Moviegoings

Wow, there are lots of trailers and other assorted clips of interest surfacing of late. I kept seeing them crop up and I finally decided to compile them in a single post. Enjoy. By now I’ve lost track of where they all came from, but I know I caught wind of several from LookingCloser.

First, the opening credit sequence from There Will Be Blood. Oh, my bad . . . Sweeney Todd. And I will be seeing it this Friday (yay!). Now, for those of you who, like me, have been itching to see some of the actual singing that goes on in this movie musical (boo on their marketers), YouTube is here to save the day:

And while I’m posting clips of things, here’s five minutes from J.J. Abram’s highly-anticipated (monster?) movie, Cloverfield. If you frequent the sorts of places I do, you’ve probably already seen part of this, but this is a longer excerpt than anything I’ve seen. It could be good. I like the concept, certainly, of putting the main characters on the fringe of incredible events and only showing whatever they can see.

From the realm of pure silliness comes the trailer for Speed Racer, which is being given the full green-screen treatment by the Wachowski Brothers. I could comment on this trailer at great length (is that really Susan Sarandon? wild), but I’ll refrain. The race footage looks like it came straight out of the arcade game version I used to occasionally play. I also watched the cartoon on TV when I was a kid, first because I thought it was hilarious, then because it entertained me (though it was never something to be taken seriously). From what I see here, the Wachowski’s may or may not lose sight of that. Promisingly, Matthew Fox’s delivery at the end (in character as the cool and mysterious Racer X) makes me cackle every time I hear it. Nailed it!

I’m very much intrigued by the new trailer for Jumper. Coming from the guy behind the Bourne trilogy, it looks like pure adrenaline-fueled special-effects fun, hopefully with some interesting ideas buried inside. From the realms of fantasy for kids comes a movie adaptation of Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart. It’s a book I’ve never read, but I’ve heard good things, and I always loved the idea: a man and his daughter have the ability to bring to life anything they read from a book. I’m not too sure about the movie . . . I was never a big fan of Brendan Fraser and something about Andy Serkis seems a little off (although he’s generally pretty great). A quick trip to IMDb, however, reveals a killer supporting cast consisting of Paul Bettany, Jim Broadbent, and Helen Mirren. Not too shabby.

Now we’re getting to the really good stuff . . . I’m sure everyone who cares has seen the new trailer for The Dark Knight by now, but maybe you haven’t tracked it to its high-resolution source (here). I saw it in front of I Am Legend, of course, and I think it might have been my favorite part of that trip to the theater. I’m definitely excited about Heath Ledger’s Joker, and I’m loving the Batcycle (Batcicle? Batbike? Batmotorcyclewithmountedmachineguns? Whatever, it’s cool) although I’m less excited about the explosion-to-dialogue ratio. Hopefully they crammed most of the stuff that blows up throughout the entire movie into the trailer. Aaron Eckhart (Harvey Dent) is also conspicuously absent. One wonders how large of a role he will play.

There’s also a new trailer for a movie that I’m anticipating more and more each day: Pixar’s WALL-E (and if you have to watch the Starburst Berries&Cream commercial before it rolls, I am so sorry). That little robot just makes me chortle no matter what he’s up to. He’s outrageously fun to watch, and if this summer is any gauge, he’ll be the best thing on-screen by far during the hottest months of 2008.

Last but not least (sadly, we’re just nowhere near a trailer for it yet), today saw the sudden announcement of concrete plans for a movie version of The Hobbit involving Peter Jackson. Seems he finally patched things up with New Line (thanks in part, no doubt, to the spectacular failure of a certain recent fantasy flick). Actually, I say movie version . . . there will be 2 of them filmed simultaneously and released one year apart (tentatively 2010 and 2011). It’s anyone’s guess, though, just how much of a departure this will represent from the original material. Based on what I’ve heard from Jackson (and it’s been awhile since I saw him say anything specific about such an undertaking), I have serious reservations. But, hey! This is what we’ve all been waiting for . . . plenty of time for doubt, worry, and loud complaints later. Right now, I’m just gonna bask in the moment. I’ve probably read The Hobbit more times than any other book since I first picked it up in the 4th grade. Two dozen would be a conservative estimate. I adore it.

Anyway, if you’re one for keeping tabs on official blogs (I’m not), here’s The Hobbit Movie Blog. Enjoy. And that wraps things up for this preview haul. I’ve got some movies to watch. Later.

~ by Jared on December 18, 2007.

Posted in Referrals