With movie releases in a relatively quiet period following the end of summer, many are looking to Dwayne Johnson and ‘Black Adam’ for the next big shot of moviegoing business.
The Rock is headed back to our screens with his first DC movie, which will see him playing the titular vengeful anti-hero whose approach to justice butts heads with the more straightforward likes of Superman.
And, as with all things Dwayne Johnson, expect something on a big scale, as the new trailer suggests.
Created by Otto Binder and C. C. Beck, the character is one of the archenemies of Shazam (as played in his own movies by Zachary Levi) and the nemesis of the Shazam Family. Black Adam first appeared as a one-time villain for the first issue of Fawcett Comics’ ‘The Marvel Family’ comic book December 1945 (a reminder here that Shazam was once known as Captain Marvel, before Marvel had Carol Danvers out there).
Black Adam was revived as a recurring character after DC Comics first licensed and then acquired the Fawcett characters and began publishing Shazam Family stories under the title ‘Shazam!’ in the 1970s.
While Johnson was at one point going to play the character as a direct villain to Levi’s Shazam, that plan evolved to give him his own movie (not a bad idea when you have someone with the Rock’s audience appeal). And in keeping with how he’s evolved in the comics, the tone shifted more towards him being an antihero rather than a straight up bad guy.
Jaume Collet-Serra, who worked with Johnson on ‘Jungle Cruise’, is in the director’s chair here, while the script has seen drafts from Adam Sztykiel, Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani.
In the movie’s story, Johnson’s Teth Adam rose from being a slave, dying, being reborn a god and meting out his particular, powerful brand of justice in the society of Kahndaq 5,000 years ago. It didn’t end so well for him, after he’s betrayed and imprisoned.
But he returns to dispense some no-nonsense justice in the present day, something that will bring him into conflict with more straightforward heroes, including, in the film the Justice Society of America, including Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Dr. Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell) and Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo). And yes, that’s Viola Davis popping up as Amanda Waller.
This latest look at the movie is full of action and shows Johnson going for a grittier, more serious performance than his usual charm-filled work of late.
And yes, the JSA are certainly concerned about Adam’s power and behavior, looking to lock down the near godlike warrior. And they’ve plenty of tools to try to make that happen (including a jet taking off from an underground facility beneath a mansion that ‘X-Men’ fans will find very familiar, but does come from the JSA comics.
After a couple of release date shifts, ‘Black Adam’ is ready to rock into theaters on October 21st.
A new high school romantic comedy is hitting Netflix, just in time for back-to-school season.
The streamer dropped the official trailer on Thursday, introducing Jodi (Ava Michelle), the tallest girl in her high school. At 6-foot-1, she towers over her family and classmates, and she’s gotten used to feeling like her height is the only thing people see about her. That makes dating hard, as the preview shows.
“I just think it’s crazy you won’t date a short guy,” her friend Jack (Griffin Gluck) says. “You really that at any moment some taller-than-you perfect guy is just going to walk through that door?”
Well, guess what, one does: an exchange student named Stig (Luke Eisner). His arrival sets up a love triangle with Jack as Jodi works to find her inner confidence. Watch below.
The rom-com was directed by Nzingha Stewart from a script by Sam Wolfson.
“Tall Girl” starts streaming on Netflix on Sept. 13.
A cop and his fellow Marine reservist friends embark on a risky, not to mention unsanctioned, mission in “Semper Fi.”
Lionsgate released the official trailer Wednesday, and it offers a look at the upcoming drama starring Jai Courtney, Nat Wolff, and Leighton Meester. In it, we meet cop Cal (Courtney) and his younger brother, Oyster (Wolff), and see the lengths Cal is willing to go to when Oyster gets arrested and slapped with an unfair prison sentence. Cal hatches a plan to break his brother out, and he finds that his longtime friends don’t plan to make him do it alone.
Of course, a jailbreak isn’t exactly an easy thing to orchestrate. The trailer shows Cal’s love interest, Clara (Meester), expressing her concerns.
“This is insane,” she says. “You’re going to get caught.”
Watch below.
“Semper Fi” hits select theaters on Oct. 4. It’ll also be available on digital and on demand.
Warner Bros. Pictures released the preview Thursday, and it shows off a film that Edward Norton wrote, directed, produced, and stars in. He plays a lonely man with Tourette Syndrome whose mentor and only friend is murdered. Norton leads a star-studded cast that includes Bruce Willis, Gugu Mbatha-Raw,Alec Baldwin, and Willem Dafoe, among others.
The trailer shows how Lionel Essrog (Norton) became a private detective with the help of Frank Minna (Willis). When his mentor is murdered, Lionel sets out to find out who killed him and to “make ’em regret it.”
“There’s something going down, and it’s big,” Lionel says in the trailer. “And they were not happy about what he found.”
Of course, we don’t find out exactly what Frank knew; the preview leaves us with mystery and intrigue. Watch below.
Lionsgate released the trailer for the upcoming Christian drama “I Still Believe” on Thursday, and it’s a tearjerker. Starring KJ Apa as Christian singer Jeremy Camp and Britt Robertson as his late wife, Melissa, it tells the story of Camp’s love and loss. The film comes from the creators of last year’s Christian hit “I Can Only Imagine.”
