Captain America: Civil War and Suicide Squad new trailers - Trailer(s) Review

I woke up this morning to find one trailer and one clip, and I had to talk about them.

The new Suicide Squad trailer is pretty much the same as the previous one, with a different score. Personally, I prefer Bohemian Rhapsody, but whatever. There's new footage involving Amanda Waller at the start, and a surprisingly large amount of Batman. I don't have a problem with that, because I knew he was going to be in the movie (unlike Doomsday). So I applaud the marketing team for not spoiling the whole movie.

The Captain America: Civil War clip really caught my eye. For one thing, it's not a series of six clips (I realise I'm pointing my finger at DC again. I loved Batman v Superman, I just think the marketing was really dodgy), and for another, it consists of a lot that we've already seen in the two trailers. But there's one thing that I'm very sure many people have not observed.

Chris Evans enters flying in randomly at the start, and then it shows Anthony Mackie, after which Elizabeth Olsen flies in. Now this is what I appreciate. It then showed Wanda elevate Steve into a building. Right there, Captain America's crazy entrance is explained, and not once (like, <cough> the Star Wars prequels) was it directly told to the audience how it happened. That's a great thing. It's a really great thing. It's small. But I value it because it's creative screenwriting and it's not just lazily told to the audience.

Captain America: Civil War is weeks away, and if it's anything like the visuals, action or even dialogue of this one clip, it should be astounding.

The Captain America: Civil War clip isn't on YouTube, but I've attached the Suicide Squad one.

Captain America: Civil War trailer 2 - Trailer Review

I needed something really badly to halt my hype train for Daredevil Season 2 and Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice. Marvel, the kind folk they are, answered my call. But there is a side effect - This is all I can think about now!

This trailer was really told in single frames, so I'm going to do something like a frame-by-frame review, which is what it deserves.

Right off the bat, you know this movie will look beautiful. Just look at this wide shot.

I'm not quite sure what significance this place has yet, but it looks great.

Now I need to talk about the score. The first trailer felt energetic and was really about hyping fans up for the action they'd see, but what I love about this trailer is that it's really subtle, and the music is soft but deep, and really has a progressive build as the trailer goes on. That sets the tone really. And with that, there are a couple of places that I'd noted that really will hit you hard, the first of which is actually something that I'm sure not that many people have caught.

When General Ross talks about the places that have been destroyed, he mentions Sokovia, and you see Scarlett Witch wince. In the background, as the focus shifts to him, you see Steve Rogers eyeing her, and then says "That's enough". Just that one shot is so beautiful. Wanda is still dealing with the effect of her home being destroyed, and she really is still a child after everything that's happened to her. I love how Steve has a kind of fatherly relationship with her. It really is beautiful.

The next one comes a few seconds later, with the explosion that's seen in the first trailer. T'Challa was in that, and I say T'Challa and not Black Panter because he was in the suit the whole time in the first trailer. This was the first we've seen him without it, and he looks devastated. He was in that explosion, and it's unclear as to why, but it's possible that it was a United Nations event, and he was there with his father. In Civil War, his father dies in that event. Maybe... Maybe.
And once again I will say that Chadwick Boseman is a great choice. He really is. 

The last frame I'd like to talk about is something we've already seen in the first trailer, although in this one they show War Machine being shot down. Do I think he's dead? No. I think he's saved before impact, because they wouldn't show a death in a trailer. Now what I'd actually like to talk about with this part is the dialogue. "I was wrong about you. The whole world was wrong about you". You really get some insight to Tony Stark's view here. It's amazing. Steve Rogers can fight for his friend, but he's willing to risk Stark's best friend for it. Just think about that. This movie will be an emotional thriller, and I'm sure of it. The Russo Brothers are perfect for the job after they did The Winter Soldier (they're directing Infinity Wars too).

Now let me get to a few of the action reveals. This seems beautifully choreographed, to a point where it appears to not be choreographed at all, which is a compliment, mind you. First you see Black Panther maul over The Winter Soldier in a complete mess, but that's why it's so good.

I mean look at it, it's a mess in all honesty. But that's what makes it great. I don't like action scenes that look fake, like in the Star Wars prequels, but the ones that seem raw and inspired, like in The Return Of The Jedi when Luke Skywalker snaps and brutally assaults his dad. That's what the action in the movie feels like. And that's beautiful.

