Jurassic World Official Global Trailer Thoughts

This summer is going to be a telling summer for movie franchises that are trying to recapture the magic. Terminator, Mad Max, and Jurassic World all are trying to restart their franchises. Indy 4 failed to recapture. Terminator has failed to recapture it once already. The Hobbit trilogy was no where in the ballpark of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Is it even possible to recapture the magic? More movie franchises are going to try and recapture the magic soon, Ghostbusters and Harry Potter. We will find out this summer if it is possible. Terminator is already not looking good. But I doubt Mad Max will fail. I also doubt that Jurassic World will fail from the trailers we have seen.

Here is the trailer that dropped today!

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I felt the fear in this trailer. The first two Jurassic Parks movie had a lot of fear in them. I wouldn't call it horror just a sense of fear for the characters, fear of the dinosaurs, and just an atmosphere of fear.

First the characters. I love Chris Pratt. Probably my favorite actor right now. He killed it on Parks & Rec (which is funny because I hated his character at first). He was amazing in Guardians of the Galaxy. With the wrong lead, that movie fails. You needed someone super charismatic and really can pull the dramatic strings when the movie needed it. I also love him as Emmet in The Lego Movie. Again super charismatic in that movie too. First part of the trailer we get to see him earning the respect out of the raptors. If raptors respect him so should we. Vincent D'Onofrio makes his first trailer appearance and I like him already. I literally love the show Law & Order Criminal Intent because of him. Such a strong actor and brings so much intensity to his roles. Super pumped he is in the movie and I hope he plays a big part. "Light him up!" I have no problem with kids in the movie. It is traditional to have kids running from dinosaurs in a Jurassic movie and I am all for traditions in movies. If you like the characters, you are going to fear for them. Bryce Dallas Howard... not excited for her in the movie. She has not had good "luck" with movie franchises. She is my biggest concern for this movie.

From the trailers I have thought the dinosaurs looked good in the movie. There is no terrible Terminator CGI here. Some of the comments to the video on YouTube comment about bad CGI, I am not seeing bad CGI. I was nervous about the hybrid dinosaur when I first heard about the movie. After seeing what they are going for, I like the idea. At least a raptor/T-Rex hybrid sounds different and fresh. Speaking of T-Rex, we got a small siting of him/her and another goat! Poor goat.... I have a sneaky suspicion that the T-Rex will play a bigger part than we are seeing in the trailer. Raptor training is an interesting idea. I need to see how it plays out before I judge. I hope there is more than three raptors in the movie. Hybrid and Raptor training has got some negative comments and they mainly seem based on the fact they "created" a new dinosaur and Raptor training does not sound realistic. That is a tough argument for a movie about extinct dinosaurs that were brought back to life with Dino DNA from a sap covered mosquito with the help of frog DNA. If you have a problem with hybrid dino and trained raptors, you should have a problem with the whole concept of the movie franchise. We have not seen a lot of friendly dinosaur moments in the trailers, I hope there is some. Those were some of my favorite scenes in the first two. The other noticeable dinosaur leads into my last point.

The end of the trailer just has an atmosphere of fear. The pterodactyl attacking and snatching up the tourist with the music set a very terrifying seen. You shouldn't feel safe around dinosaurs (at least in my opinion) and that is the sense you get in this trailer. Once the D-Rex starts breaking them out, it is chaos and fear. Just like in the first one when the T-Rex busts out.

I am excited for this movie! We have not had a good dinosaur movie in a long time and this looks like it will deliver!

Batman v Superman Trailer Thoughts

Another day and another huge trailer goes online!

I think it is official. You cannot plan a theater event for a movie trailer, because it is going to leak and it is going to force your hand to release an actual good copy of the trailer.

Here is the trailer!

Just to start out, I am not a fan of Man of Steel. I could talk about why, but I think Honest Trailers does a good job of summing up my feelings. Here is a link to that video.

I am excited for a Ben Affleck Batman. He seems like a very good cast for this movie. Jeremy Irons will be a good Alfred as we can tell from the voice over. Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor I am on the fence about. I loved him in The Social Network, but that was a part he was just born to play. I am not a huge fan of the rest of the cast. Mainly because I was disappointed with Man of Steel and a lot of them are coming back.

This trailer is super dark. It looks like everything takes place at night. Everything is gloomy. I understand the idea of dark and gritty. That just gets heavy after a while, so I hope the whole movie is not like that.

