So after the big game on Sunday night I decided to hit the net and revisit some of the movie trailers that were played during the game and all I can say… wow… past meet the present. Out of the ten films that had trailers during the game, five of them had a direct link to my childhood and have me salivating with anticipation. I’ll try and break it down for you a bit here.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. I was a huge Transformer fan as a kid. I watched the show religiously every day after school and saved every penny I got to buy Transformers. When the first Transformers movie came out I was beyond excited, but had my reservations about the film since Michael Bay was directing. Bay has done some good stuff but he tends to prefer style over substance in his films and I guess when you’re doing a movie about giant robots fighting each other that’s the kind of guy you want on deck, but I found his shaky cam, frenetic editing style and overall tone of his film to be less than stellar and quite honestly a disappointment. I’m only one voice and since the film ended up being one of the biggest blockbusters that summer I am probably wrong, but I’m just saying. So I watched the trailer for Revenge of the Fallen with lowered expectations and low and behold I think I’m excited to see this all over again. Maybe it’s the big kid in me, but who doesn’t want to see giant robots beating each other up on the big screen with loud music and giant explosions. I think I’m going to go home tonight and find my Starscream and just regress.
Star Trek. While I know this series is much older than I am, I grew up with it since my dad was a fan and I remember seeing the Wrath of Kahn in the theatre as wee one. I’m also the first to admit that I’m not sure what the J.J. Abrams hype is since I’ve never seen an episode of Alias or Lost. I can also admit that I found his giant monster movie Cloverfield (which he produced but did not direct) to be a bit of a disappointment as well, but by golly if my interest wasn’t shooting straight through the roof watching this trailer. Kirk as a strapping young lad bloodied and bruised and looking for action, this is just what this franchise needs to become relevant again today. Oh my, consider my behind in the seat for this one, nostalgia or not this looks like a heck of a movie.
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. OH MY GOSH! I have had this movie playing in my head for over 20 years. I loved the Transformers as a kid, but I really loved G.I. Joe. I even designed a character and sent it to Hasbro (I still have the letter of rejection from them and I till think Storm Shadow is based on my original idea). So when I heard that Stephen Sommers (which I just found out is a fellow Minnesota boy after doing some research on him for this article), the man behind the enjoyable first couple installments of the Mummy franchise and the awful Van Helsing train wreck, was directing I had mixed emotions. He can do action see The Mummy for an example, but he can also screw up a perfectly good story see Van Helsing (better yet don’t see that, I turned it off half way through I was so disappointed) so perhaps he could make the film of my dreams. I was then a little more than shocked at his choice for Roadblock, it’s probably just my fan boy backlash from my years of collecting the toys, comic books and the cartoons but you tell me if you think Marlon Wayans can do the role? Meh not me. Oh well, I’ll put my reservations on hold and put my back side in the seat come opening night for this. The trailer is filled with fun action set pieces and awesome fight scenes, so yes I will be there with my Mail Order only Duke action figure with high hopes.
Land of the Lost. Wow, really, Land of the Lost? For those of you old enough to remember this show, it’s purely for nostalgia that I want to see this, nostalgia and Sleestacks. Oh and Chaka, man I love me some Chaka. Ok, for those of you not born in the late 60’s or early 70’s, Land of the Lost was a show that had a scientist and his family getting transported back in time to the age of Dinosaurs and Sleestacks, man Sleestacks are awesome. So instead of taking the serious route with this, the remakers of Land of the Lost have decided to cash in on the camp factor of this show by bringing in Will Ferrell to make it a comedy. Will Ferrell can be hit or miss for me. Elf was funny as funny gets, but Talladega Nights, not so much. Anchorman cracks me up but I keep avoiding Step Brothers, so I guess I’ll reserve my judgment on this until I actually get to see it. I really want this to be great though. I had a ton of fun watching this show as a kid on Saturday mornings and I’m hoping they can capture some of the magic of the dinosaurs and sleestacks, oh and yeah Chaka.
Race to Witch Mountain. Wow, again, if you are of a certain age you saw these Disney movies when you were a kid. I think the kids in the original films were probably the design inspiration for John Carpenter’s Village of the Damned but that’s just me thinking out loud. This time around the kids aren’t witches, they’re aliens and we have Duane “The Rock” Johnson (to bring the mummy stuff full circle) playing the angry cab driver who picks up the trouble some children. While I’m not nearly as excited to see this movie as I am the four above it, I will give it a shot for nothing else than to see how much they can mess with my childhood memories. I did enjoy the Witch Mountain movies as a kid partly because I always wished I had magic powers, but they were good for kids and kind of scary. So again, before I put the final nail in the coffin on this, I’ll give it a shot and see what I think.
So as you can see Hollywood apparently has been raiding the dark recess of my mind to find new movie inspirations. Along with these five trailers there were trailers for Angels & Demons staring Tom Hanks and directed by Ron Howard that is the sequel to The Da Vinci Code. Monsters vs. Aliens which looks like it could be totally awesome. Fast & The Furious, not my cup of tea so I doubt you’ll be seeing me waiting in line for this one. Year One which looks to be a bit of a play on Mel Brooks’ History of the World Pt. 1 with Jack Black and Michael Cera and directed by Harold Ramis, I’ve got high hopes for this just cause of Ramis. And finally Up which is a new Pixar film that actually had me giggling to myself with the whole GPS device out the window bit. So it looks like we are in for a batch of new movies that could be very interesting.
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This post was written by Gabe Wilkinson on March 4, 2009


Enjoy reading the posts. Keep up the good work.