Posts Tagged ‘trailers

22
Jun
12

Why Does Monsters University Have Different Trailers?

By Yoda808 Leave a Comment
Categories: Commentary
Tags: , ,

Don’t sleep through the latest Monsters University trailer . . . otherwise you might not spot the difference between them.

If you’re heading out to theaters this weekend to check out the new Disney/Pixar film Brave, chances are you’ll see one of the new teaser trailers for Pixar’s next film: Monsters University (a prequel of sorts to Monsters Inc). Exactly which trailer will you see? Well, random chance at your local theater will determine that. However, you don’t need to get too excited or worried about missing out on the other three trailers . . . and no, it’s not because I’m going to embed/link to all of them below.

In a really weird marketing move someone at Disney decided it was a great idea to make four “different” trailers that really aren’t so different. In fact, I’m almost positive that if you watched Brave more than once, saw the Monsters University trailer again, you probably would have thought you saw the same one. That’s because the difference between the four “different” trailers is a single line of dialogue. Other than that the trailer sare pretty much identical.

The line in question happens at about the :29 second mark when Sully pulls back the covers on Mike and he says a line in his sleep. Here are the four different possibilities that you may encounter:

“My homework ate my dog.”

“I can’t go to class. I’m not wearing any clothes.”

“My pony made the dean’s list.”

“Class president?” *laughs*

I find it really weird that Disney would create four versions of essentially the same trailer. I just don’t know what the reasoning for that is. It would be one thing if each trailer were actually unique with each one showing different footage. Hell, it might even make people interested to see Brave again knowing that they might see a different trailer (or happily surprised at the least). But to have essentially the same trailer with just this one line difference . . . it just doesn’t make any sense to me. In fact, the comedy in the trailer comes after that line making it almost forgettable.

Take a look at each of the different versions below and let me know in the comments if you have any ideas or thoughts on why Disney decided to create four “different” trailers.

“I can’t go to class. I’m not wearing any clothes.” Trailer

“My pony made the dean’s list.” Trailer

“Class president?” *laughs* Trailer

“My homework ate my dog”

07
Feb
10

VIII Trailers During Super Bowl XLIV

By Yoda808 Leave a Comment
Categories: Coming Soon
Tags: ,

Last year, my second post for our blog was on the movie trailers that came out during the Super Bowl. I thought nothing of it at the time, it was just a fun and interesting exercise. In honor of my second post, I’m here again on Super Bowl Sunday doing another Super spots post.

Looking back on it now, many of the thoughts I had then, I still have now. Is it an effective use of studio’s money to run trailers during the Super Bowl? The more I think about this, the more I have to say, I don’t think so (but then again I’m not spending the money). An added difference is that for this year’s crop of trailers, many of them have already hit the web. To me this seems counter productive as why spend that much money if you’re going to post them before the game?

In any case it’s fun to take a look back at last year’s post to see how things turned out. The trailers that had me most excited were the ones for GI Joe, Star Trek, and Transformers 2 which I gave a four or five rating to. Well, at least one of those movies turned out good (Star Trek). The rest of the films that debuted a trailer at last year’s Super Bowl turned out to be a mixed bag. Many of them did good at the box office, but were critically bad and generally bad. While the rest bombed. Only time will tell how this year’s trailers will be and how well those films will do.

The Bounty Hunter – Pregame
Excitement Level – 1/5
The trailer showed off a lot of the comedic side to this movie. However it showed a lot of stuff I’ve already seen, so not really too much excitement generated here. To be honest, while there seem to be some very funny sequences I have a feeling this movie is not going to be that great.
The Last Airbender – Pregame
Excitement Level – 4/5
There was tons of new footage showing off the special effects in the movie. That alone got me excited. Didn’t get much sense of the story in thirty seconds, but sand stopping fire, ice and water flying about . . . this movie is going to be a feast for the eyes.
Robin Hood – 1st Quarter
Excitement Level – 3/5
Some great action scenes showing off the movie. I also like how they tried to give you some sense of the story from the trailer’s format where they mixed images with text outlining what you’re going to experience. Nothing overly awe-inspiring, but pretty good thirty seconds.
Wolfman – 1st Quarter
Excitement Level – 2/5
I’ve gotta say, I was a little mystified that Universal ran a Wolfman trailer during the Super Bowl. Wolfman trailers and spots have abounded in recent weeks since the movie comes out on Friday. Although I’ve seen lots of spots, I think there might actually have been some new footage in this spot. Nothing earth shattering though.
Shutter Island – 2nd Quarter
Excitement Level – 2/5
I guess it doesn’t matter if you movie comes out in a week or two as a second February movie debuted a trailer. This one I have to say was a good take as it played up the fact that Martin Scorsese was the director and cited his previous films as proof that this one was going to be great. Martin Scorsese + scary pic = good new movie.
Alice in Wonderland – 2nd Quarter
Excitement Level – 1/5
This trailer sort of reminded me of the Harry Potter trailers in the beginning with the wording of “You have a very important date.” After that though, it showed off Tim Burton’s distinctive dark take on Alice in Wonderland and finished it up with the pig bit. Again, not that much new stuff to see
The Back-Up Plan – Halftime
Excitement Level – 3/5
When I first saw this spot, I honestly thought it was a promo for a CBS show. Then I saw J Lo and did a double take. Great way to draw everyone in with J Lo showing her “backup” guy someone giving birth. Great attention getter with it ending with a comedic line.
Prince of Persia – 3rd Qtr
Excitement Level – 2/5
If there’s been one common theme with all of the spots I’ve seen for this film it’s been this . . . showing of the epic-ness and visual effects of the movie. This Super Bowl spot being no exception. While I liked that they tried to give some plot background with the voice over, the cacophony of scenes they showed give no real hint of what’s going on with all the action.

