Trailers: The Amazing and The Deceiving

Have you ever been online and were completely bored? My guess: Absolutely. Whenever I get caught in this situation, I tend to decide to go to the gym, or do homework, or do something reasonable with my life, but finals are fast approaching and my ambition is slowly declining. So, I spent some time on youtube, and watched some trailers for several films that will be released over the next few months.

I never really considered the importance of a good trailer before, yet it is the very foundation for building an audience. When we go to the movie theater as a family, my dad always makes us go about ten minutes late so that we don't have to sit through the previews. When I go by myself, or with friends, I try to get there early because I secretly love the previews. Not all previews, but the ones that are the most intriguing. It's like opening presents at Christmas. I love the feeling of finding the next great movie  to go see.

What makes a great trailer? The music, the cuts, and the parts of the general plot that is chosen to be shown, all come together to entice people to go see the film. Most of all, the trailers that really strike me are the ones that leave me asking, "Wait! What's going to happen next?" or ones that leave me spinning through a "new world" or ones that have me sitting on the edge of my seat, tied down with suspense. Trailers that are not so successful are ones that make me say, "What's happening?" or are completely too realistic. Of course, it is a preference that varies between audiences and people, but overall a good trailer leaves people wanting to know more.

There is nothing worse than seeing an amazing trailer, going to the movie, and walking out completely disappointed. Most of the time I find that the trailer drew me in because they used their best scenes in the trailer. This has happened to me too many times to count. The biggest disappointment that I had was last year when I saw the new adaptation of The Three Musketeers. Talk about being disappointed. This has always been one of my favorite stories, and this ruined it. The acting wasn't the best and the plot just left a lot to be desired. Another film that disappointed me was Snow White and the Huntsman. It was alright up to a point, but again I wasn't really impressed with the plot or the acting as much as I was with the graphics and animation. With the exception of the Queen (whose character was played brilliantly by), I had been expecting so much more. The winner in disappointments was definitely the movie Eragon that came out a few years ago. The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini is a great one, and this movie did not do it justice. Nothing really matched up character, setting, or plot wise, and left me feeling like I had entered a completely different world than the one I expected.

I'm hopeful that the trailers for these next films are in-line with what the actual movies will present. Here are some of the trailers (they are good ones!) for movies I'm really looking forward to:

The Hobbit

City of Bones

So, youtube is not letting me upload the others, but you should definitely check out The Host, Oz the Great and Powerful, and  Les Miserables.

~Amber Capogrossi

Game of Thrones

This series is one of the best book to live medium translations I've ever seen, especially in the fantasy world. As a massive book reader, you would be hard pressed to find me a fantasy book series turned movie adaptation I haven't seen. As far as movies go, it's one of the few areas I'm well versed in, and if the discussion turns to books I'm more than happy to talk to you for hours on end about one book or another.

Apposed to a lot of popular belief, I generally reccommend watching a movie before reading the book that preceeded it. I've realized over the years, that if I do that, I can enjoy the movie a lot more, and still get everything out of the book. When done in the reverse, I usually come out of the theater much more upset than pleased. Example: Eragon. I'm not even going to go into details about how much of a train wreck this movie was as compared to the book it was based off of, other than to ask you to look at the movie poster. You see how above the title it says, "The First Chapter of the Inheritance Trilogy?" Note how a second chapter was never made. However, while this movie did poorly in the United States box office where the books were popular and well circulated, internationally, it did extremely well where the book wasn't read as much. People could enjoy the movie because they weren't completely focused on how it deviated from the series. And then if they wanted to afterward, they could go ahead and read the books.

After reading so many books and then watching their movie counterparts, I was tired of the disappointment. When a new one came on the scene, I would sigh, role my eyes, and then go try to find another fantasy book no one had ever heard of and was safe from Hollywood's grasp. When everyone started raving about Game of Thrones I was hesitant to joing the bandwagon. First off, the books alone are monstrous, which wouldn't usually deter me, except for the 5+ year waits between books when Martin finally decides to release the next part. I'm not good at waiting. The three years in between Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix nearly killed my adolscent self. Beyond that, it was yet another adaptation that I was going to walk out of disappointed, right?


Wrong. This summer by boss at Barnes and Noble finally convinced me that I really needed to read the books and watch the series. I decided to read the first book, watch the first season, read the second book, watch the second season, etc... I'd take my time with them, knowing full well that if I reached the end of the series, I would most likely go crazy with anticipation. And then I read the first book in four days, the first season following soon after.

By making each book into its own ten-part television series, the character, plot, and setting development that occurs in the book isn't lost in translation. Every character is given the screen time required to fully appreciate their character. The little sub-plots that all intertwine to create the bigger picture aren't forgotten to time constraints. The complex setting and world Martin created is fully explored. Even the opening theme to every episode serves as a tool to help the viewer imagine the vast landscape the story takes place over, showing the map given to readers in the book.

Beyond that, the production quality is stunning. Every scene is perfectly lit and orchestrated, not a detail is forgotten. The CGI direwolves are some of the most realistic creatures I've ever seen in any movie, television, show, etc... The acting is stunning, especially when you look at the performances of the youngest cast members. Maisie Williams, the girl who portrays Arya Stark in the television show, is extremely talented for the little experience she's had, and I can't wait to see what other roles she takes on as she gets older.

I'm reading the second book now, taking much more time with it than the first one. I'm excited to watch the second season as soon as I'm done and can only hope it will be as good as the first.