There are a lot of shots from the trailer that remind me of The Dark Knight trilogy. Batman on top of the Skyscraper holding on to a pole looks like the exact shot of what we saw in Batman Begins except Affleck is looking away from the camera. The Dark Knight trilogy has a pretty unique Batmobile and now this Batmobile is extremely similar. More of a tank than a car. The whole Alfred telling Bryce something important message with Bryce staring at him with a serious face, this happened in every movie in The Dark Knight trilogy (this is pretty generic, classic Batman though too, so maybe we should give them a pass). A shot of the Batsuit looks sooo similar to Nolan's movie. It bothers me that they don't show off more in the trailer how this Batman is different. There is rumors about Robin. It has been said that Batman has been around for years. Show off that stuff in the trailer more than everything that is so similar to the Dark Knight trilogy's Batman. I did like the Alfred voice over and Ben's Batman voice.

The "Do you bleed?" line is an awesome line. It is a weird line for Batman to say to Superman. I know the title implies they will fight, but we all know there is going to be some other main villain that will unite them together aka dawn of justice. When Batman and Superman fight in The Dark Knight Returns comic, it is under circumstances that make sense for both characters. Those do not make sense based on Man of Steel at least for Superman. I hope that it makes sense why Batman would go into a fight saying that and wanting to fight Superman.

One thing I love when Marvel and DC movie trailers come out is fanboy fights in the comments section! First I think it is stupid judge them against each other. There is no reason to. Fanboys on each side are going to see both movie franchises. Second, DC has only had Man of Steel in their "cinematic universe" there is no way to tell what it will be like in the end. We had no idea what Marvel would be like after one Iron Man movie. Thirdly and very fanboy of me, I think the new Star Wars movies will blow both out of the water.

I came out of this trailer with my first thoughts of this movie reaffirmed: everything Batman related in this movie will be good... everything else will probably be Man of Steel quality. For some that is exactly what they want, it is just not what I want.

Star Wars The Force Awakens Teaser 2 Thoughts

Woo hoo! Trailer number 2 for The Force Awakens! What a great day!

Here is the trailer.

First off the voice over... Awesome call back to Return of the Jedi. I think it is Luke. Most people have referred to the voice as Luke. When I listened to it first with head phones I thought it was Luke. I thought it was amazing how his voice sounded exactly the same as in Jedi.  Then I listened to it without headphones and it didn't sounds like Luke. It got me thinking "What if it isn't Luke?" Vader's helmet, the family of a brother and sister, the similarity of what Luke said in Jedi...could it all be a red herring and someone else is saying this? "My father has it." That implies the father is alive and Vader is not "alive". Luke and Leia are not the only brother and sister ever. I am terrible with voices and matching them to actors, but maybe this is Domnhall Gleeson??? Is he Luke's son and Domnhall as an actor is trying to sound like Mark Hamill? I am not sure. Probably Luke's voice. Okay so I took a break and watched the trailer again and I think it's Luke's voice again. I am keeping my not Luke thought because that is a cool idea.  

Love the music in the trailer. Very classic Star Wars music but with a new twist. I am good at matching Star Wars music to movie scene and after listening a couple of times I cannot place it. So new music that has the classic themes in it? That is awesome and exactly what I want. 

All the visual effects look great. Practical or CGI. In 2015 you would think all visual effects would look good, but watch the new Terminator trailer... The crashed Star Destroyer looks awesome at the start. The Tie fighters have a different look. The wings almost look translucent. All the spaceships at least look CGI to me. What is cool is that they have eight month to only make it look better!

The Darth Vader helmet and Luke's/Anakin's lightsaber make an appearance. Both have already been rumored to be part of movie. It was nice to see in the trailer. It will be interesting to see how Luke's old lightsaber was recovered. Side note: if I ever get a Force FX Lightsaber (which I really should), I want the Luke/Anakin Lightsaber, it is too iconic to pass up. I am expecting on some level the villain(s) of this movie are going to be Vader worshipers or followers or something. Vader is such an iconic character that it tough to not have his presences in the movie if it is just his helmet.

The Han and Chewie piece at the end was nice. A very good line for Han to say for a trailer. It looks like they are in the Falcon, so it kind of implies that the Falcon isn't owned by him anymore? Han Solo and Falcon go together like bread and butter. The idea of a different owner is a little sad. The Falcon can still fly that is for sure. Chewie looks like he hasn't aged. The benefit of being a wookie I guess.

I want to see more of everything in this trailer. More X-wings flying around. More Chrome Trooper. More droids. More new characters. More classic characters. December cannot come soon enough!. 

