HHGTTG trailer
February 20th, 2005
The trailer for the film adaptation of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy which is exclusively available at Amazon is a bit scrawny. Happily, someone has posted a much nicer Quicktime version of the trailer here. (NB: 51MB file.)
February 25th, 2005 at 20:34
"…which is exclusively available at Amazon…."
Um, what?
I only mention this because I downloaded the trailer last week after seeing it on many sites. (They don't appear to have stinted on the special effects, FWETW.)
Any comment on the Revenge of The Sith teaser trailer?
February 26th, 2005 at 00:27
Amazon were claiming it was exclusive initially, but within 24 hours it was indeed available all over the net, and usually in higher-resolution versions. I'm actually mildly optimistic about the HHGTTG film now having seen the trailer – the Vogons look rather good, I can live with Zaphod's second head being out of sight for much of the time because it looks as if Sam Rockwell has nailed the role, Mos Def is a surprisingly good Ford Prefect; all in all it looks very promising.
As for Revenge of the Sith, I'd have liked to see a bit less old footage (though I appreciate that it's hardly unprecedented to reuse footage in a teaser) and what I did see didn't do much for me. Unless Hayden Christensen does some pretty amazing acting work and gets a really good script I just don't see him convincing me that he's about to turn into Darth Vader. Honestly, this spring I'm more excited at the prospect of seeing how Sin City turns out than I am in seeing Revenge of the Sith.
Talking of trailers, have you caught the Fantastic Four trailer yet? I'm still not sure what to make of a film where Victor Von Doom was apparently on the same mission as Reed Richards & co, I'm guessing that Doc Doom probably isn't going to be the benevolent dictator of Latveria in this version of the story…
February 27th, 2005 at 07:30
"Talking of trailers, have you caught the Fantastic Four trailer yet?"
Yup; one of eight jillion things I did once I got a computer that could play video (which is to say, a couple of weeks ago) was look at a bunch of online trailers, even though my connection has only improved from about 29k/sec to 49/k per sec.
"I’m still not sure what to make of a film where Victor Von Doom was apparently on the same mission as Reed Richards & co, I’m guessing that Doc Doom probably isn’t going to be the benevolent dictator of Latveria in this version of the story…"
I can't say I've been given particular reason to feel any specific optimism about this project beyond the fact that, overall, Marvel Productions and Avi Arad seemed to have learned, in generall, how to make good movies out of Marvel properties ever since X-Men 1, at least (I say this not having seen a Punisher film, mind). But that's rather considerably too vague for me to build up a noticable mount of confidence FF will be good, rather than, of course, hope.
I'm still bugged that Reed and Johnny are made the same age in it; they were put forth as entirely separate generations for entirely sound reasons, including one that applies to the movie as much as to the comic: telling them apart at a glance when they're not using their powers. While I certainly don't say this is a killer change, as opposed to an annoying-on-the-face one, I still can't tell, looking at stills of the actors in costume, which of the two is which (naturally, no such problem applies to Sue or Ben despite their minor visual changes, which are entirely within the bounds of the stylistic changes made by many artists).
The plot summaries I've read make clear that they've made some significant changes to the mythos, though probably not any stretching, if you'll pardon the word, beyond the sort of changes made in Marvel's recent revamp versions, such as in that Onslaught universe, or in the Ultimate version.
Early FF had so many overlaps, or co-creations, shall we say, with the rest of the then Marvel Universe, which was a pretty small place, that I have a bit more trouble with a portrayal of the FF in isolation (beyond Victor) than I did with the X-Men (there are so many, after all) or with Spiderman (he ran with Johnny Storm a lot in his early days, too, and with Daredevil, but somehow it's harder for me to think of Early FF without simultaneously thinking of Submariner as an integral part of their story, as well as Galactus, Silver Surfer, and Spider-Man dropping by. This is likely not particularly rational of me, as I don't think I can clearly explain why, most particularly to myself. I seem to actually have a clearer firsthand memory of early FF, as well as some reprints of the Very First Few issues, than I do of Spider-Man and Daredevil, or any other early Marvel comic, I think, for some reason (I do recall reading, and buying, extremely early Spider-Man, too, as a child, after all, along with Green Lantern and JLA, among various predictable others).
I was one of the few people I know who actually very much liked Attack of The Clones, and although I entirely agree with the common opinion that both Jar-Jar and wee Jake's "yippees!" were among factors that significantly damaged Phantom Menace, I can't say I feel much more badly towards it than liking it quite less than AOTC. So the fact that I'm quite looking forward, with a new hope, ho ho, to ROTS; certainly at one part of this is that much as I've always enjoyed the Star Wars pictures, I've never taken them remotely seriously, since their flaws are so obvious, and they're so very much not at all actual science fiction in any strict sense whatever. They're just great popcorn fun, and in particular the recent pictures have been the most unbelievably visually stunning creations of moving science-fictional imagery ever created, with the exception and bow to your favorite (and one of mine), 2001 (and 2010 was one of the few good straight real sf movies ever made, although in no way the artistic masterwork of a genius that 2001 is, of course; but that's the difference between Kubrick and everyone else).
So I'm not expecting to convince anyone else to get enthused about Revenge of The Sith, or change any minds. But it sounds like a lot of fun, to me. (Besides, I can't wait to see what logic holes in the whole thing are left gaping versus filled; I can buy a lot of the explanations I've already read, but why, exactly, if Leia's identity is such a great secret, does she get to be a "Princess"?; is this an honor from Alderaan, rather than from Naboo [which would seem rather inexplicable]?)