Just a short time after similarly DRAMATIC (!) black and whiteish teaser posters for the new Batman and Spider-Man movies arrived, posters for the two other 2012 event movies, Prometheus and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey also emerged. Each poster gives us a character's back spotlit as they enter the fantastical of their movie which awaits us too. It's easy to project yourself into the image as you walk into the bright light of... the familiar unknown?
The weird thing about event movies is that they're promoted as if there was only one ONE MOVIE TO RULE THEM ALL but they all seem so interchangeable from a distance. Maybe that's because they're always sequels so the journey we're about to take isn't so unexpected. Even Prometheus is a sequel. Sort of.
The movies all seem interchangable until the trailers arrive to differentiate them. So let's break down Prometheus and The Hobbit after the jump with our "Yes, No, Maybe So" Expectation Management System.
PROMETHEUS trailer
YES
- Love that 20th Century Fox logo... and love it when movies mess with their logo in film speficic ways.
- underscoring as threatening metronome (with accompanying flashes of visuals) is overused in teaser trailers these days but when the images have this much suggested grandeur we're okay with it.
- Ridley Scott was an art director before he was an A list director and damn does it show. His movies always look great.
- I love the deeply saturated colors that pop into the overused grayish blue on occasion.
- Love the shot of Michael Fassbender (?*) looking all guilty sitting on the edge of his bed with crumpled sheets. Shame 2: Now With ExtraTerrestial Fucking!
* Seisgrados tells me in the comments that Empire says this is Logan Marshall-Green? How can they tell? Fassy's silhouette is equally this skinny.
- What the hell is going on? Would that all trailers left this much to your imagination... though I suppose to be fair it is a teaser and many of them do.
- Some of these images are disturbing and Ridley's Alien and Blade Runner suggest he knows how to sell existential horror and plain ol' horror within the sci-fi genre.
- Whoever is getting into that space pod has a spectacular ass. Just saying. Is it Charlize?
NO
- Where is Charlize? None of these blondes look like her. If it is her why is she dressed like Leeloo from The Fifth Element? And why is whoever that's dressed as Leeloo doing Aeon Flux poses?
- Does Noomi Rapace spend all her time screaming and running away from things and feeling terrible about something she did? (if that's her voice at the beginning?)
MAYBE SO
- Where is Idris Elba? Is this like one of those films where they kill the black guy off first. That would be too disappointing.
- Ridley Scott's three masterpieces were made 20 years ago, 29 years ago, and 32 years ago all of which adds up to a long time ago, only once in a galaxy far far away, though.
- I want this to be an original but there are definite flashes of other movies cropping up in this overworked genre. I worry. Like why do certain shots remind me so much of Avatar or (gasp) Stargate and not just Alien which I believe is intentional.
- How this is or isn't connected to Alien is a constant source of discussion online -- That one room with all the pods on the ground recalls an alien egg room... only man made rather than organically birthed from a queen. Curious -- but i'd actually prefer it trod entirely new ground. There's nothing inherently wrong with franchise movies but there is something inherently wrong with only familiar franchises being made and something that feels more original would be highly welcome.
THE HOBBIT trailer
I've run out of time -- leaving the computer for an expected journey (Harry Potter singing and dancing on stage before he leave "How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" if you must now) -- so we'll have to race through this one. Which is for the best really.
All of my "Yes" is also my "Maybe So" is also my "No". I am of three minds about this project: One says "yes yes yes" for another two Decembers spent in Peter Jackson's version of JRR Tolkien's Middle Earth; Another says "no no no" because, like even the best TV series, if you stay on the air too long you totally suffer from diminishing returns and laziness and once rousing spectacles of entertainment becomes little more than comfort food for gluttonous fans; the "maybe so" is just that obviously there's a chance that it will be wonderful.
I do have one YES that is not all knotted up in confusing emotional arguments with myself. And that's the moment that Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) is introduced and they all start singing. Arresting!
Plus I loved all 58 seconds of seeing / hearing Sir Ian McKellen back in grey pointy hat, smoking on his pipe, and delivering those A++++ line readings. Love that Man / Wizard / Gay / Actor to death.
Where are you with these two trailers? YES, NO, MAYBE SO? Are you counting down the days until Prometheus (June 8th, 2012) and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (December 14th, 2012)?