As a whole I thought that studios played it safe this year, with some even opting not to run trailers. Noticeably absent were trailers from high profile films such as Iron Man 2, Toy Story 3, and more. I think the thinking was that studios only wanted to spend money on bankable pictures and ones that people already know about. On an interesting note, the films they did spend money on five of the eight are coming out before the summer. Who says summer movies get all the love?

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Related Reading:

LATimes Movies – Does fewer Super Bowl movie spots mean better Super Bowl movie spots?

Heat Vision from THR.com – How Hollywood Fumbled Its Super Bowl Ads

LATimes Movies – Will Hollywood Rethink Big Game Spending?

17
Nov
09

Blood Lust | Twilight New Moon

By Chi_Ho Leave a Comment
Categories: Summit Entertainment
Tags: , , , , ,

If you feel like females across the country have gone bananas its probably because Twilight part deux (New Moon) is hitting theaters this Friday at midnight. But I’m sure you know this already with every media outlet talking about it. I swear, I turn the channel and there’s an interview with Kristen Stewart, I turn on the radio and hear promos giving away tickets to midnight screenings, I open the newspaper and there’s a story about a lady that has changed her life for Twilight… it’s happening all over the world right now and its a little overwhelming.

Let’s talk facts from a female who LOVED the Twilight book series. I’ve read the series more than once (yeah yeah… OMG… I suck, whatever) and I got two of my closest friends sucked into the books in the summer of 2008 and yes, we all fell for Edward Cullen. For the record, we all thought Robert Pattinson was hott when he was Cedric Diggory and also back when he used to wash his hair. Just putting that out there.

My friends and I were naturally excited for November 21, 2008 when the motion picture of the book we so loved would be released, but when we finally went to see it, it was extremely disappointing.

Everyone and thing was florescent white (as you can see above), Kristen Stewart’s acting was terrible, they RUINED one of the most important scenes in the entire series (the Meadow Scene… so critical. I can’t talk about it. It makes me mad.), and the kids at school that interact with Bella were HORRIBLE actors. I was sure the whole fan base would be outraged… you know like how hard core comic book fans are very protective of how their favorite heroes are portrayed on the silver screen. That’s definitely how the fan base would react to such crap right? Wrong. They thought it was the best thing since ice cream… and that was when I began my love hate relationship with Twilight. I wanted a reboot! It was supposed to be so much better than that and the fans settled… I was pissed.

In December 2008, Summit Entertainment announced that  Twilight director Catherine Hardwick would not be directing the next film in the series and that Chris Weitz (Director: The Golden Compass) would be taking the reins, I became semi-interested again. What did I know about Chris Weitz? Not much, but at least a new director would bring something new to the table and hopefully, make the films a worthy interpretation of the books.

At comic con 2009 as I sat loathing Twi-hards in Hall H (especially the ones sitting next to me asking silly questions to each other like “Do you think Rob would date me?” or “Do you think Taylor will like my shirt?”), I watched the latest footage from Twilight New Moon and sighed. Chris Weitz… he sucked me back in to the Twilight universe. Crap.

The footage I’ve seen so far has been vibrant, there’s more special effects, and from the trailer, you can tell that he’s worked to keep the most critical scenes in this film. Let me also say that the story in Twilight New Moon is fantastic. The characters in the first book evolve in this story, while new bad guys are brought in (The Volturi scene looks really good) and you’ll finally find out how Vampires and Werewolves are intertwined in this series. Speaking of werewolves, can we address the fact that they are amazingly good looking… Taylor Lautner…. He’s so jail bait but damn… what a fox… I mean wolf.

SIDE NOTE: Ladies be prepared, there’s a lot of skin in this film. I recommend not letting your tween daughter go and see the movie 😉 But seriously, if you are a Twi-Hard (I hate you and get a life… hahaha, I’m just kidding… but seriously), as a courtesy to other movie attendees, please do not scream during the movie… remember that other Twi-Hards are in the theater and if they can’t enjoy the film, they may hurt you. Thank you.

Getting back to the facts, I know for sure that this movie is going to be better than the first, but how much better? I can’t say. I like what I’ve seen so far, but what I’ve learned from last year is not to get overly excited. For those of you going to midnight showings, please take pictures and send them to us at theredbandproject@gmail.com. I’ve heard that people are planning on covering themselves in glitter, which would be hilarious to see. Also, if you had any annoying theater moments, I wanna hear about it.