Even Black Widow, wow. Her character looks to be great in this. Characters, all of them are spot on in this, and I love how Black Widow is being made to be that important, considering she's really close to Steve Rogers, but believes in Tony Stark's ideals, and that's she's just lost the man she loves. Her role will be important, and I have a feeling she might betray Team Iron Man. Which I have no problem with.

This scene. For all the people who said Vision could just annihilate the other team, they forgot that Scarlett Witch is uncontrollably powerful.

But it's worth remembering that these are good people. Neither would want to kill anyone from the other team. Vision because he's too pure, and Scarlett Witch because she's too timid. This is very interesting. And I'd like to see if they'll go the romantic route with these two. It's what they're known for.

I need to quickly mention Crossbones taking a jab at Captain America. I have a feeling he'll have a really big role in this movie, and comic book fans would know what I mean by that. We still haven't seen Baron Zemo yet, and it'll be nice to see them save that until the movie. 

The last action scene I need to talk about is the one in this picture.

I just... Wow. I knew we'd have moments like these, but looking at it is just so great. And he goes through Iron Man's fingers and lands on his arm, it's so magnificent. And look at that refined detail on Hawkeye's arrow. They went all out with it.

Finally, before I get to the main talking point, this one frame.

That is how you pack emotion into acting. That is unbelievable. From the low colour scheme to the make-up to the eyes and his expressions. Robert Downey Junior, in this one shot, show's Tony Stark's anger, fear, sorrow and raw pain in this moment. Just look at it. One expression. That is exactly why he's paid so much. I'm pretty sure that nobody else could have pulled this off. Unbelievable.

And I'll talk about something with Steve Rogers too, to even things out. "Stay down, final warning", said Iron Man. "I could do this all day", replied Captain America. Didn't get it? That's straight out of the street fight scene in Captain America: The First Avenger. I liked that reference.

And finally, of course, the thing after the title. I had a bet with a friend about this yesterday before the trailer came out. And let's just say I'm two rupees better off now. What I'm talking about, of course, is in the first picture of the review.

"Alright, I've run out of patience. Underoos!" I liked that line from Tony Stark. It was as if he broke the fourth wall. And then, he appeared. And he looked so amazing. That suit is an exact replica of the classic Spider-Man suit, and I love that they went that route. The expressive eyes are a good addition too. Also, I liked the one line he had. "Hey everyone". That is as Peter Parker as Peter Parker can get, and suddenly I have an unbelievable amount of faith in Tom Holland's portrayal. Also, I squealed like an eight year old. No regrets.

This is a trailer. This is how you make a trailer. And I can't believe there's still two months to wait. May 6th can't come any sooner!

Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice final trailer - Trailer Review

For those of you who don't know, I had a pretty huge rant about the second trailer for this movie. I don't think I've ever so passionately detested a movie trailer before.
This one though, this one different.

It is the last one, and so had to be spectacular, similar to the Avengers: Age Of Ultron trailer three that set the internet on fire. And, much like in that image above, flames erupted with this trailer.

Looking back on the first two trailers, this one is the best of the lot. In fact, I wish this was the only one. It combined the fast pace of the second trailer, with the hype of the first. It didn't spoil anything major (that hadn't already been spoiled in trailer two, that is).

The opening was great. It showed us so many things in basically a few seconds. Jeremy Irons' Alfred will be more hands-on than any we've seen before, similar to the Arkham games, and Ben Affleck's Batman is just perfect. That opening action sequence was as close to Batman from any Arkham game I've played or any graphic novel or comic book I've read. Look, I love Nolan's movies, but they didn't have this side of Batman, really. He was pretty much a weak fighter. That was more of the Ninja side of Batman. Michael Keaton was a good detective, and let's not delve into any Batmen under Joel Schumacher. Snyder's, or Affleck's, Batman, feels like Batman. I was really skeptical about Affleck's casting back in 2013, but definitely not anymore. Coming to think of it, this really is a Batman trailer. The teaser focused on Superman, while the other two trailers were a mix. Good balance.

