Tom Jolliffe on 2017’s blockbuster slate…
With 2016 drawing to a close and a new year chock full of mega budget films on the horizon, Hollywood’s preferred formula for success is the same as it has been for at least 10 years (probably a lot longer). It almost seems hard to think of a tentpole film coming out that isn’t a sequel, reboot, or adaptation (of a kids book or pop culture phenomenon). So I’m not going to sit and point to this as something that will surprise people. It’s just the way it is at this particular juncture in cinematic history. Times always change of course, though I suspect this particular preference will continue for a few decades yet as the prospect of originality becomes ever more distant and the gap between small indie features and the mega budget film widens further (and the middle ground becomes ever more dry of productions).
We’ve recently been treated to a barrage of trailers to tease what 2017 has in store. That’s standard for the festive season. It’s prime time to release a trailer to tease what the big boys have on offer next year. Firstly though, lets look at 2016 thus far. Call me an old git or a moaning sod, but frankly the big screen output bored me. I find myself at 35 leaning more toward indie productions that strike a chord, or occasionally arthouse but I do still enjoy a big screen outing, and sometimes you just want to see $200 million explosion fest. A bit of spectacle doesn’t hurt and I don’t wish to resign myself to looking in the mirror every time a new tentpole flick is due for release to exclaim “I’m too old for this shit.” I still find my own flatulence amusing. This isn’t about maturity or growing out of certain films. Were that the case I wouldn’t be able to endlessly revisit certain films I grew up watching (and I fully appreciate the power of glossy eyed nostalgia can skew one’s opinions on certain things). What this is about is a production machine that seems to regurgitate the same thing over and over.
I felt this year lacked anything particularly special with the blockbusters (I am still waiting to see Rogue One however). Recent years have done to be honest. The last two tentpole films I felt had something a bit special about them were last year with Mad Max: Fury Road and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Were both a tad overrated? Yes of course. Were either particularly original? Not particularly. The Force Awakens if I’m being brutally honest was merely A New Hope repackaged, but I loved it. Nostalgia played a big part, but at the same time it was great fun, involving and despite a lack of a memorable villain it really delivered what fans wanted (for the majority). As for Mad Max: Fury Road, this was not only an example of a perfect reboot and a masterpiece of simplistic spectacle, but lets look back at the trailer. The marketing for Fury Road was superb. The trailers exciting, enticing and gripping. Take…my… fudging money!!. My issue with Hollywood right now isn’t merely the final product, but I find the trailers completely dull too (in the vast majority).
To me, almost to a film, the trailers lay out exactly what is in store (“well duh” you might say). Okay, so the trailer has to do this to a point, but it seems to go further these days. Trailers have become formula. You have the breezy, jovial action trailer. This may sell the quippy blockbuster. You’ll see this a lot with Marvel. There’s the grimly intense trailer (often with excessively loud sound and the Hans Zimmer-esque “BWAAAAAAAH”). Let’s call this the DC trailer. There are other types and crossover, but also you get a sense from a trailer alone what the quality of the film will be like. Lets face it, you check a comedy trailer with not a single laugh and you can assume the final film will be just as lacking. It’s rare a shit trailer will surprise with a really good film (Paddington was one example that appeared to have “subpar Brit kids adaptation” written all over it but ended up being utterly charming). The opposite used to be very common, but less so recently. If a film is a Turkey, the studios struggle more than years past, to extract a decent trailer from the detritus. Suicide Squad had trailers which promised more than what was delivered, that said, unlike some I didn’t think the trailers were all that brilliant and never expected something genre redefining.