As for me, I’m going to wait for the mayhem to die down a little… I value my movie going experience and Twi-hards screaming and giggling through the movie will ruin it for me. Maybe I’ll go see it on Monday at like 2:30 in the afternoon 🙂

03
Feb
09

Super Spots

By Yoda808 1 Comment
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: , ,

superspots1

Being perhaps the most watched televised event of the year, advertisers know that they have a captive audience during the Superbowl–which is why you have to shell out big bucks if you want your commercial to be seen by almost everyone. What I find interesting is that rarely do I ever hear about a movie trailer as being “the best Superbowl commercial” or the most talked about advertisement of the game.

Year after year though it seems as if studios always keep shelling out their money to have trailers shown during the big game. Does this really pay off? I mean sure we had Independence Day that had people talking and maybe even the spot for the Matrix generated some buzz. However, besides those two, none have been as memorable as some of the other types of advertisements during the game.

However, maybe that’s not their goal. I mean let’s face it, if you’re going to spend this much money on thirty seconds it better we worth your while. What I think the hope is for these spots is to serve notice to everyone that “hey, we’ve got our big tentpole movie coming out in a few months, go and see it because it’s going to look as good as this teaser.”

Having said all that I thought that we had a pretty good crop of trailers that were shown during the game this year. Here’s my assessment of what I saw, about when it was shown during the game, the amount of excitement it generated for me, as well as a small critique about each one:

DUPLICITY – Pregame
Excitement Level – 2/5
Nothing here really blew me away. I liked that they played up the relationship between the Julia Roberts and Clive Owen’s characters without giving away too much of the back story.

GI JOE – Pregame
Excitement Level – 5/5
I’ve heard that this movie was in the works but haven’t seen much about it until the past two weeks or so. Needless to say I was blown away by the trailer and am now very excited for this movie. I like the semi-realistic approach that they seem to have taken to the treatment of the movie with the Joes seemingly able to accomplish military precision acrobatics. Did not seem campy at all–which was everyone’s fear.

ANGELS & DEMONS – 1st Qtr
Excitement Level 3/5
From this brief glimpse of Angels & Demons it looks as though a lot of the action from the book made it into the movie–which makes me hopeful as I thought Angel & Demons (the book) was better than the Da Vinci Code (the book). What I fear though is that Tom Hanks will still have the stiff role he had in the first one, which is the feeling I kinda got from this trailer as well.

YEAR ONE – 1st Qtr
Excitement Level 2/5
I have to say I wasn’t overly impressed with this trailer or the movie for that matter. While it did give me a few laughs it seems as if we have the same old Michael Cera and same old Jack Black together in a film. I will give it some points for having the combo of Jack Black and Michael Cera. I guess it’s playing up the straight funny man against the wild funny man angle.

FAST & FURIOUS – 1st/2nd
Excitement Level 3/5
While there was some new footage shown in this trailer, its strength lied in what made the first movie such a success: showing off cars, girls, and action! It also showed the reestablished relationship between Diesel’s and Walker’s characters which I think is a good thing.

LAND OF THE LOST – 2nd Qtr
Excitement Level 3/5
I liked how they made it look as if the trailer was a part of the Superbowl broadcast with Matt Lauer interviewing Ferrell’s character. The special effects looked pretty cool and I think that alone may draw some people.

STAR TREK – 2nd Qtr
Excitement Level 4/5
This trailer showed a lot of new footage, most of it action oriented. What also seems poignant was that the focus still seems to be on the new Kirk. This definitely isn’t your father’s Star Trek. While some die hard Trekkers may not be into all the action they’re showing, on the flip side it’s making me want to see it even more.

UP – 2nd Qtr
Excitement Level 1/5
Once again Pixar plays up their pedigree of really great movies by suggesting that UP will fall in line with what they’ve done before. Didn’t see any new footage here, with the exception of the great joke at the end with the scout losing the GPS, so it was hard for me to get really excited about this movie from what I saw in the trailer.

MONSTERS VS ALIENS – Halftime
Excitement Level 2/5
I didn’t think they utilized the 3D glasses very well and hopefully seeing the movie in 3D will be better than seeing the trailer on TV in 3D. Having said that, they showed a lot of new footage that I hadn’t seen before. These new scenes were funny and had a few good jokes.

RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN – 3rd Qtr
Excitement Level 3/5
Don’t usually get excited for Disney movies but this trailer showed a lot that I hadn’t seen. I liked how it started off by establishing The Rock’s role as a cab driver in Vegas. The basic storyline was also established in this short trailer as well with lots of effects shots mixed in to help out. Kinda looks like The Gameplan meets Men In Black.

TRANSFORMERS 2 – 3rd Qtr
Excitement Level 4/5
Let’s recap the footage they showed in this trailer: an aircraft carrier being blown up, robots transforming, and Optimus Prime fighting a huge robot. I don’t know about you but I’m definitely excited for this sequel.

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