Once upon a time I used to like to be sure to get to the theater early when going for a movie. I wanted to see all the new movies that would be headed out soon. It was something exciting. Something unexpected could pop up. You never knew, really.
In the current age of on demand everything, trailers for shows and movies are almost constant. I don’t rush to the theater at all – even for the films at this point. It takes something special to make me want to endure dealing with everything that goes along with sitting in a dark room with random strangers to watch a movie. The experience is frequently less than ideal.
I’ve stopped being excited about movie trailers too. On a good day, the creators of film can make an amazing 2 minute film. Most days the either misinterpret the story, sell the wrong point or give away all the best parts just to get you to go see the movie and be disappointed. IF you can slip past the spoilers and see something that actually looks interesting, there is an additional culture now that takes frame by frame screen shots and attempts to dig in and find all sorts of things to be happy/upset/curious about. Then judge the film before it is ever seen based on 3 frames that are pointed out a year before the release date. I am SO not interested in all that. Not at all. The joy has gone away.
Some time ago I was asked how I felt when the very first LOTR series trailer dropped. I waited. I decided I wanted to let all this stuff sit and digest a little. It’s easy to have strong reactions and immediate thoughts. Taking your time and putting thought into it will help decide just how important that strong reaction might be in the long run. If you were upset or interested before, are you still? Just yesterday (as of this writing) the new trailer for the Dungeons and Dragons new movie came out. The reaction culture raced to be the first to comment. I will admit – I did acknowledge this trailer on social media. It’s difficult to skip talking about something you really love. Now I’ve got ‘extra’ trailer bits to discuss.
I’m a fan of the LOTR and some of the film works based on Tolkien’s books. I despise the vast majority of that mess they claim is a trilogy about a hobbit and his journey to the lonely mountain. It’s an abomination and should be stricken from the record. And now it looks like various stories, notes and bits from places like The Silmarillion are being mined and shaped into a series.
I love Dungeons and Dragons and have for a very long time. My disappointment with the last big budget movie with the same title has echoed for twenty years now. I can still clearly picture lipstick bad guy and the horror of seeing the Wayans brother just camping out in there. They’ve waited two decades and now they’re trying again. This fills me with trepidation. It could all go so horribly wrong. The new version has Chris Pine you say. The last one had Jeremy Irons. He’s an academy award winner… and it didn’t help.
So now both of these properties are making headlines with new content. There are big names, big action and all sorts of fantastical things racing across the screens. How do I feel about them? A just question. Late is the hour in which we discuss an old trailer (couldn’t resist mangling the quote).
My feelings are mixed. On the one side, I desperately wish film makers would continue to adapt different works and stop digging back into the same stories over and over again. A good example was the (relatively) recent Shadow & Bone series on Netflix. A fantasy work that is not something that has been done to death (looking at you Robin Hood) and had budget and production value to create something enjoyable. There are hundreds of choices out there… but we’re digging into Tolkien’s old notes to create something so they can say, “Look! Hobbits! You like Hobbits, right?”. It’s not something that’s going to make me happy.
On another side, just look at all the wonderful fantasy that’s out there to pick from! Magic, dragons, sword fights… it’s an embarrassment of riches. There’s so much I have to be picky about what I see, how soon I see it and how much I watch. There aren’t enough hours in the day to consume all the coolest things. I can’t wait to see all the crazy stuff that comes out of the D&D movie. There will be an entire generation of players that will pick druid as a character class, just to wildshape into an owlbear.
On a third side, (this is why I didn’t use hands – polygons give options for sides) I’m afraid this glut of fantasy we’ve been living in is going to cause the dilution of something good. There will be so much that far lower quality things are going to start sneaking in (yes, as they have for ever) and with that interest will fade. When interest fades, the money walks away and THAT is what causes films to not get made. In the end, Hollywood movie studios are in business to make money and if we’re not buying they’re going to sell something else.
On the square side… I’m thrilled to have this kind of stuff out there. I’ve written before about the negative impact the Satanic Panic and all that bunk from my childhood had. Fantastical film and storytelling at this scale was never something imaginable when I was a kid. The shear variety of options is glorious.
Eventually I will devour all of these things. I will rage about some and praise others to inappropriate levels. There will be fan art and philosophical discussions. I’m still a fan after all.