Terminator Genisys Official Trailer 2 Thoughts

We got two new trailers today! Ant-Man and Terminator Genisys. One was fun and great! The other was super spoiler filled and a weird marketing play. We are going to talk about that one.

Here is the Terminator Genisys Official Trailer 2.

Wow. This trailer gave us a huge plot twist and I have no idea why. This movie has not looked great. Was the hope of revealing more would get the buzz up? I am sure they are getting some bad press for this twist and any press is good press, right? I have no problem with the twist itself, but why show it in a trailer when you lose the shock factor in the theater? My only guess is that this is not the biggest twist in the movie. We still do not know Matt Smith's character in the movie so maybe that is a bigger twist??

Casting for this movie is way off and you can tell from the trailers. Jai Courtney is not Kyle Reese. He is not even close to the actor that Michael Biehn was in the original. I read that he is not trying to be like Biehn's Reese, because it is a different movie. What? We know for a fact that a shot for shot recreation of Reese's arrival and shopping center scene are in this movie. How is that a different Kyle Reese? Jason Clarke as John Connor wasn't a big deal to me, because I thought he was going to have a small part. Well, looks like his part is huge. So... not excited for this now. Jason Clarke was kind of forgettable in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and I am not sure he can be war hero John Connor. Bad guy John Connor maybe. Also, I think his scars look terrible. Also, I feel like Jason and especially Jai are way too beefy and muscular in this movie. I know this is a weird take, but they are survivors in a Man vs Machine post-apocalypse war. You are not going to be that ripped. Are they drinking protein shakes in between huge battles? End of weird take.

The Machine War scenes look terrible. The Terminator and T2 made the war look super terrifying. This looks like a cheap SyFy movie or a cheap video game. Why are we inducing new machines in the war that are terrible CGI? I am talking about you weird machine that jumps in front of John and Kyle, better seen in the first trailer. The machines in the originals are prefect. Those war scenes from the original still freak me out because they are so real and a metal Terminator is so scary looking.

Final thought. Why are they pumping up the 1984 Arnold vs Old Arnold fight so much? We know it will be an early scene. We know who is going to win. What is going to make it so amazing? It is a fun idea and could look cool, but why was that one of the last teases in this trailer? I am not going to go to this movie to see that.

I am fully expecting this movie to bomb. In fact, right now I am not sure how it is going to succeed.

Mad Max Fury Road Main Trailer Thoughts

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This Mad Max movie is really starting to look completely and utterly insane. I mean that in a good way. In a time when all the other summer blockbusters are looking to create Cinematic Universes and highly connected and detailed stories, it is great to see a movie that is literally just going to be one massive car chase. This movie has never not looked awesome, but this trailer pushed it over the edge.

New trailer came out today. Link is here!

I watched this trailer at work today. I didn't watch it just once and I was not getting any work done after watching it. I had to get up and walking around a little bit. The intensity in this trailer is so high. I could not imagine going to a movie, sitting in my seat with my popcorn and pop, and then seeing this trailer for the first time, then be expected to watch a movie. Do we know if this is going to be attached to any movies coming out? Furious 7? I don't want to be the movie to follow this.

In the first trailers, I feel like we got a good feel for Charlize Theron's Furiosa character. In this trailer, we get a great look at Immortan Joe villain. Holy crap, he is super creepy. His whole outfit...Creepy. His voice... Creepy. His walk.... Creepy. That mask... Creepy. He looks and acts like a nightmare. That is what a villain needs to be.

Starting at the 1:31 mark, where they post "From Mastermind George Miller", this trailer kicks to a gear most trailers never touch. The music, the voice over, all the crazy scenes. I expect it to peak and wind down, but it doesn't for a whole minute. If this movie is two hours of that, I am not sure I am physically going to be able to handle it.

Everything I have seen and read about this movie is we are pretty much in store for one long car chase. Yes. Sign me up. Simple movie plot. A massive car chase from point A to point B. Chaos to get there. It seems to me George Miller is just trying to recreate a Hot Wheels chase he created as a child. I also read today (after researching more into this movie after the high from this trailer) that Miller wanted the visuals to come first and wanted the film to be understand in Japan without subtitles. If I read that Michael Bay was going to try that for a Transformers movie, I would be like "Yeah, good luck with that", but with Miller and this movie? It is going to work!

If you couldn't tell I am super excited about this movie and ready for the summer blockbusters to start!!!

