Karen: Seriously, they did a nice job cutting the trailer to that song. It sure felt stimulating. But I have to question whether the excitement generated was really due to the contents of the visuals, or the combination of the visuals with the soaring music. I'll admit upfront that I have pretty much no interest in seeing this film. Maybe it will surprise me and be highly entertaining. But right now, I'm thinking it would be better for me to just keep listening to the classic rock station on Sirius-XM.
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Even a Dog Food Commercial is Epic With Bohemian Rhapsody Playing Behind It
Karen: Seriously, they did a nice job cutting the trailer to that song. It sure felt stimulating. But I have to question whether the excitement generated was really due to the contents of the visuals, or the combination of the visuals with the soaring music. I'll admit upfront that I have pretty much no interest in seeing this film. Maybe it will surprise me and be highly entertaining. But right now, I'm thinking it would be better for me to just keep listening to the classic rock station on Sirius-XM.
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16 comments:
And by a strange coincidence tomorrow will be exactly 40 years since Bohemian Rhapsody was ousted from the UK #1 spot after 9 weeks by Abba's "Mamma Mia".
I am incredibly unenthused for this picture, as well as Deadpool and Batman v Superman. I may end up seeing the latter, but am 99% certain I won't see the first two mentioned (not even on a rental format).
As to the soundtrack, I think Karen's right. That song does make one sit up and take notice. And, it worked for Wayne and Garth...
Doug
Wow, it's a whole different post, Colin, but could there possibly be a more apt single moment when disco's ascendancy was assured? Yeah?
Karen, I do believe the response to your statement is: Yes, it would be. Music & underscoring are the unrealized emotional heart behind almost all film-making. I have an out-of-print CD of Hitchcock film themes, and the last (long) track is an old lecture by Bernard Herrmann about film scoring. And he says in so many words that movies could not exist without music-- they would simply fail. Naturally, the same is true (possibly even moreso) w/ previews and trailers. The ooga-chaka version of "Hooked on a Feelin'" for GotG? Absolutely brilliant choice-- and completely set the tone for the film you expected to see, which the movie successfully delivered upon.
And you're right, it really does work with this Suicide Squad trailer.
Except--
1) It strikes me as a blatant attempt to copy the GotG mojo-- for a movie that isn't nearly as . . . friendly, say?. . . as GotG was. That puts me off immediately, as it means the film itself isn't inspiring any unique choices of its own to the marketing suits.
2) Big red flag-- very, VERY little substantial dialog or interplay in the trailer.
It's almost all fast-cuts. And the dialog I'm picking up is awfully pat and uninspired. What's Harley's last line, there? Something like "I'm a bad guy. It's what we do."-? It was sorta funny when Charles Grodin said it about 30 years ago in MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTAN. It no longer works at all- comes across as forced and overly self-aware snark. Not a bit humorous or ironic anymore.
3) What, exactly, is the threat this team is facing? Lotsa fighting & shooting & explosions & "we gotta have a tough team for this", etc--- but I seem to have missed the "why" part of the equation. (This has been a problem for a number of movies in general in recent years, really-)
4) Since I haven't been following any press on this movie, shall I just assume that it's already been pointed out one zillion times that this is obviously little more than a super-hero remake of THE DIRTY DOZEN?
(Oh! Doug-- yes we did survive the blizzard in fine form, btw. No loss of electricity, snowplows cleared our culdesac within hours[unprecedented], and forecast winds never developed- so no trees down [also unprecedented]. Thks fer askin'-!)
HB
Doug, ha! I immediately thought of the Wayne's World movie as well.
Yep, this trailer is fun to watch, but I completely agree that at least 80, or maybe even 90, percent of that is due to Bohemian Rhapsody. Like with all of the DC films, I'm not excited and only marginally interested in this, and will certainly be able to wait until it starts its regular TV rotation.
I've never read the comic, but this trailer makes me curious about the film. I'll check it out if it gets decent reviews. I'll be curious about the Deadpool movie as well, as I've read and enjoyed a few of the comics.
HB, my band played Hooked on a Feelin' for a couple years before GotG came out, and while people liked it before, after the movie it completely packed the dance floor. We added Come and Get Your Love by Redbone to the setlist so we can play a 1-2 punch of GotG. Here it is for your listening enjoyment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkr77jE5GFY
There are many examples of songs adding to movie scenes. A couple that come to mind are Magic Carpet Ride during the blastoff in Star Trek First Contact, I Got a Name by Jim Croce in Django Unchained, Didn't I by the Delfonics in Jackie Brown. By the way I think Jackie Brown is an underrated movie and one of Tarantino's best.
I don't want to seem too curmudgeonly, but this trailer did seem like a blatant attempt to mimic GotG's efforts. Of course, the music was essential to GotG, a key element to the plot, which I think was a very clever move on Marvel's part. I doubt that Bohemian Rhapsody will play such a role in Suicide Squad.
