savage and masterful 1960 film The Housemaid (see it, please, it’s incredible), which was remade back in 2010 by director Im Sang-soo (it’s quite good as well). It’s been on my WATCH THIS list for a while, but it’s moved to my BUY THIS list because the people I know who’ve seen it said it was spectacular. And I surely don’t mind subtitles at all, as I can rattle off a few dozen movies I’ve seen that brought me a lot of happiness and knowledge and good times. This comes to Blu-Ray later this month, so it’ll get got as the kids say. I can’t wait.

Gretel and Hansel:

Well, this took me by surprise (Orion Pictures logo and all), so I’m welcoming it with open arms. It looks like a quite Grimm (hee) adaptation of the classic tale with a nifty Tim Burton-esque vibe, so that’s a plus. Actually, having Alice Krige as Holda, the witch here is even more fantastic news, so we’ll see how that goes and smile when it’s a stellar performance. I don’t mind at all the title change from the old tale as the age difference between the actors means Gretel will be a focal point as a character, which is good.  That and this will make up for that horrible witch hunters from from a few years back, I’d say. Go read the original story while you want for this to come out in a few weeks, I say.

Wonder Woman 1984:

The funny thing here is my FIRST thought was “Okay, how much did Warner Bros. pay New Order for using that classic some and did the band work on the remix?” This does look pretty awesome and I’m liking the TV-style vibe from the trailer. All I want to see is a Lynda Carter cameo somewhere and I’ll be happier. I actually didn’t want to watch this trailer, but it’s actually fine in that it doesn’t spoil anything other than this will be a guaranteed hit and maybe even more so than the first one for the nostalgia theme alone. That said, I kind of want a vintage Electra Woman and Dyna Girl to pop up as a surprise in this flick. That’s not going to happen, but one can dream, right?

Okay, I’ll stop here for now. I think there are a dozen or so more trailers that caught my eye, so maybe we’ll continue this at some point.

-GW