Trailer Reaction

Yay for Giant Hippo-Pig Trailers: Bong Joon-Ho’s “Okja”

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Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-Ho is not subtle when it comes to the themes of his films, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  Snowpiercer isn’t so much an allegory for class warfare – it is class warfare, just set on the science fiction environment of an ever-moving train.  The Host is the venerable monster-movie warning … Read more

This Things I Believe In “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” Trailer (Please Hold Me)

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Today the benevolent overlords at Disney™ released the first trailer for Star Wars:  The Last Jedi and I feel it is critical that I describe the things that I saw in that trailer.  This is so other people that saw things in the trailer can read about the things that I saw and decide if … Read more

Official Teaser Trailer for Pixar’s “Coco” Melds Music, Magic, and Family

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Disney recently released the first teaser trailer for Pixar’s next original feature film, Coco. The teaser introduces us to a world full of music, magic, and spirits centered around Dia de los Muertos. In accordance with standard Pixar protocol, this teaser offers us only a slight glimpse at the characters and story, and instead envelopes … Read more

Trailer Hype: “Free Fire” and “Baby Driver” Boast Peculiar Aesthetic Gimmicks

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I’ve got a pair of sweet trailers here, and they both look like high-octane, shoot-em-up action flicks, though they have wildly different tones.  Free Fire is going to be the first to hit theaters, and features an insane collection of talent along with a humorous concept.  Baby Driver is similarly stocked, and an Edgar Wright … Read more

“Alien: Covenant” Seems to Seek Cheap Alchemy

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The  marketing team over at Alien headquarters is hard at work polishing up a turd.  A teaser trailer, a Red Band trailer, a “Last Supper” prologue,  and the latest layer of varnish, a CGI-fuelled full-length trailer that apes off both Prometheus and Alien and Aliens in a vain attempt to discover the perfect way to … Read more

A Pair of Afterlife Trailers: “The Discovery” and “The Void”

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A pair of off-the-radar film released trailers recently, and both of them appear to offer something interesting for the fan of genre film.  Each also, in their own way, use concepts revolving around the afterlife as major plot elements.  These films are The Discovery and The Void.  This will be a short piece introducing each of these films and their trailers, and offering a few stray observations about what we’re seeing (and what other people have been saying).  Here we go!

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State of the Blog – January 2017

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We’re just into 2017, and the time-honored tradition of celebrating a new year by accidentally writing down its predecessor first continues unabated.  Though the early months of the year often struggle movie-wise, there are interesting things going on.  These include a few intriguing films, the meaningless over-evaluation of Awards Season (and the vitriol it inspires), and even the beginning of the festival season.  Here at Plot and Theme, I’ll reflect backwards a bit, mention some cool things I’m looking forward to, and then set some goals for the year.

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The First Official Trailer for Jon Favreau’s “The Jungle Book” Keeps a Familiar Story Mysterious

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One of the biggest surprises of Disney’s D23 convention was the trailer for Jon Favreau’s live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book. Finally, we get to see the official trailer for this film, which is essentially what everyone at D23 already saw (though the trailer shown there was slightly different, based on descriptions from people who saw it at D23). Pay close attention to the tone of this trailer, and especially the multiple fades to black, as it makes the film look far darker than the familiar animated feature from the late ‘60s:

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If “The VVitch” is Half as Scary as Its Trailer, We’re in for Quite the Fright

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Earlier this year, the Sundance Film Festival was abuzz with The VVitch (I am totally typing it that way the whole time, so get used to it). The indie horror film sent the critics’ skin crawling throughout the festival, eventually culminating in a Directing Award in the US Dramatic category for Robert Eggers. Since then, the production studio A24 has acquired the film for distribution, and released a trailer earlier this week. It is unnerving and creepy; have a look:

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First Trailer for “Trumbo” Displays Adept Acting and Portends Oscar Glory

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A few months ago, I wanted to write a news piece about some casting announcements for the new film Trumbo, but I held off. Now, the first trailer for the McCarthy-era film about the blacklisting of the titanic Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (played by Bryan Cranston) has been released, and it looks like we’ve got one of our first serious Oscar contenders. Have a look:

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