Trailers! Trailers! Summer 2013

It's December again, so that means another round of teasers and trailers for next year's would-be summer blockbusters have been deployed. Since it's been a while since I've had a proper trailer post, I'm putting down thoughts on everything relevant since the beginning of November. There are some interesting titles in the works, and the trailer releases have been so haphazard, you might have missed some of them. So, this is a good chance to catch up. All links below lead to Trailer Addict.

Iron Man 3 - Spends the bulk of its time establishing the grim threat of the new villain, the Mandarin, who will be played by Ben Kingsley. This one isn't nearly as much fun as the teasers for "Iron Man 2," which were all about Tony Stark's ego. No cutting quips or backup dancers to lighten the mood this time around. The message here is that the time for fun and games is over. However, we do get some intriguing glimpses of new suits, new powers, and lots of creative destruction. And does the ending ping as a Frankenstein reference to anybody else?

Star Trek: Into Darkness - Why do we have to wait so long for the third series of "Sherlock"? Because the actors keep running off to do movie projects like the "Hobbit" movies and "Star Trek." Benedict Cumberbatch is revealed here as a potentially familiar villain, and it's still going to be a few frustrating months until we figure out exactly which villain he's supposed to be playing, or maybe it's just a red herring and the bad guy is somebody totally new. Personally, I'm just happy to see the "Star Trek" cast reunited and the Enterprise ready for another round of boldly goings.

After Earth – Could this movie be M. Night Shyamalan's resurrection? After the infamous "Last Airbender," he's got nowhere to go but up. His new science fiction film, "After Earth," stars the increasingly scarce Will Smith and his son Jaden. People may complain about the nepotism, but I really enjoyed Jaden in the "Karate Kid" remake. The "After Earth" trailer promises an abundance of action in what looks like a fun father-son survival adventure flick. Let's just hope the little twist at the end of the preview is the biggest twist that Shyalaman has planned for us.

Man of Steel – The new trailer is all about making Superman's origin story feel as epic as possible, laying on the hero shots and the choral music pretty thick. What interests me most is the focus on Superman's moral quandaries and relationship with his adopted father. We also get our first glimpses of many of the other major players, including Amy Adams as Lois Lane and Michael Shannon as General Zod. I'm really hoping that Zack Snyder can turn out something that lives up to the promises that these trailers are making. Everything looks right so far, and I'll be keeping my fingers crossed.

Pacific Rim - The marketing team behind Guillermo Del Toro's "Pacific Rim" have been hard at work these past few weeks, putting out a countdown website, several viral clips, shiny preview images, and blueprints of some of the mecha armor that will be featured in the film. Looks like lots of sci-fi imagery to drool over. However, when you get down to it, "Pacific Rim" is a monster movie, being made by one of our best monster movie directors. The teaser doesn't show a lot, but it shows enough to assure me that this is definitely Del Toro's work, and worth anticipating.

The Lone Ranger - Disney's newest attempt at launching another big action franchise has Gore Verbinski directing and Johnny Depp playing a major role, so it looks like "Pirates of the Caribbean" in the Old West. No surprise there. The teaser was selling the spectacle pretty hard, so I'm glad to see the full trailer giving us a good look at the Lone Ranger and Tonto interacting. The funny bits with the horse didn't hurt anything either. I think this one could go either way, but for now I'm just glad that Johnny Depp's Tonto getup looks marginally less ridiculous in context. Marginally.

Now You See Me - Now this looks like a lot of fun. Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Caine are headlining a new heist film with the twist that the bank vault is robbed while the perpetrators are performing in a magic act on the other side of the globe. I can't help feeling that "Now You See Me" is cribbing heavily from "The Prestige," with Michael Caine's involvement and Morgan Freeman's narration about magic acts. However, this looks a lot slicker, and more action-oriented, and it's not taking itself seriously at all. And not in a bad way.

Epic - Sony Animation's next big feature recently released a second trailer, which is very similar to the first. We get a few seconds of gorgeous visuals, introducing us to the miniature world of the Leaf Men. And then we meet the characters up close, and it becomes obvious very quickly that this is going to be like all the other Sony Animation films, full of quippy animal sidekicks and loads of slapstick. Between this and Dreamworks' upcoming "Turbo," it looks like we're going to get a lot of snail-related humor in next year's kids' movies. I think I'll stick with Monsters University.

World War Z - And finally, we come to the zombie movie that nobody seems to want. The teaser revealed that massive liberties have been taken with the source material, notably the introduction of swarming zombies. Fans are not happy that this appears to be a prequel to the events of the book, focusing on the initial outbreak of the zombie apocalypse instead of the more complicated aftermath. The movie could still be decent, but at the same time it's taking an awfully familiar approach - especially compared to another 2013 zombie film with a fantastic trailer: Warm Bodies.

Happy watching!
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