But there's no denying the power of music in films. I've often wondered how successful Star Wars really would have been without that tremendous John Williams score behind it, for just one example.
HB, I love Bernard Herrmann's work and have several CDs of his scores. That man knew how to bring life to a scene -like a cyclops fighting a dragon!
Karen, great point about Williams' score for Star Wars. I think the prequels owe what little watchability they have to Williams' scoring.
And Garett, totally agree with you about Jackie Brown - in fact, that is without doubt my very favorite of his movies.
I'll probably check this out, because I have high hopes that WB is making a real effort to bring some decent DC comic content to the big screen in a shared universe (ala Marvel). However, I certainly have my reservations. We'll see.
Some things I like about the trailer:
1. Harley looks pretty well done, and the actress (her name escapes me) looks like she may do a decent job of playing her.
2. Looks like there is some humor in this one, which is always welcome (and I believe necessary) for a good superhero movie. (or supervillains in this case)
3. It also looks like they are being fairly faithful to the comic-book version of the Suicide Squad, by including Amanda Waller and Rick Flagg, etc.
Some things I don't like.
1. I'm kind of over Will Smith. Don't mind Deadshot being black, but I'd have preferred a different actor in the role. (Although, W.S. does look like he's trying at least).
2. I have a problem with The Joker. Jared Leto looks like he's really into the role, but all the tattoos, and especially the gold teeth, just take the character too far off model for me. Take away the green hair and it just doesn't read Joker at all.
3. There seems to be a lot of explosions. That's a problem I have with action movies these days. They just all seem to go too far over the top with the pyrotechnics and CGI and such.
Just some quick thoughts from what I've seen so far. Not super excited for this one, but like said, I will probably go see it in the theater.
I just saw on Twitter that today is Our Pal Sal's 80th birthday. Here's a nice retrospective:
http://comicsalliance.com/tribute-sal-buscema/
Doug
I would like to challenge the producers of all super-hero films everywhere to see if even one of them could could make a successful film WITHOUT A HELICOPTER SEQUENCE IN IT. (GotG doesn't count, mind you--- although heck, maybe that was part of its appeal too??) As soon as that brief shot came up with the "urban assault" copter firing missiles at street level my interest dropped by two points. And I know that trying for a similar challenge-moratorium on car chases would just get me thrown out of the meeting entirely. Honestly, those sequences, even when well-done, have become a weakness to me in the Marvel films as well. (Boy, and I'd be REALLY curious as to which downtown DC street Nick Fury was able to go tearing down for so long in Age of Ultron! That's a whole 'nother DC! But I digress. . . )
Also-- agh, I hate to say this, but Harley's voice from all of the cartoons & games IS her character for me. I know it's wildly over-the-top Dark Betty Boop schtick-- but it's absolutely HER, and I'm sad to see that element taken away. In a way, it makes her seem more dangerous and scary.
And oh boy, William, I did check a little further into the production. . . and apparently Jared Leto stayed in character FOR THE ENTIRETY OF THE FILMING, and is quite verbose in talking about his concept of the character and his process, etc, etc. Hooooo-boy. . . (nice guy, just. . . "weird actor-y", y'know?)
HB
Happy birthday to Sal. It's so nice to read about news like that after all of the obituaries we've been getting lately ... speaking of which, you guessed it: I just saw the news that - after being proclaimed dead many times in the past - Abe Vigoda really has died (aged 94). RIP Abe...
That was indeed a nice little Salpreciation, Doug. Thanks much for the link.
Boy, that image they used? What do you suppose the theme could possibly have been for that?? What could the possible thematic link be between the Magus and Cobalt Man?? (Other than, I suppose, at some point they were drawn by Sal-?)
HB
Happy 80th Birthday Sal!
Hmm I'm not much into DC's superhero offerings, the only ones which tickled my fancy were the Christopher Reeve Superman movies back in the day and some of the later Batman movies, but I'm quietly optimistic about DC's slate here. I hope that despite trailing merry Marvel in the cinematic universe (and it does seem like they are following Marvel's formula of interweaving their stories and building up to superhero teams),DC finally gets its big screen act together.
It would be a win-win situation if Suicide Squad, Batman vs Superman and other offerings do well at the box office; fans get to see good superhero movies and the studios get a hit on their hands. If only I had the Tesseract, er, I mean the Cosmic Cube to see the future here!
- Mike 'hmm Deadshot vs Deadpool anyone?' from Trinidad & Tobago.
In the UK we currently have holiday ads with the William Shatner version of Bohemian Rhapsody. Awesome!
Hey look! a remake of the Suicide Squad trailer using clips from the DC Animated Universe
http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2016/02/watch-the-suicide-trailer-recreated-in-the-dc-animated-universe/
Osvaldo, thanks for the link. That's awesome!
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