The film takes its title from the first song Camp wrote after Melissa’s death. It, like the film, carries the message of keeping faith even in tragedy. Camp has endorsed the film and tweeted Thursday that he is “so excited to share the trailer.” Watch below.
“I Still Believe” is directed by Andrew and Jon Erwin from a script Jon Erwin wrote with Jon Gunn. It also stars Gary Sinise and Shania Twain. The film opens in theaters on March 20.
The whole point of movie trailers is to make audiences excited for what’s coming. But sometimes they do their job a little too well. Some move trailers inflate our expectations, only to leave us disappointed when the end product doesn’t live up to a well-edited, two-minute-long teaser.
“Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace”
It’s not often that people skip school and work just to watch a trailer, but that’s the appeal of seeing the first new Star Wars footage in over 15 years. The “Phantom Menace” teaser showed us glorious new sights like a droid army on the march and Darth Maul’s double-bladed lightsaber. And the movie gave us those things, but also a whole lot that we never bargained for.
“Spectre”
All we really need out of our James Bond trailers is some cool action, a few shots of gorgeous locations and that iconic theme music. “Spectre” gave us plenty of those things in its trailer. And coming off the high that was “Skyfall,” we had no reason to doubt anything was amiss.
But then we watched the actual movie and were reminded at how quickly things can go wrong with this franchise.
“Watchmen”
The “Watchmen” movie had been trapped in development hell for so long that many fans refused to believe it existed until the teaser trailer finally arrived. That teaser had us believing director Zack Snyder could actually do justice to one of the most acclaimed graphic novels of all time. The way iconic images from the book synced up to Smashing Pumpkins music really left a strong impression. Sadly, the movie only wound up proving that some adaptations can be guilty of being too faithful.
“Die Another Day”
We should have been wary of this Bond sequel, given how poorly Pierce Brosnan‘s previous two films played out. But we couldn’t help but be won over by this teaser’s stylish opening sequence, cool narration, and short burst of awesome Bond footage. It didn’t show much of the actual film, and — eventually — we learned there was good reason for that.
“Godzilla”
The original teaser for 1998’s “Godzilla” is unique in that it doesn’t feature any actual footage from the film. Instead, it acts as a short film that teases the Americanized reboot of the iconic monster and pokes a little fun at “Jurassic Park” in the process. It’s an effective trailer, but perhaps we should have been more suspicious of their unwillingness to show the final product.
“Prometheus”
After a progressively worse series of sequels and spinoffs, we were ready for Ridley Scott to return and bring the “Alien” franchise back to basics. The teaser for “Prometheus” showed every sign that he could pull it off, with plenty of evocative imagery and a terrifying soundtrack that called back to the original “Alien” teaser. What the teaser didn’t show us was how much of the movie centered around convoluted mythology and dumb characters doing dumb things for dumb reasons.
“Man of Steel”
Rarely has there been such a huge divide between a film’s trailers and the finished product. All three “Man of Steel” trailers offered a captivating look at a superhero reborn, one who represented all the goodness and wonder we expect from Superman.
By the time the final trailer debuted Hans Zimmer‘s epic new score, we were all-in on the new Superman. Sadly, the actual movie proved far more brooding and depressing than the trailers.
It showed us a tantalizing glimpse of the movie, one that paired epic superhero images with a slowly mounting score. And in some ways, the actual movie lived up to the hype. But between the numerous plot holes and head-scratching story choices, TDKR wasn’t everything it could have been.
“Where the Wild Things Are”
Flawed as it is, there’s a lot to like about Spike Jonze‘s ambitious, emotionally charged adaptation of this beloved children’s book. The problem is that you basically get that same rush in much more concentrated form just by watching the trailer. After all, two minutes is about all the time it takes to read the book. Did we really need a two hour movie?
“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”
Before “Thor: Ragnarok,” “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” proved that there’s no better way to deliver a memorable trailer than to pair some cool, tightly edited footage with Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song.” Sadly, where “Ragnarok” lived up to its own hype, “Dragon Tattoo” proved to be an underwhelming experience. We expected something of more substance from the director who gave us classics like “Seven.” In the end, we’re not surprised that this American remake failed to spawn a full-fledged franchise.
“X-Men: The Last Stand”
The third X-Men movie derailed the franchise in a bad way. But based solely on the trailer, we would have thought we were in for a worthy follow-up to “X2.” That’s the power of good editing. It can hide all the less savory elements like an underwhelming climax or the fact that certain key characters are killed off way too soon.
“Terminator Salvation”
“Terminator Salvation” tantalized us with the prospect of a film entirely set in a wartorn future of which past Terminator movies had only shown small glimpses. Unfortunately, it was a formula that worked a lot better in trailer form than as an actual film. But hey, at least “Salvation” will go down in history as having the best use of a Nine Inch Nails song in a trailer.
