Hello everyone, Travis from the Movie Encyclopedia here with another edition of Trailer Talk Thursday where I bring you the latest trailers to hit the silver screen.
Despite my inbox and my Google News being filled with the latest Charlie Sheen news, I WAS able to find some new trailers that I thought were pretty interesting. One is a film adaptation of the beloved and best selling Italian comic Dylan Dog and the other is the fifth Fast and Furious movie. Now before you roll your eyes at the second one, watch the trailer first. It ain’t an Oscar flick but it certainly seems to promise more action and less talking, which, considering Paul Walker and Vin Diesel are the stars, is a good thing. That and the Rock is in it and not wearing a dress…always a plus.
First up though is Dylan Dog: Dead of Night-
Now I only got into comics a few years ago, mostly thanks to Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead and Battle Pope, but even before that I had heard of Dylan Dog. How did I first come across this Italian icon of Comics? Well I have always been a big fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as well as it’s spin-off Angel and I was one of the few people who thought Constantine was pretty decent. When I heard there was a comic that mixed the wit, humor and slaying of Buffy with the detective element of Angel and the demons of Constantine I was intrigued to say the least. The comic has been around since the 80s and has received numerous awards and has been translated into a bunch of languages. It makes me wonder then why the comic wasn’t adapted into a film earlier. Well it kinda was (look up Cemetery Man) but that was more of a “taking the idea of the comic, not any of the actual elements” kind of thing.
But finally we get the adaptation and who plays Dylan: why none other than Superman himself Brandon Routh. While that’s not a bad thing, I’m not exactly sold on the writer/directors. It’s written by two people who are relatively green when it comes to doing films (and the only ones they have done have been poorly written to say the least) and the director’s only film credit is the abysmal TMNT. So on paper one could be worried. But from the trailer alone I can sense that this film has potential.
Here is the trailer:
It could be easy to just write this film off as a Constantine/Angel/Buffy/Hellboy rip-off but I don’t think that’s really fair to the movie. I mean the character has been around a while and it was bound parts of his character would be used or emulated in some fashion in other movies. Vampires, demons and zombies aren’t new to film. But from first glance this film actually seems okay. It definitely has humor in it and Brandon seems to really fit the part well, my only concern is that when it gets really action heavy it becomes convoluted and we spend more on special effects then we do character and plot development. But it’s certainly a wait and see film for me.
Next up is Fast Five/Fast & the Furious Five (I’ve heard both)-
I liked the first Fast & Furious. I’ll even go so far as to say the second one is decent. The third one was meh and this past one was a mess so when I first heard about Fast Five I was worried. The series had become buried in exposition heavy dialogue scenes, pointless romance stories and cliches that have been done to death. I missed what made the series good in the first place: non-stop action, guns, explosions, fast cars, faster chases and explosions (I said it twice I know but the explosions were awesome). The series was never meant to be taken seriously, it was just meant to be a car enthusiasts wet dream. Why else cast Paul Walker and Vin Diesel? They are great action stars but when it comes to talking…ehh. But this new one, at least from the trailers I’ve seen so far (especially this one) seems to go back to basics and really focus on what made the series good. Hopefully the film can live up to the trailers and we can get a good popcorn flick this summer. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Here is the trailer:
But these are just my opinions. Tell me what you think in the comments below and I will see you all next week on Trailer Talk Thursday.
