Now that you’ve all seen Captain Marvel—at least according to the numbers, statistically speaking, most of you have, unless you’re a butthurt manbaby who’s upset Marvel invited girls to play, too—it’s high time to turn our attention to the next installment of the episodic saga that is the MCU: Avengers: Endgame. And surprise, surprise, the Marvel marketing machine released another new trailer. Check it out below.
After eleven years, 20 movies, and much brouhaha, with Captain Marvel, Marvel finally let one of their female characters lead an installment of their expansive cinematic universe, as well as hire a female (co-)director. The film has traits that make it unique and stand out, but at the same time, it often becomes a paint-by-numbers MCU origin story. Full of ups and downs, it’s still an engaging, entertaining addition, one that will have a lingering on-screen impact moving forward and also carries surplus revelatory weight simply by existing.
Oh hey, after however many dozens of movies Marvel has
cranked out in their expansive cinematic universe, we finally get one with a
female protagonist. It’s almost like women like things, make up half the
population, or that there are great female comic book characters to put on
screen. That sounds just crazy enough to work. All sarcasm aside, this first
Captain Marvel trailer looks damn sweet and I can’t wait,
especially because I’m pretty sure Brie Larson punches an old lady in the face,
and I think that’s funny because I am a bad person. Take a gander below.
A filmmaker most known for dark, often nightmarish, genre-bending
films, Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire is his most accessible work
yet. Inspired by mean-spirited 1970s B-movie shoot-em-ups—obviously pulling
from a similar pool as Tarantino did for Reservoir
Dogs—Free Fire is ultraviolent, laugh-out-loud
funny, and jubilantly vicious, if a bit slight.
Any time Ben Wheatley makes a movie it’s going to be near
the top of my must-see list, regardless of what genre umbrella it falls under.
And the idea of the genre-bending maniac Brit responsible for Kill List, High-Rise, and Sightseers
making a 90-minute shootout is more than enough to make me sweat. And if I wasn’t
psyched enough, two new international trailers for Wheatley’s latest,
Free Fire, more than do the trick—this includes a Japanese
trailer that’s totally bananas.
Back in 2013, director Jordon Vogt-Roberts made one of my
favorite movies of that year, The Kings of Summer, a quiet,
tender indie coming-of-age picture. It’s bittersweet, built on relatable
characters, and subtly portrays the moment where youthful innocence collides
with the hard reality of growing up. And because every young white male
director who makes a moderately successful independent picture automatically
gets his own blockbuster franchise, he was handed the reins to Kong: Skull Island. And he made the exact opposite of that movie.
So, the Oscars happened last night and for once my favorite movie of the year (Moonlight) won, despite the kerfuffle at the end. I don’t think that’s ever
happened. My preferred movies tend to have more explosions than Academy voters
seem to appreciate. But I’m getting off topic, I don’t care about the Oscars.
None of that matters because this morning we have a brand new Kong: Skull Island trailer and good lord I can’t wait for this movie.
One of the biggest knocks on Gareth Edwards’ 2014
Godzilla reboot was that the titular King of the Monsters
only actually appeared on screen for like ten minutes or whatever. Judging by
this new trailer, that’s not going to be an issue for Kong: Skull
Island. Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts (Kings of Summer) and company certainly don’t skimp on the monkey.
Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire doesn’t hit
theaters until 2017, but it’s making the rounds on the fall film festival circuit,
and the first reactions just hit after it debuted last night at the Toronto
International Film Festival. And to keep the hype train rolling (though I don’t
need anything more than “new Ben Wheatley movie” for a Pavlovian response to
kick in), a red band trailer showed up as well. (Oh, and there’s a trippy new
poster, too.)
One of my most anticipated movies of the year is Ben
Wheatley’s High-Rise. Reviews out of the Toronto
International Film Festival, where it debuted, were mixed, but it looks right
up my alley, I adore the J.G Ballard novel that serves as the source, and
Wheatley is the perfect director to bring it to the big screen. We still have a
while to wait for High-Rise, but anytime Ben Wheatley makes
a movie, it’s near the top of my must-see list. And now we have word that he
has another, Free Fire, on the way. It just got picked up
for distribution, which means we’ll get to see in in theaters for ourselves,
and it sounds damn near perfect.
