It’s All Geek To Me — Are You Ready for Some Trailers?! » 30ninjas

It’s All Geek To Me — Are You Ready for Some Trailers?!

Share on Facebook posted 02-10-11 by Dan Kaufman

As a small handful of you out there may be aware, Super Bowl XLV was this past weekend. Turns out it was the least-watched television program in history. On opposite day. But regardless of whether you were rooting for cheese or rape, we can all agree there were some pretty cool spots for a bunch of upcoming projects. Let’s go to the videotape . . .

Fast Five

Hey, at least they didn’t call it Fa5t. This is a short and sweet look at the next installment in a franchise that still has some steam even as it gets less “furious.” Looks like a good enough time, including a potentially epic battle of the bad-ass bald guys, Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson. I hear there also may be a car chase or two to enjoy, if you can get past Paul Walker’s dreamy ice-blue eyes. [giggle]

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

The POTC series is a lot more fun than any films based on an amusement park ride should be, but part three, At World’s End, was the point at which many felt the series jumped ship. I guess one’s tolerance of Johnny Depp as the perpetually sloshed Jack Sparrow will determine your anticipation level for this. The jury’s still out for me, but it does have a lot going for it, as the trailer itself points out: mermaids, zombies, and Blackbeard, played by the excellent Ian McShane. Yo, ho, ho, and all that.

Terra Nova

My excitement about a Spielberg-produced TV show about dinosaurs is only compounded by my disappointment at the idea of a Spielberg-produced TV show about dinosaurs. This spot looks cool, I guess, but it doesn’t really illuminate anything we didn’t already know—a group of travelers from a future dying Earth travel back in time to the dinosaur age to save the planet, and hilarity ensues. Stephen Lang shooting weapons in the jungle isn’t doing a hell of a lot to shake the whole Avatar flashback I’m getting, and Spielberg plus dinosaurs is sooooo ‘90s. Let’s hope there’s more to it when it debuts, supposedly this May.

Thor

I desperately want to like Thor. But nothing I’ve seen so far pushes it over the edge for me. The grand Wagnerian designs of Asgard and the Shakespearean nature of the story and characters could so easily devolve into a campy mess. There has to be a lot of grounding to the script and performances to prevent that from happening. Still hard to tell which way the wind blows as far as that in this new footage, but at least the action looks impressive. We also get what I think is the first look at Thor’s winged helmet, albeit from behind.

Captain America: The First Avenger

Holy crap! Those pictures . . . they’re moving! At like 30 frames per second! So here we are in WWII and . . . whoah. Is that Chris Evans? One of us, one of us, gooble gobble, one of us. The scrawny, pre-super-soldier-serum Steve Rogers looks kind of creepy. But I can’t tell if it’s because he’s actually out of proportion or if my mind just sees his face on that body and the two don’t compute. Aside from that, the only complaint I have is it’s too damn short and we only get fleeting glimpses of Cap in action, but what we do get looks pretty choice. The teaser earns bonus points for revealing Hugo Weaving in full Red Skull makeup, if only for a fraction of a second. Now I’m getting excited.

Cowboys & Aliens

The cool mash-up idea-turned-fake-movie-turned-comic-turned-real-movie is fast becoming my most anticipated blockbuster of the summer. Everything about this project just screams awesome. Great new footage to digest and pore over in this, from the dragonfly-esque spacecraft to the alien tether ropes, most likely included to put to rest the controversy from the first trailer when many thought that dude was supposed to be sucked up off his horse, and that the visible wire was a mistake. Throw in more of Olivia Wilde (literally, heh), and more of Daniel Craig being a stone-cold force of kickin-your-ass, and friends, I do believe the excrement just got actual.