“Pearl Harbor”
“Pearl Harbor” is a textbook case of a trailer distilling all the good parts of a bad movie and inflating the expectations of viewers. Between the rousing instrumental music, Jon Voight‘s delivery of FDR’s speech and images of America gearing up for war, the trailer shows all the makings of a historical epic. It leaves out the bloated story and awkward love triangle that bogged down the actual movie.
“Suicide Squad”
We were wary of the DCEU after being disappointed by both “Man of Steel” and “Batman v Superman.” Even so, the first trailer for “Suicide Squad” left us hopeful for a cinematic redemption. The trailer did a great job of teasing a violent, stylish romp featuring the villains of the DC Universe. The inspired soundtrack choices didn’t hurt.
The problem is that it teased a movie that didn’t really exist, no matter how many last-minute reshoots and re-edits WB tried to cram in.
“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”
It’s impossible not to be won over by the teaser for “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” In addition to its effective soundtrack choice, it presents a joyous look at an ordinary man who decides to finally venture forth and live out his dreams.
Unfortunately, the actual movie lacks the substance to back up that well-meaning story, meaning it’s a formula that just works better as a two-minute music video.
The streamer dropped the official trailer for “Falling Inn Love” on Tuesday, and it looks clichéd in the best possible way. The preview introduces Gabriela (Christina Milian), a city girl who moves to New Zealand after losing her boyfriend and job in San Francisco. There, she has plans to restore an inn she won online — but she’ll need the help of a hunky Kiwi contractor named Jake (Adam Demos). Of course, sparks will fly, complicating things when a Gabriela gets a new job offer back home.
While we don’t foresee any Oscar wins for “Falling in Love,” the trailer offers pure escapist fun. There’s the breathtaking scenery of New Zealand, a cute if (probably) predictable love story, and even an entertaining goat. This could be another rom-com hit for Netflix, which found success last year with its so-called “Summer of Love.” Watch below.
“Falling Inn Love” is directed by Roger Kumble from a script by Elizabeth Hackett and Hilary Galanoy. The rom-com starts streaming on Netflix on Aug. 29.
Three visionaries face off in the upcoming film “The Current War,” and a new trailer offers a glimpse at the battle.
The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Shannon, and Nicholas Hoult as Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and Nikolai Tesla, respectively. It is set in late 1880s as Edison prepared to bring his new DC electricity technology to Manhattan. He faces a challenge, however, as Westinghouse and Tesla make the case for an alternative.
If that doesn’t sound, well, electric to you, the trailer will convince you otherwise. It sets the stage for a war with unbelievably high stakes.
“If Mr. Edison succeeds, he will set us back so far we may never recover,” says Tesla.
“Did I mention that his system is lethal?” Edison later says.
And innovator and investor Samuel Insull (Tom Holland) pops up with a truly ominous warning: “There is a possibility you’ll be putting in jeopardy the lives of 28 million people.”
The upcoming thriller “The Good Liar” might scare you off online dating.
Warner Bros. Pictures released a new trailer Wednesday, and it shows off stars Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen as a pair that meets online. The concerning part is that McKellen’s character, Roy, isn’t exactly looking for a love. He seeks out lonely and wealthy widow Betty (Mirren) with a con in mind.
The trailer shows Roy’s scheming. He tells a friend (Jim Carter) that he thinks Betty is worth nearly 3 million pounds.
“You bloody better bet I’m going to take it all,” the conman says.
Roy doesn’t seem to have planned for every possible scenario, though. The synopsis teases in part that he’ll be “surprised to find himself caring about her, turning what should be a cut-and-dry swindle into the most treacherous tightrope walk of his life.” Watch the trailer below.
“The Good Liar” is written by Jeffrey Hatcher and directed by Bill Condon. The film hits theaters Nov. 15.
“The Miseducation of Cameron Post” won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, and it’ll begin its rollout in select cities starting August 3.
The disturbing/hilarious/powerful/inspiring trailer was just released, with Chloë Grace Moretz as the titular character.
Here’s the synopsis:
“From writer/director Desiree Akhavan and based on the celebrated novel by Emily M. Danforth, The Miseducation of Cameron Post follows Cameron (Chloë Grace Moretz) as she is sent to a gay conversion therapy center after getting caught with another girl in the back seat of a car on prom night. Run by the strict and severe Dr. Lydia Marsh (Jennifer Ehle) and her brother, Reverend Rick (John Gallagher Jr.)—himself an example of how those in the program can be “cured”—the center is built upon repenting for “same sex attraction.” In the face of intolerance and denial, Cameron meets a group of fellow sinners including the amputee stoner Jane (Sasha Lane), and her friend, the Lakota Two-Spirit, Adam (Forrest Goodluck). Together, this group of teenagers form an unlikely family as they fight to survive.”
Here’s the trailer:
FilmRise is releasing the movie in New York on August 3, and then Los Angeles on August 10. And then hopefully it’ll find its way to the rest of the country and wider world.
The whole point of movie trailers is to make audiences excited for what’s coming. But sometimes they do their job a little too well. Some move trailers inflate our expectations, only to leave us disappointed when the end product doesn’t live up to a well-edited, two-minute-long teaser.