So lets look at a few of the recent trailers. It’s been far, far too long since we’ve had a Spider-Man reboot, so with that (and with thanks to Captain America: Civil War for setting it up) we have the new Spider-Man: Homecoming to look forward to. Now I’ve spoken many times about my growing indifference to Marvel. I enjoy them as disposable entertainment, but never quite get how they end up in excess of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes or firmly ensconced in the IMDB Top 250. For me they’ve become specialists in the solid three star film. Fun, breezy, good action, but they have their formula and almost never shift from this. Their major exception (to a point) is Guardians of the Galaxy and I’ll further add that the trailer of the second one, I actually really enjoyed. It’s not original but it’s quirky, very enjoyable and great fun whilst expanding the universe further. Spider-Man: Homecoming to me, is sold as more strictly Marvel formula. There’s nothing new. The Marvel outlines are there and may be coloured in a slightly different way each time (and some will stay within the lines better than others) but it looks entirely formulaic, predictable and if I’m being brutal, a little lazy. Does it look fun? Okay yes, and it looks like another solid three star special, but nothing more and the constant interconnection between franchise characters in the stand-alones is becoming a little forced and tiresome, and also only ends up making the big Avenger movie every few years, a little redundant. Plus eventually logic must lead one to ask just why every year there’s a world ending event in motion but most of the Avengers take a holiday whilst a couple deal with the latest emergency.
I don’t want to just groan about Marvel though. I’m not a big fan and whilst vastly overrated and completely hollow, their formula is probably as successful as it gets in the tentpole arena. DC have persistently failed by failing to live up to “apparently” loftier philosophical ambitions, maturity and intensity. All they really did was sap all the fun out of what should be a fun genre. Beyond Marvel and DC, next year delivers another Fast and Furious film. The Fate of the Furious gives us a trailer that basically says little more than, “We’re going to do the same thing, one notch up.” It was the same last time, and the time before, and…(you get the picture). A Fast film needs to be fun and it needs to be insane. It also needs (among a shitload of setpieces) a big standout stunt moment. Evidently the big money shot moment for the next Fast film will involve a submarine vs car chase. It’s ludicrous but they’ve sold me on it, as they do each year (well…since Dwayne Johnson joined the crew). I’ll be there. That said they know the films are dumb. They make no bones about it and are unapologetic about it. Switch off the brain and enjoy. You know what you’re going to get. They’ve got my arse on a seat, fair enough, but I’m not blown away by any stretch.
Another reboot is on the way with Tom Cruise in The Mummy. Well that looks atrocious frankly. From sub-par visual effects (and visuals) to a trailer lacking in hooks or interest, it looks like a flop in the making for Cruise. Consider me unsold on that one, as much as I like Cruise. War for the Planet of the Apes looks suitably intense and spectacular but does it look a little bit too relentlessly grim for a summer spectacle piece? I enjoyed the last film and it rode that line right on the edge, but perhaps it’ll cross it this time, whilst for my book it’s lacking in a bit of Gary Oldman class, and from his intense stares to shaving his head with a hunting knife, Woody Harrelson’s villain just seems hackneyed.
There are more trailers. A new Christopher Nolan film (Dunkirk) is also due out that will undoubtedly be crafted with great care, attention and visual aplomb, but still doesn’t look a patch on Saving Private Ryan. There’s a needless Baywatch reboot that looks like it’s going for the Jump Street approach with half a heart and a third of the wit, but may still prove vaguely watchable thanks to Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron. You can almost see the Rotten Tomatoes consensus and score already. To me it screams “wait for Netflix when you’re bored and want a time passer” but a lot of these trailers do.
I suppose given that trailers quite successfully deliver what the film promises (on the most part), does the sore lack of really good trailers mean that we’re in for a predictable and mundane 2017 of big screen offerings? To me it seems that way. There’s not a single trailer that widens my eyes anything close to the way Mad Max: Fury Road did. I really looked forward to that from the first to the last trailer. It looked special and the film proved so. Action shots looked genuinely breathtaking and not merely because of an eye-catching effects shot, but because the promise was made for inventive and heart stopping stunt work, which George Miller duly delivered. From this year only a few trailers reeled me in, including some of the latter Rogue One trailers (and the consensus suggests, delivered the goods).
So what do you think? Which trailers set your pulse racing (if any?). Which look like guaranteed stinkers? These things are powerful tools and a good trailer can make the difference between success and failure. Just ask Paul Feig, whose Ghostbusters reboot failed from the word go and the trailers were terrible (though the final product, surprisingly, was closer to mediocre). Should I be cartwheeling with excitement at the prospect of what 2017 has to offer? I just see a correlation now between largely lacklustre trailers which eventually lead to largely lacklustre films. Fair enough they don’t promise more than we end up getting (for the most part) but we movie goers need to be demanding more and studios need to deliver more.
Tom Jolliffe
