After all of the publicity and the hype that preceded it, Baz Luhrmann’s larger than life and highly entertaining epic, Australia, has finally arrived. Preceeded by a wonderful trailer full of technical and editing right choices, we celebrate a wonderful, well-done preview.

The trailer for Australia conveys the general feeling that I believe Luhrmman tried to imprint in its film: grandeur. Notice the unique feeling in it, reminiscing to Hollywood’s golden years and massive productions. Although it sports the acting presence of both Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, Luhrmman decided to let the trailer speak for itself. There is almost no dialogue from the main characters and it is the music and photography that take the lead.

On that note, notice that this particular trailer uses very wide shots, giving us that unequivocal sense of the Australian outback. With cameras slowly panning to the sides we are swept into figuring out the enormous dimentions of the film. The music, carefully planned and well executed, is the carrying trail that ends with an abrupt climax.

Whatever the end outcome of the film might be, this trailer is a good piece of cinema experience.

J.J. Abrams is a sick, twisted movie genius, we all know that. Now, he has proven himself by taking the long-dormant saga of Star Trek and given it a 180 degree spin to the future. Yet, I find myself shocked by the sheer awesomness of the two trailers that have composed the film’s flawless viral campaign.

First, in all J.J. Abrams still, please watch the superb first trailer. Short, to the point, making an empahsis on building up curiosity and expectation. This trailer is unique in the fact that is provides no leads to actors, plot, development or any other film fact. The buildup serves to present in a new ligh, one of Sci-fi’s most beloved and respected icons: the USS Enterprise. Background dialogues from actual historical references to the space race (JFK’s The Eyes of the World speech, the Apollo landing, Neil Armstron and incorporating Spock’s unforgettable mantra “Space, the final fronteer”), climaxing with the classic Star Trek theme. A short, exciting piece of preview.

Enjoy (over and over again if needed)

Now, the second trailer gives us a whirlwind view of the film it precedes. In all true Abrams’ style, it gives us a feel to prior Star Trek film trailers with a new flare. Though I am not a huge fan of action-packed previews, feel free to indulge in some 23rd century adventure. This trailer ranks as one of the best this year.

Website capture of El Norte.com featuring The Following Preview

The Following Preview was featured by Mexican news website El Norte.com part of Grupo Reforma, a large national news corporation. TFP was presented in Tu Espacio section, where the best blogs, videos and user-submitted photos are showcased.

Däs Poster

OK, so. I normally don’t like to get too much into details about the trailers I review for my blog. However, upcoming holiday sci-fi remake The Day the Earth Stood Still just gave me a textbook example of good vs bad trailer editing. Trying to keep it as objective as follows, please watch the following previews and scroll down to diss.

First, watch the official trailer that was first released:

This trailer is a perfect example of what the preview experience should be. Given, a preview is designed to lure us into the theaters based on a minimal exposure to the contents of the film. Although disputed, I tend to side with those who consider that a trailer that leaves you thinking, leaves you not quite assured about what or how the movie will roll, is guaranteed to have you in queue on opening day. The trailer you just watched is close to masterpiece in this sense.

To start, the slow-mo opening, wide open shots and an almost immediately nostalgic yet eerie musical score set a pace that is not altered thorough the course of the trailer (I will get into that later). Second, this is an amazingly short trailer and as such, doesn’t give out much of the buster in blockbuster. This trailer works perfectly in setting out a vague idea of what will happen in the actual film, without giving out half of the plot, in what I call, spoiler trailers. Watch the trailer, and you can skip the movie.

Another thing that works great in this movie is the catcher. 20 seconds into the trailer, the music stops, and you open to a very wide frame showing Keanu Reve’s character strapped to a poligraph test. Notice then, that after making this break, clearly indicating that THIS IS the substance of the film, we jump back to the music score and soft fade outs. This trailer sets an omnious mood by pure editing.

Now, as all blockbuster productions, one would expect a massive display of millions of dollars worth of CGIs. Not in this trailer. We are surrounded by peripherals, random background scenes, fragments of dialogue, apparently important scenes are not presented, giving out the complete freedom to imagine just what the hell is happening. Is it an invasion? Is he the bad guy or the good guy? Questions, questions, brilliant!

Now, to close arguments on this trailer please watch the closer carefully. Keanu explains in an apparent metaphorical dilemma, dealing with life and death and the future of the planet. This scene, apparently out of context signs us off with the idea that the hero in this movie must sacrifice her life to save the Earth. However, we are cut short with no other explanation, making sure we spend at least another couple of minutes pondering the outcome of this film.

Great

Now, please watch the “international” preview for the same movie:

What’s the first thing you notice when watching this trailer, on its first seconds? It’s fast-pased, it in-your-face. We get no introduction to the main character. He could be anyone strapped in a hospital bed being interrogated. It’s all going too fast too soon, how do we fix this? Bring out the headlines. Headlines are a cheesy way to make your point clear on a trailer. A good trailer would have NO NEED for text indicating what the viewer is watching, it’s supposed to be made clear on its on.