Spectre Teaser Trailer Thoughts

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Bond... James Bond. Hooray! We get a Bond movie this year! I grew up playing Goldeneye. Then renting the early Bond movies and at the time going to the new Pierce Brosnan Bond movies in theaters. Then Die Another Die happened. I own it on DVD for some reason. The series needed to shift and it took a couple of years to do that. Enter Daniel Craig...

Daniel Craig's Bond run has a been pretty good so far (I would say great but Quantum of Solace happened) and Spectre hopes to continue that trend. Today we have our first trailer!

Here is the trailer. 

Very few characters in the trailer, but we can see that Spectre takes place almost right after Skyfall (which is interesting, see below). Bond looks very focused, which plays to Craig's strengths. Christoph Waltz makes an appearance at the end and no surprise it looks like he is going to deliver as the villain.

One thing that I am excited for in this movie, but we did not see in the trailer is Mr. Hinx, which is Dave Bautista's character. From what I heard, he is going to be like Jaws and Oddjob, but for our generation. I am all for this. I loved Jaws when I was growing up. Super campy character, but scary, power, and memorable. I doubt Mr. Hinx will be campy based on tone in Craig's Bond, but he should be going for memorable. Bond needs memorable villains and they don't have to be the main villain. I hope this means multiple movies for Mr. Hinx otherwise I do not consider him a memorable villain like Jaws. When you will have 24 Bond movies, to be a memorable villain you almost need to be in multiple movies just to stand out (yes there are exceptions). So I am excited for what Mr. Hinx will be!

Back to the fact this will all take place right after Skyfall. Let me paint you a picture. Imagine a great Bond film that rejuvenates the franchise. The next installment is announced, which is going be a direct follow up to that great Bond movie. This is different because Bonds are usually not direct sequels or tie too many events together. The film before was great so this story and continuation will be great, right? Sound familiar? We did this before with Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. Casino Royale was amazing. Quantum of Solace not so much. It just seems interesting to me that based on what happened so recently with a directly connected follow-up (with the same Bond actor no less) they would try this again. This is just a teaser trailer and we could find out this is going to be completely different, but I am a little bit worried.

I have a lot of faith in this movie, but this teaser made me curious though. We know Craig will kick ass and Waltz will be great, I hope the story does not disappoint!

Mission Impossible Rogue Nation Trailer Thoughts

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Movies usually do not sneak up on me, but yesterday and today Mission Impossible Rogue Nation snuck up on me. I went from not knowing when exactly MI5 was coming out to knowing when Rogue Nation is going to come out and I am pretty excited for it. I literally had/have a smile on my face after this trailer and thinking about it.

Here is the trailer. 

A trailer should get you excited for a movie. This trailer got me very excited for this movie. It just looks like it is going to be a lot of fun. While Bond is going a little darker and more gritty (which I have no problem with, I loved Skyfall), it is nice to have an action/spy movie franchise that is pretty much all about action set pieces, fun characters, and a plot that really is just there to drive the action set pieces.

One thing that MI has always had going for it is it's star: Tom Cruise. As an actor, he just makes great movies. Edge of Tomorrow (or Live Die Repeat or whatever you want to call it) was a great movie. Oblivion was a good movie. Age is not slowing him down. He is still an action star and I am glad that he hasn't stopped making action movies. I know that a lot of people dislike Tom Cruise off the big screen, but you cannot deny that he has/is/will continue making fun movies.

Simon Pegg has also been a great add to this series and really sets it apart from other franchises. He is just great comic relief, but he can also be serious. Just listen to his delivery at the 1:56 mark of the trailer. It sounds like that was unscripted; it rolls off so well. His character really is for the audience to help relate to. He is not going to shoot guns, hang from buildings, or get into a fight. He is there for the ride (and computer skills) and we are with him. Good humor in an action movie is really under appreciated.

As for the signature action set piece? That is featured in the poster and at the end of the trailer and I love it. Is it at all possible? Absolutely not, but who cares? There was crazy stuff in 1-4 that was not possible (you could say Impossible ;) ). Embrace the crazy action set pieces. Fast & Furious franchise is doing this too and I love that as well (although they are really starting to push my limit, which is driving a car out of a building into another building and ejecting from the car...really?). I am also glad Rogue Nation's signature action set piece will not feature a building. I believe 2, 3, and Ghost Protocol all had signature building action set pieces. Not that I don't like Ethan Hunt hanging from a building, but let's shake it up and have him hanging from a plane. I already am eager to know why the hell he is hanging from that plane and how is he going to get in it!

This summer is going to be an intense movie summer before really knowing what Rogue Nation was. Now that we know... Get your popcorn ready and buckle up for July 31st!