There's barely any new footage at all. Even some of Lex Luthor's lines are carried over. Luthor, by the way, will not disappoint, despite what everyone already is complaining about Jesse Eisenburg's portrayal.

The score for this trailer is just brilliant. The music consistently builds up and drops, and it adds a great effect to it. This subtlety and tone is really what this movie needs, and I hope the final product is something similar.

The final shot. Oh my goodness, that final shot. I'm not even going to describe it, just watch it. Henry Cavill's acting is incredible.

This movie has been building up for over 75 years, and I've never been more excited to see it. Please, Warner Brothers, do not mess this up.

Captain America: Civil War Trailer World Premiere - Why I Loved It

This is part two of a two part series, explaining how, and how not, to make movie trailers.
Part one is linked here: http://reviewsbymihir.blogspot.in/2016/01/batman-v-superman-dawn-of-justice.html

Captain America: Civil War opens on the 6th of May, and the first trailer was unveiled by Robert Downey Junior and Chris Evans on Jimmy Kimmel Live, on the 24th of November, 2015.
The film stars Evans as Captain America, RDJ as Iron Man, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, Tom Holland as Spider-Man and many, many more.

It was thought that a trailer for this movie was long overdue, and when it finally landed, the internet exploded. For a good reason.
I watched this trailer a million times, and can never get enough of it. I actually developed so much of a fetish to it, that I made one myself. It's nowhere near as good as the actual one, but it was fun to make nonetheless.

The trailer starts off simple, leaving off from the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I liked that. It's good to see that this is still a sequel to the previous movie, which in itself was brilliant. It's known immediately that the government is after James Barnes (Bucky) for his acts as The Winter Soldier. Steve Rogers, however, knows that he was under the influence of HYDRA, and it can be seen that he is mostly recovered from that. At the same time, it's revealed that the government wants superheroes under their control, which is the basis for the Civil War story.
That is pretty much all I know about the plot. And I'm not complaining about that. I'm praising it. If you read through my problems with the second trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice, you'd know that I don't like spoilers, and this trailer has me excited for the movie, while leaving a lot of the surprises to the movie.

Of course, I analysed this trailer with everything in my arsenal. That's what I do. I spotted Crossbones, without the help of the internet. (For anyone who wants to know, I chose the Dark Side when Google introduced the Star Wars theme, hence the glowing red time bar)
 

But I didn't find anything that put me off. And I liked that. Pretty much every second of this trailer has something that I can get pumped up for, while not ruining anything for me. Plot details are revealed, but they are core plot details, that is general information, rather than something that could come as a surprise. The supposed teams before this released were almost identical to the ones confirmed in this trailer, and of course, Black Panther!


The difference between this and the <SPOILER> revealed in the BvS trailer is that we knew he was going to be in the movie, so it didn't spoil anything for us. It just made me happy to see him. That's the thing. This trailer served one purpose: Introduction, and that's what it did. Iron man's first reveal was great, and you can really understand both sides of the conflict. Spider-Man hasn't been shown yet, but perhaps a tease later on, or nothing at all until the actual movie could be fine.

What I really want to talk about though, much like the Batman v Superman trailer, is the last sequence. Leading up, there's a montage of action scenes with heavy music, and the suddenly the screen goes black and the music drops. Then we get some of the most emotional dialogue ever put in a trailer. And you can bet I'm going to transcript all of it.

Steve Rogers: "I'm sorry Tony. You know I wouldn't do this if I had any other choice. But he's my friend".
Tony Stark: "So was I".

This is where I realised that the Russo Brothers are right for the job. Just like The Winter Soldier, they're going to put emotion into this. It's going to be personal. I know a lot of people are going to have problems with that, arguing that Civil War was about ideologies and not a personal vendetta, but I prefer this. It adds a weight to the movie. Depth. You can see why Captain America is fighting for his friend, but you can see how Iron Man is feeling, and you can sympathise with him.
This is interesting. Look at Tony Stark. He's a billionaire, genius, playboy and philanthropist (not my words), but at the end of the day, despite all of that, he values that friendship he has/had with Steve Rogers. Isn't that just amazing? Tony Stark's character from Iron Man to now has evolved so much, and you can understand why. Yes, I made out all of that from just three words. Welcome to my world.