Now, that aside, please notice the undeniable traits of a blockbuster trailer. Not even 20 second into the preview and we already know that the Earth is target of an alien attack (something you could’ve known well beforehand had you seen the original version of the film), while at the first trailer, this is not mentioned until almost the very end. This trailer is desperate to show off and it tries to captivate the pop-corn movie-goer who likes simple plots and no surprises.

Now, after that is all Hollywood. Forget a good trailer storytelling, forget establishing mood or allowing glimpses to the characters. Nope, bring out massive explosions, jet fighters, bombs going on in Central Park and huge, huge scenes of chaos and destruction. The rest of the trailer is nothing different from any other big production of its kind. Massive, high-paced, music in crescendo and then, BOOM, we come to a loud closing with the film’s title crashing on our screen.

Now, remember the last scene from the first trailer? The one that made us think a whole plot twist could ocurr in the end? Well, compare it to the details provided in the second trailer. We know that the death/life debate has nothing to do with the characters, more than it means that the alien being seeks to destroy humanity to cleanse the Earth (..if you die, the Earth survives…). We just had the whole plot given out in 1.30 minutes!

Now, I am not saying that one trailer is better than the other. Simply analyse them and think afterwards, which trailer would make ME go watch that movie?

Popcorn not included

Movie Poster

Seth Rogen is one of those Canadian comedy genius that come along not-so-often. Having all loved him in 40-Year Old Virgin and Superbad he now presents the trailer to his upcoming film Zack and Miri Make a Porno. 

Now, a good comedy trailer has to be, above all funny. However, many comedies often exaggerate the comedic traits of the stars or try to provide this overly jocose trailer experience. This trailer is not the case. True to Rogen’s own comedy style, the flow is extremely natural, telling us of the story of two 10-year roommates with no sexual attraction for each other, who finds themselves in a money jam, and decide to make use of their apparently unknown talents: producing porn.

The style of this trailer is very much like the intended product: delightfully amateur. With camera shots that seem to be recorded with home-grade equipment to an abundance of dialogue, identifies that this film’s comedic guns will be a wise-ass script and a good old serving of Schadenfreude. The moving colored backgrounds and musical score set the tune to one of the year’s best trailers. Lighthearted, irreverent without falling into Americanpieism and most of all, funny.

Enjoy

Aaaand…. here’s also the red-band Trailer to the film
Rated R

So, it’s been a while since I last saw a horror film slash thriller preview that actually caught my attention. Let’s face it, horror is a genre that has become less and less attractive in the past years. With notable exceptions such as the trailers to The Amityville Horror or The Exorcism of Emily Rose, many horror trailer producers have caught on the Saw train: explicitly gory and overindulging on sharp noises and rough editing. Enough to give anyone suffering from hypersensitivity to light an embolic aneurysm. 

Then comes along Mr. Goyer who provides us with a trailer to his upcoming film The Unborn. Without adding much to the genre on the merits of originality (the story swirls on a young, attractive babysitter who after a rough night begins to be haunted by an unborn ghost, thus sending her off into a dark journey of self-discovery to save her own life and uncover some dark family secrets) it does give out a good glimpse of a well-made and not-so-common these days horror film.

The trailer starts of with an episode that reminds us of a mix between Sixth Sense and M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs, moving on to the discovery part of the trailer, the setting for the inevitable confrontation between the star and the evil ghost. After jumping into a dark family secret which might hold the key to her ghoul issue, the trailer does exhibit a rather unique moment of genius. We see a jump from the all-too-often used sharp, nervous sounds into a completely mute scene where the actress has a vision of herself and her ghost, with a creative camera panning out we crescendo with a high-pitched scream, and then, all hell breaks loose. 

A well played trailer, we then are bombarded by visions of dark creatures emerging from the walls, somber characters with knives and raincoats (I Know What You Did Last Summer anyone?), creepy, morphing people climbing up the stairs and a brief glance at an exorcism gone bad. 

The climax on this trailer comes, as many others, with a rapid succession of frames. Scary frames in this case. However, do note that they don’t give out much to the “scary parts” of the movie as the scenes used in the trailer’s climax are mainly from 2 or 3 main scenes in the actual film. Perhaps this is all the scary there is to it, or maybe they didn’t wanna burn to much fuse for the preview. 

The ending to this promising trailer, alas, came down in flames after the cut scene (where the cast and crew are featured). Without giving into much criticism, let’s just say that the old head-falling-of-a-body scene makes for the final signature of this trailer.

Not a bad trailer, simply falling short of something that could have been much more promising. We’ll have to wait for the actual movie to find out.

In the meantime, enjoy:

Movies.

I mean, everybody loves the movies. But movie blogs are in abundance these days. I could never presume to compete with Perez Hilton or the crowd from TMZ, so I shifted the lens to those sometimes unsung heroes of film industry: The Movie Preview.

This blog will contain some Trailer reviews, giving these often wonderful pieces of art the much-owed fame they deserve. A good trailer is sometimes (and quite often the main reason) we see or don’t see a film. They manage to sum up in 2 minutes and 30 seconds, the work of actors, directors, producers, writers and caterers to come.

So, as the saying goes, sit back, relax and enjoy the previews. As this blog has been approved for all audiences by the Motion Picture Association of America.