BLOGS
For the staff at Movies Without Pity, there is usually only one reason to watch the Super Bowl: to recoup our gambling losses for the season. Also, new movie trailers! Granted, not all of them are first looks -- all of these films have had teaser trailers and even full trailers before -- and all of them are a content-light 30 seconds. But for movie buffs like us, the excitement of who will win the game nicely translates into excitement (and sometimes disappointment) for the films advertised.
Best: The Last Airbender
Man, we're glad to see M. Night Shyamalan working. Sure, his movies only got more and more ridiculous as his career progressed, but you can't deny that the guy has a visual flair and that The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable were both pretty damn good. Thankfully, he seems to have abandoned his home-grown "what if" scripts to pen an epic action movie based on the popular cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender. I wasn't too sure about the looks of the teaser trailer, which featured a kid blowing out a lot of candles, but this new trailer looks amazing, with battle scenes and martial arts and plenty of air-bending and fire-bending and water-bending and earth-bending, and the special effects really look top-notch. If the movie is successful, we can expect two more of these from Shyamalan, and I'm going to go out on a limb and say he'll get the greenlight the weekend it opens. Of course, looking at this trailer, one has to wonder if it will be recognizable as an M. Night joint at all, but as long as it doesn't have a twist ending, we're cool with it.
Worst: Robin Hood
When you've only got 30 seconds to sell a Robin Hood movie, what do you focus on? Award-winning actress Cate Blanchett? Russell Crowe as the doughiest Robin Hood in the history of film? No, silly, you focus on the archery. Previous longer trailers may have had the same amount of archery, but the generic battle scenes that filled it out made it look less like Robin Hood and more like Braveheart or, God forbid, King Arthur. (Yet another "before they were famous" epic.) So on the one hand, archery good; on the other hand, not going with the movie's original idea and having Crowe play a sympathetic Sheriff of Nottingham? Kind of a letdown. (Note: The trailer below is slightly different than the one that aired during the game.)
Best: Alice in Wonderland
While the excessive CGI and more-nightmarish-than-enchanting vibe make us think of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, we're still psyched to see the latest from Tim Burton, gigantic-headed Helena Bonham Carter and all.
Worst: Shutter Island
We get it -- Martin Scorsese has directed a lot of good movies. But couldn't you just pick a couple to mention, rather than a half-a-dozen? With all of those precious seconds to pointing out how great Scorsese's movies are, we almost didn't get the requisite shot of the creepy woman with the thinning hair shushing DiCaprio.
Best: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
With this video-game movie, simple seems the best way to go, since its longer trailers have only made this look like a convoluted mess. In only 30 seconds, this trailer got across the fact that Jake Gyllenhaal is in it, he has a knife that turns back time, and the special effects are jaw-dropping. We're in.
Best: The Wolfman
We've been watching trailers for this movie for so long that any trailer that doesn't spoil the entire plot for us is a winner in our book. Luckily, 30 seconds is only enough time to show us some key imagery and get us excited to see more, rather than basically laying out the movie from beginning to end.
Best/Worst: The Back-Up Plan
We should clarify -- the format for this trailer is pretty ingenious, and we weren't quite sure what we were watching for a few seconds. The horror-movie aspect of a home birth was a clever tack to take for the Super Bowl, but once we realized that it was an ad for this cheesy movie about J. Lo's biological clock, and we saw J. Lo scream and pass out in the birthing tub (ew?), we were over it.
Your favorite? Sound off below.
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What's with the Robin Hood hate? Scott has a lot more talent than Shyamlan has. Sure Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and The Village were good but come on Airbender looks incredibly stupid. As for everything else (minus Shutter Island) everything looked awesome.
I thought all the trailers except The Back-Up Plan and The Crazies were very good. I agree, the Robin Hood spot could have been better, but it still convinced me that I have to see this film. As for Shutter Island, due to the delay, we've been seeing trailers for it since August, so you can't blame them for trying to mix it up. And Martin Scorsese has earned the right to a list of his films. What about James Cameron's Avatar trailer: I think it listed every single one of his films!
I thought Unbreakable was the example of why Shyamlan movies can suck. If you're going to praise something other than 6th Sense, it should be Signs or The Village.
Honestly, I thought the Airbender trailer was much better than the Robin Hood one. Russell Crowe did the aging warrior thing with Gladiator over 10 years ago! Is he going for ancient now?
@ Tag-- Actually; "Unbreakable" was M. Knight's final lesson that you cant make an intelligent and deep movie for the dumb-ass American masses and then expect them to like it, which is why he made "Signs" next, you know something that people didn't have to "think" about because lord knows with all the tweeting and Facebook status updates we are wracking our brains trying to keep up with these days, "thinking" about a movie is the LAST thing any of us want or need right?!! *Shakes head sadly*
@Grey...Or...Unbreakable was just...not a good movie.
@ Doug...OR... you're just a big ol' meanie head!! ;p
I totally thought The Last Airbender had already come and gone. Shows how much I care about it. Maybe it's just because I kept getting it confused with Avatar before that one came out...hmmm...
OK am I the only one who thinks he's going to ruin the greatness of Avatar: The Last Airbender? I freaking LOVE the cartoon and I hope that the live action even remotely compares to it.
