Story is made up of much more than plot. I’ve often seen movies with original or unique plots praised for having a great “story,” while other movies get criticized for a dull “story” when in actuality they mean a predictable plot. To me, I envision the term “story” to be the equivalent of everyone sitting around a campfire listening to someone spin a tale. I’d much rather hear a familiar yarn interestingly told, by someone who knows the best way to engage those of us around the fire, read the audience and hit our emotions, rather than someone who tells a completely unique series of events but does so in a flat monotone, convinced that their plot is interesting enough to excuse them from doing the hard work required to make the story engaging. Why do I bring this up? It’s because Guardians of the Galaxy has a plot that is derivative and predictable, but it is so wonderfully, cleverly and creatively told that as a “story” it is one of the most unique and unpredictable I’ve watched in a long time.
Welcome to “Trailer Tuesday” where I talk about trailers for upcoming movies.
A couple months ago we got our first look at Big Hero 6, the upcoming collaboration between Marvel and Walt Disney Animation Studios, in the form of a cute teaser trailer. We’ve now got a new, bigger trailer, as well as finally some confirmed information about the voice cast. Watch the trailer below and read on for my thoughts:
Welcome to “Trailer Tuesday” where I talk about trailers for upcoming movies.
I’ve posted a lot of Guardians of the Galaxy since we got our first glimpse of it, and that’s not about to stop now. Today we’ve got three “final” trailers for the film, the first of which is actually a “viral” commercial for a Galaxy Getaways, while the second and the third are “extended looks” at the film. At this point, I doubt they could show us much more of the movie without delving into serious spoilers, and even some of these may be pushing the limit of how much people want to know before they see a film. They also give us a much better glimpse at the emotions and the characters of the film, along with several more complete scenes instead of just isolated clips. But let’s start with Galaxy Getaways
Welcome to “Trailer Tuesday” where I talk about trailers for upcoming movies.
Last week we looked at the latest trailer for Marvel’s next movie, Guardians of the Galaxy. This week, we’ve got our first teaser trailer for the Marvel movie that’s coming after Guardians. No, it’s not Avengers: Age of Ultron, it’s Big Hero 6, an animated film from Disney Animation Studios based on the Marvel comics of the same name. Take a look below and read on for my thoughts.
Welcome to “Trailer Tuesday” where I talk about trailers for upcoming movies.
It’s been three months since we got our first, crazy look at Guardians of the Galaxy, and we finally got a second trailer yesterday (along with this new poster, which lacks the perfect “You’re Welcome” tagline from the previous poster). The second trailer for a film like this is always the one that gives us the best look at the film. By this time, more of the visual effects have been completed, more dialogue has been recorded, and the trailer takes a deeper look at the film’s story. The first trailer’s goal was to establish the film’s unique tone and give us an intro to the characters, but this time around we got to see a lot more. Take a look at the trailer below and read on for my thoughts and highlights:
Just a quick update on the news from today’s ABC upfront about the scheduling for Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter. The first news is that Agents of SHIELD will be moving from 8pm to 9pm, presumably in the hopes of improving its ratings. For most of the 2013-2014 season, Agents of SHIELD has gone head-to-head with NCIS, the most watched show on TV most weeks. This can’t have done the show any favors, even if there isn’t a whole lot of overlap in the target demographics of the two shows.
That’s right, fellow Level 7 Agents, Agents of SHIELD has officially been renewed! (Update: It’s moving to a new time in the fall!) I thought we might have to wait until next week for the ABC’s upfront presentation, but the good news came tonight! After much speculation, Coulson and his team (whoever survives next week’s season finale) will be back in the fall to continue to fight HYDRA and rebuild SHIELD. After debuting to huge numbers last year, Agents of SHIELD steadily dropped in the ratings, though in the past couple of months viewership steadied and even rallied a bit. The dramatic tie-in with Captain America: The Winter Soldier really helped, both in drawing attention to the show and in giving the show a creative boost. The latest string of episodes has been edge-of-your-seat exciting, and I can’t wait to see where they take the show next season.
The other big news on the Marvel front was that the much-rumored Agent Carter series has been picked up for the fall. Continue reading
I have to say that I wasn’t particularly thrilled by Captain America: The First Avenger. As the last film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to be released before The Avengers, it felt like just one more piece in the puzzle rather than a compelling story in its own right. That’s not to say that I disliked the film, or that it was particularly bad (still a big step ahead of Iron Man 2), it just wasn’t as interesting to me as Thor or Iron Man. It was another solid origin story, with a strong cast and a fun setting, but the end result of the film seemed to just serve as setup for The Avengers. (In a recent rewatch of that film, I’ve realized that I might have judged it a little too harshly upon my first viewing.) Three years and four movies later we now have Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which might be the most complex and interesting film Marvel has made to date, not to mention one of the most entertaining, and it’s a game-changer for the universe its predecessor helped to create. Continue reading
The Love Pirate 