Apes, Vultures and a Scary Ass Clown - Trailers of the Week Reactions and Reviews!

So this week was CinemaCon in Las Vegas, which is one of the many conventions through the year where the various Hollywood studios try to be the coolest kid in the playground and show off their various projects coming up through the year. What does that mean for us? Well, lots of trailers! Good and bad, but still lots of trailers! First off, I'm not going to be talking about Justice League here, despite my superhero movie love. The reason? Because it's an oversaturated topic and, even though all I do is talk about oversaturated topics, I don't like to feed that idea. So, there were 4 main trails to stem from this convention so far, so let's jump right in!

Ferdinand

Bet you didn't know this movie was coming out? Me neither, but apparently it is. There's honestly not much to say here. This is the latest effort from Blue Sky, the company behind the awful Rio movies and the in my opinion not great (although this may prove controversial) Ice Age 5-movie series. From what we've come to expect from this company, it just looks like more of the same. The animation is nice, but there is something incredibly off about the voice work being provided here and the story looks like it is going to be incredibly clichéd, and somehow entirely nonsensical at the same time. Not in the way that animals can talk, but in the sense that I guarantee this character goes from not wanting to be a fighting bull to being all for it in the space of 3 scenes. This is also perhaps the worst music editing for a trailer I've ever come across, and I mean ever. The trailer is cut incredibly sloppily around Ed Sheeran's "Castle on the Hill", and it cut incredibly awkwardly, not to mention that the song choice makes no sense. Ultimately, not a lot of good comes from this trailer for me except the laugh I got when John Cena's name popped up on the voice case. Obvious stunt casting, but funny stunt casting nonetheless. Not to mention, this movie is coming out in December, 3 days before a little independent project called "Star Wars: The Last Jedi". Sure this one will do swimmingly at the box office then.

Release Date: 15th of December, 2017

Starring John Cena (yes, really), Kate McKinnon, David Tennant, Bobby Cannavale, and Gina Rodriguez

It

The trailer game now steps up quite a bit as we turn to 20th Century Fox's trailer for the week, the remake of Stephen King's "It", made iconic in the 1990s by the original TV mini-series and Tim Curry's performance as the creepy (but hilarious) Pennywise the Dancing Clown. I had my worries for this remake before seeing this trailer. Would newcomer Bill Skarsgård's performance live up to Curry's? Would it be scary? How much would be changed? Well, after seeing this trailer, I think we all had one thought: this looks scary as all hell! Ultimately, this looks very different to the original, with a much more bleak colour palette, and the extension of Pennywise's wrath to the adults of Derry, not just the children. Pennywise himself also seems to be much deadlier and more physical in this version. Whereas Curry's version seemed content to play mind games with the children for a while before striking, this Pennywise seems constantly hands on, striking at the minds of the kids with their worst fears, and that, along with his intimidating physical appearance, promises to make this remake a more tense and scarier version than before. The only thing I didn't like about the trailer was the predictable jump scare ending it had. This seems far more clichéd than the rest of the trailer, which built atmosphere and tension. I have my prediction that will not go as the trailer might make it appear, and Pennywise will have some trick up his sleeve, but we'll see. All in all, an encouraging first teaser for the movie.

Release Date: 8th of September, 2017

Starring Bill Skarsgård, Jaeden Lieberher, Sophia Lillis, Steven Williams, Finn Wolfhard, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Wyatt Oleff, and Lack Dylan Grazer

Spider-Man: Homecoming

OK, I'm not talking about Justice League here, but I'm not going to get through this set without one superhero movie, much less my most anticipated Marvel movie of this year. There are no two ways about it: this looks like the best Spider-Man movie we could have asked for. This is exactly what the character needed: an overhaul on the high school elements of the character's backstory, with more emphasis on the hour of the character. Tom Holland is perfect for this character, and the rest of the cast looks spot on as well. Michael Keaton as the Vulture looks like a suitably intimidating villain compared to how some have portrayed the character in recent comics, and he seems to have a genuine motivation in this movie. His hatred for Tony Stark seems like it will have some emotional resonance to it, allowing us to connect with this character, hopefully along with the rest of his junkyard crew, on a deeper level than any other Marvel villain before. Pretty much every other aspect of the movie from a filmmaking perspective seems on point as well, from the effects (just look at Vulture, again) to the cinematography to the set and costume design. Probably the big problem with the trailer is that it perhaps shows too much, almost like it shows the movie from start to finish, including the action sequences in chronological order. Hopefully this isn't a similar case to "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" where we've seen the movie going in, but, overall, I'm very excited to see this one.

Release Date: 7th of July, 2017

Starring Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Laura Harrier, Jacob Batalon,  Zendaya, Marisa Tomei, Donald Glover, Jon Favreau, and Robert Downey Jr.

War for the Planet of the Apes

Now we come to the best trailer of the week, and honestly of the entire year so far. The rebooted Planet of the Apes series has been a prime example of how to do a rebooted franchise right, and this new movie looks to be continuing the trend. From this trailer, this is an angrier, more brutal Caeaer than we've ever seen before, but equally the character is backed up with the same emotion than Andy Serkis has always brought to the character. On the opposite side, Woody Harrelson is a perfect human counterpart to Caesar, once again bringing an interesting moral and philosophical argument into the mix of the plot, but without the possibility of peace that we always felt with James Franco and Jason Isaacs in the previous movies respectively. The action also looks incredible as always, with the Caesar's group now facing both Harrelson's regiments and the fragments of Koba's followers from the last movie. The setting is incredible, with the snow draped mountain providing a different, artistic setting to the franchise. All in all, I cannot express how excited this trailer makes me. It makes none of the mistakes a trailer, such as those above, might make. We don't see the whole movie, the cast and plot are spot on, and it seems to avoiding stereotypes throughout the whole movie. Roll on July!

Release Date: 14th of July, 2017

Starring Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Steve Zahn, Karin Konoval, Terry Notary, Judy Greer, and Amiah Miller