I completly agree with you dee from what I've seen so far it seems like somewhat decent movie but it's in no way better than cartoon not any of the actors even look a little lije they id in the cartoon and I read that shyamalan is going to cut most of the slapstick which is okay for most things except that they have a character whose likeability has a lot to do with his slapstick goofynes (soka) and now he's going to ruin that! But I'll still watch it anyway, I'm interested in how the effects will look in live action
The Village is the best M. Night movie. Is NOT about the twist. If that is all you got from the movie you are missing the point. And also, is so damn pretty that even if it was completely stupid (wich, it isnt) it would be worth it.
That said Avatar (yeah, I went there) looks so awesome I could cry with joy. Is it following the cartoon? Does that mean that Toph wont be in it? Because thats a bummer.
Ugh, the Last Airbender movie has way too much racefail surrounding it for me to even consider going to see it. You'd think Shyamalan would know better than to whitewash the casting, but apparently not.
Skip this movie and speak out for all the young Asian kids that could have had a chance to FINALLY see a hero that looked like them, but instead go back to being grossly underrepresented and ignored.
@ Billy: The Avatar trailer did! Except for that one that was a sequel to some piranha movie. That doesn't count. But yeah. I'm not in love with that technique of editing. It makes a director appear self-indulgent and distracts from what the trailer's meant to give you an idea about.
@Alfie if you have ever watched the last airbender on nick they are all white looking characters with asian dress. i think he is just being true to the cartoon.
@alfie go to the imdb.com website and you will see that its not an all white cast, it's actually a pretty good interacial cast.
@steph
The non-white cast members, with the exception of the villains, are not cast in leading roles. Go to the racebending site and read the commentary there. This is yellowface, and there are many who are extremely disappointed by that.
I am a longtime fan of the Last Airbender television show, actually, and it's pretty obvious to me that the characters borrow heavily from Asian and Inuit cultures.
This is absolutely yellowface and it has been going on for far too long.
The cast was entirely white until one actor had to drop out, then they replaced him with an "It-Kid" person of color (from Slumdog Millionaire). Which was almost as offensive because it was a clear ass-covering.
Can't wait to see Shutter Island. The book is amazing and I love me some Leonardo DiCaprio!
What did you think about the google commercial on the superbowl last night?
The Back-Up Plan ones wasn't bad at all , it was my favorite actually pretty funny.
Alfie wrote: "Skip this movie and speak out for all the young Asian kids that could have had a chance to FINALLY see a hero that looked like them,"
Ummm, did you mean Asian-American kids, Alfie? Cause Asian kids can see plenty of Heroes that look like them in Asian movies - Bollywood, South Korean, Hong Kong cinema, Japanese films, etc. Although I do think that it might actully be good for white kids to understand that certainly not all heroes look like them...
Why all the racial tension when clearly praising that steaming pile "Unwatchable" is the real crime here?
I saw the Airbender trailer before last night and I thought it was a parody movie - like those Wayans movies. It looked really corny.
First of all I don't see why it was necessary to make yet another Robin Hood film, and not only that, but ruin the story by adding cliched nonsense like "epic" battle scenes to it. Yawn.
Actually the back-up plan trailer made me laugh even though I think the movie will suck.
Wow, 2 racefail trailers praised as the "Best"? Shame on you, TWoP. Avatar: The Last Airbender was an amazing show overflowing with a cast of surprisingly deep characters who hail from an entire world that is influenced by both Asian and Inuit cultures. So, naturally, one must assume they're all white (except for the villains!). And of course the Prince of PERSIA is white. How silly of me to assume otherwise. /sarcasm
Go Google Racebending. They're much better at explaining than I am. :)
Actually, I think all those trailers were meh. Airbender looked so formulaic and the narration was every cliche in the book. Prince of Persia looked bloated. Robin Hood is basically Gladiator 2. Where was my Iron Man 2 trailer?
I won't be seeing The Last Airbender or Prince of Persia...my money is NOT going to films that whitewash leading roles. Shame on TWoP for promoting them without mentioning any of the controversy around the two movies.
I echo the sentiments of those who can't believe you guys are promoting these whitewashed, racefail movies. Shame on you.
Are you kidding me? The characters in the cartoon do NOT look white. Newsflash - characters do not have to have yellow skin and slanty eyes to be perceived as Asian. Imagine, a cartoon not resorting to stereotypical, exaggerated physical characteristics!
I'll echo the others who are disappointed that TWOP made no mention of the racefail surrounding The Last Airbender, and are actually promoting the trailer as one of the best. WTF? I thought TWOP was supposed to be more thoughtful and intelligent than this.
I can't wait for the Last Airbender. I hope he didnt take all the comedy from it, thats what made the cartoon so good.
I could care less what color the actors are.
personally i am siked to see 'The Last Airbender', me and my brother were/are addicted to the cartoon and thought it was the best that nickelodeon had to give EVER. either he ruins it or makes it even more epic, either way im seeing it at midnight with everyone i kno. :)
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How do you figure that Prince of Persia looks good?!? Have you played the game?
Last airbender= Biggest dissapointment ever.
no they dont
You actually make it appear so easy with your presentation but I in finding this matter to be actually one thing that I feel I would never understand! It kind of feels too complicated and extremely broad for me! I'm taking a look ahead on your subsequent put up, I will try to get the hold of it.