I was just reminded of something when writing the post about John Carter – the Prometheus trailer for… a trailer. Here it is:
This is one of those moments when Hollywood kind of realizes my sarcasm. Before, I’ve said in jest that poorly made films such as Transformers which have had entertaining trailers should include “Based on the blockbuster trailer” in their credits as well, the trailer was indeed excellent as two to three minutes of CGI robots slamming into each other is quite enjoyable to watch. This is mainly due to the fact that the trailer keeps the appalling dialogue and acting in between the CGI robot fighting to a minimum, and just gives us what we want: exploding buildings and violently clashing automata. Stretch it out to two hours and it’s dire.
This Prometheus trailer, however, is taking it a bit far. It’s hyping up the release of a bit of promotional material, treating the arrival of a trailer as something akin to a major cinematic event. The trailer is going to have a world premier before its online release, followed by a press junket. If Prometheus itself was coming out this weekend, I’d not really question it as that’s what I’d expect for a movie. But hyping up a three-minute video designed to get you excited about a film as if it were a film itself? Yeah, that’s a sign that Hollywood is rapidly running out of ideas…
I’m excited for Prometheus, as although it definitely appears to be related to Alien, having released a similar first trailer to the original film, it appears to be taking a different tack for the actual film as so far we haven’t seen a slavering monster in sight. I hope it turns out to be something more than just more people running away from xenomorphs, as really those things wore out their welcome with AVP2: Refund.
The Answer's 42 