Yeah, yeah there’s a couple of new movies opening this week with trailers that we should also talk about, BUT DID YOU GUYS SEE THAT NEW AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR TRAILER?!?!?
Opening this week:
Tomb Raider
I saw Tomb Raider. I did not like Tomb Raider. In fact, maybe I’ll be in the minority on this one, but I border-line hated Tomb Raider. It’s 2018 and we still haven’t gotten one movie that’s based on a video-game that can actually be quantified as ‘good.’ Because guys, Alicia Vikander is great and all, but this isn’t the one to change that trend.
Love, Simon
Love, Simon will hopefully be a better movie than Tomb Raider, and it actually looks like it could be. A teen romance that centralizes on homosexual characters and actually makes the effort to normalize it and not make a big deal out of the whole thing is definitely a step in the right direction for our culture. So far all the reviews have been good too, so everything here looks great.
7 Days in Entebbe
While the film is inspired by true events of a 1976 airplane hijacking, 7 Days in Entebbe was never quite able to shake the feeling of looking so….dull. The negative reviews aren’t helping much either, you can probably just go ahead and skip this one.
I Can Only Imagine.
No thanks. This one is for all those MercyMe fans out there who were begging for a feature film about how one of their songs was written. I’ll just resist the urge to go off on a rant about this one and repeat that ‘No thanks.’
New Trailers:
Avengers: Infinity War (April 27, 2018)
OKAY WE’RE HERE LET’S TALK ABOUT IT. It’s huge, it’s epic and every time that I start think I’m getting over Marvel and that maybe Infinity War is just going to be too many characters, they release a new trailer and the excitement rises again.
The Guardians are on earth, interacting with all the other Avengers now so there’s that (Star Lord’s joke made me laugh out loud). Peter Parker has a few good yuck-yucks in there too, especially at the end.
But then there’s the action and the scale to the whole thing. Infinity War had to feel huge, as this is essentially what Marvel has been leading up to for the past 11 years. And, to the Russo Brother’s credit, it feels important. Thanos looks like an undefeatable threat (what the hell was going into Dr. Strange’s face in that one scene) and all of the action behind everything looks incredible.
And we’re focusing in on Wakanda and Black Panther, thank God! We all wanted to see more of Shuri after Black Panther, and she’s clearly not being left to the sidelines, even with such a huge cast. Wakanda forever!
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (Nov. 16, 2018)
I was one of those who was pretty ‘meh’ about the first Fantastic Beasts. It wasn’t necessarily all that bad, but it didn’t exactly make me want to sit through four more Fantastic Beasts movies either. The Crimes of Grindelwald more or less re-enforced those feelings. It’s cool that we’re returning to Hogwarts and all, and Johnny Depp as a villain sure is interesting casting (especially in light of recent events), but I never found Newt to be all that interesting of a character and the story here looks pretty bare bones. We’ll have to wait and see for sure, I guess.
Sorry to Bother You (July 6, 2018)
This one, I am excited for, because it looks just plain weird. It’s got an incredible cast of Lakeith Stanfield (a name you should hopefully know by now and need to get on that if you don’t), Armie Hammer, Tessa Thompson (<3), Terry Crews and more. The trailer is funny yet off-putting, making me pretty excited to see more.
Eight Grade (July 2018)
Then there’s Eight Grade, which I don’t know how to make heads-or-tails of. This film has shown in a few festivals now, and apparently people are loving it, as they’re calling it the Lady Bird, something even the trailer admits, of the technological age and all that. The head-scratcher is that Eight Grade is directed by comedian Bo Burnham — not someone I would have expected to have that many profound statements about young eight grade girls. Never judge a book by it’s cover, I suppose.
Life Itself (Sept. 21, 2018)
It comes from the makers of This is Us, and you’d be forgiven for thinking that the trailer is promoting a new season of This is Us, because that’s essentially what this looks like. Still, there’ll probably be some charm and tugs on the heart strings here, so I’m down for it.
Adrift (June 1, 2018)
I’ll pass on Adrift though. Taking away the fact that this trailer literally gives away the entire plot to the movie, there’s nothing here that made me say ‘oh wow, I really need to see this one!’ Shailene Woodley is great and all, but she’s been in a bunch of other movies that look way better than this one.
Rewind Pick:
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)
There may never be a good movie that's directly based off of a video-game, but Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World directly pokes fun at video-game tropes in the best possible way. And this movie is amazing. It's only fault is that not nearly enough people went out to see it when it was in theaters, meaning we'll probably never see a Scott Pilgrim sequel. Don't let that stop you from watching it though, this one is a must.