The movie trailer for Punisher: War Zone was released a few days ago. Strangely, when I went and saw The Incredible Hulk, neither it nor The Dark Knight played before it, though I’m guessing most theaters got a whiff of it.

The teaser trailer is pretty good considering the quality of the movie, which looks questionable at best. The marketing department has done a good job of building an action-packed, gun blazing, exciting teaser trailer, but Punisher: War Zone does not have me begging for more. I’m sure it will be mindless fun, but the action just screams of Hitman, which was all style and not much substance. Seeing Frank Castle spin around on a chandelier firing dual pistols means fun action, but not necessarily good action. Throw in a really bad one-liner at the end and we have ourselves a problem, folks.

Maybe I’m being unfair to Punisher: War Zone, but this looks like a really good teaser trailer for a not-so-good action movie.

I recently watched the new movie trailer for Tropic Thunder, starring Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black. Surprisingly, I think this movie looks pretty damn funny.

I’ve grown tired of Ben Stiller, and, after his last God-awful film, The Heartbreak Kid (honestly, one of the worst comedies ever), I had really lost faith. However, Tropic Thunder looks like a whole different can of worms. For one, it’s more of an ensemble bit, which is nice, and two, the movie looks not unlike Hot Fuzz is some ways or another. The movie is going to have a ton of action, some pretty good special effects and a lot of jokes.

After all, the plot of the movie is that several actors who think they’re filming a movie get involved in a real Asian conflict; in other words, it’s like Platoon, only funny. The highlight of the trailer: Robert Downey Jr. gets an experimental surgical procedure to play his part – he dyes his skin black to look like a black man. How is that not funny?

Overall, I think the trailer’s very effective. It starts off looking like a legitimate action/war movie, complete with 60’s music, crashing helicopters and huge explosions. From there, it gets funnier and funnier as it goes along. I’m definitely looking forward to Tropic Thunder.

If you’re any kind of comic book fan, you’ve already checked out the spanking new movie trailer for the upcoming Iron Man movie. All I can say is: this looks good, but not that good.

Once again, the teaser trailer rocked; the movie trailer just underwhelms a little bit. The teaser trailer was very serious and action-oriented, whereas the Iron Man movie trailer has a lot more humor and silly stuff. Not exactly the kind of things I like to see.

That being said, the comedy in Iron Man is pretty funny. Tony Stark’s suit fails on him mid-flight, and he goes crashing through a roof and into an expensive car. Gwenyth Paltrow walks in on him getting the suit assembled, but she’s seen him in “more awkward situations.” Funny, but funny doesn’t bring me to these kinds of movies.

With a full movie trailer, I want to see a little bit of plot and a lot of action, and the Iron Man movie trailer lacks that to some extent. Only a smidgen more of the plot is revealed than was in the teaser trailer, and the teaser trailer actually sets up the attack sequence in the beginning much better. The trailer focuses heavily on Stark making and putting together his suit, which, in my opinion, is a bad move. It’s this kind of thing that stretches the bounds of reality, and fans on the fence might be turned off by that kind of thing. For me, personally, I don’t care how the suit is made or how Stark puts it on – I want to see him use it.

I’m sure another Iron Man movie trailer will come along soon enough, especially since this one’s a bit underwhelming. I still have high hopes, but the trailer is just a bit poorly constructed in a few places.

The full movie trailer for the new Get Smart movie came out today, and while it still looks pretty funny, it doesn’t look nearly as funny as the Get Smart teaser trailer made it out to be.

The teaser trailer showed only a couple key scenes, but they were well constructed and perfectly timed. The phone booth scene is priceless and set the stage for the rest of the preview, but that scene is suspiciously missing from this full movie trailer. (more…)

The teaser trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is now online, as I’m sure you know. Easily one of the most anticipated sequel of all times, the fourth Indiana Jones returns Harrison Ford to what is arguably his most memorable role (or is that Han Solo?). Karen Allen also returns, and new faces such as Shia LaBeouf and Cate Blanchett are involved.

The teaser trailer is just that: a teaser trailer. There’s nothing that gives away the plot, and basically is broken into three sections:

• An intro, covering the past three movies
• The return of Indy, first seen as a shadow
• A bunch of action scenes

All I can say is that I’m a little underwhelmed by the teaser trailer. It isn’t bad, but it isn’t magnificent, either. I don’t like the opening to the teaser trailer, which tries to label Indiana Jones as a savior to the human race; while maybe he is, I’ve never thought of his character as such, and this trailer seems to make him out to be some superhero. Once it gets past the intro, however, the trailer picks up well enough. The action looks pretty good (though the special effects are a tiny bit questionable)… My only other complaint is that Harrison Ford’s one liners really aren’t that great. It would have been nice to hear him say something a little longer than two or three words; as such, his lines are so short and sweet they don’t give you a chance to laugh.

I would have preferred to see a quick little intro, a bunch of action and one established scene with some funny dialogue. My expectations for this Indiana Jones movie are high, and thus my expectations for the marketing are even higher; this teaser trailer is good, but it could have been better.