Ending the trailer, immediately following that sequence of dialogue, is one of the most incredible fights the Marvel Cinematic Universe has seen thus far. It's really small scale, but that's what sold it. And it looks spectacular. Iron Man is completely on the back foot against Captain America and The Winter Soldier, and the very last shot appears to be Steve Rogers slamming his shield into Tony Stark's head. Then the title comes up in big lettering, and I click replay. Over and over. I'm going to leave it here.

Something worth talking about (potential spoiler):
I didn't catch this, but my friend did. If you observe Bucky's lip movements at 1:58, you might read "Steve's dead!". Now, at the end of Civil War, Steve Rogers actually does die, but I can't be sure that the movie adaptation will take the same route. Considering Crossbones (the one who murders him) is in the movie, you never know...

Fun fact: The friend that I mentioned in my Star Wars: The Force Awakens review, the article I did about the Batman v Superman trailer 2, and above, are all the same person. 

Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice Trailer 2 - Why I Hated It

Greetings. Today's a bit unorthodox. I'm not doing any reviews as such, but I'm going to talk about how to - and how not to - make a movie trailer, starting with the latter. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Trailer 2 was released on the 2nd of December, 2015.

A week before this trailer was unveiled on Jimmy Kimmel Live, the first trailer for Captain America: Civil War was released (on the same show). I thought it was odd that Warner Bros. were immediately following up to that, but nonetheless I was excited for it, and the day it released, I didn't even take off my school bag when I got home, and played it.
I wish I had taken all the time in the world to sort my things out after school and then forget this trailer even existed.

The first sequence was great. Of all the collisions and action we've seen between Superman and Batman, it was nice to see Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne actually have a conversation. I've mentioned before, if you make something personal, you make it better.
When Lex Luthor interrupted them, that should have been the ending of the trailer. In fact, there was a recent TV spot just like that. I don't care if the trailer would have been short, at least I would still be really excited about this movie. I'm still going to watch it (of course I am), but I have my doubts now. All of that is because of what follows. Once again, don't get me wrong. The first trailer, as in, the Comic Con trailer, was brilliant, I thought it was perfect. But this just... Wasn't.

Let me get one thing clear: Jesse Eisenburg is not the problem I have with this. I think he's a great actor and I look forward to watching him portray Lex Luthor.
My problems with this trailer really start when Luthor says "If man won't kill God, the Devil will do it". Then the rumours of Doomsday appearing in this movie are confirmed, in the worst way possible. But I'll get to his appearance later.

Firstly: Why was he even in this trailer? Marketing cannot be an excuse. The movie is titled 'Batman v Superman'. You could have that name and a couple of poster splattered everywhere, and people will still watch it. You don't need to throw everything at the potential audience, because you're going to receive your money anyway. For casual fans, this may not be much, but not for people like me. I hate spoilers. I had to be on scout for a whole week in December because Star Wars: The Force Awakens released a week late here. Whenever there's a wrestling event, I stay off the internet completely because I don't want anything ruined for me. I wanted to go into this movie and be surprised with Doomsday. The casual fan might not even know who he is, but I over-analyse comic book movies, and I know I'm not the only one. If there's even a small hint at something in a trailer, I'll find it. And I know I'm not the only one. Look, we are the people that you make these movies for. You can't build a cinematic universe for casual fans, because just a regular ticket buyer won't make links to things, won't speculate. It's people like us that do that. So throwing something like this at our face is the equivalent of slapping us across the mouth. I don't want to make a comparison to Marvel, but look at their cinematic universe. I'm sure half the people that watched Guardians Of The Galaxy don't understand a load of it, but we do! That's the point! This can't be made for them, it has to be made for us. And like I said, this is Batman v Superman! They don't need to worry about a lack of revenue, they're going to make a lot of money.
Okay, that was a lot longer than I thought it would be. I'm going to stop with that now.
Now, I'll get to the part about Doomsday's appearance. WHAT IS THAT? The internet has made comparisons to the Ninja Turtles and Abomination from The Incredible Hulk, but I'm not even going to do that. That doesn't even look much like Doomsday. This is Doomsday:


There are slight resemblances, but come on! Okay, I'll look at both sides of the coin. This could just be an initial form, and he might evolve, as Doomsday does do, and as has been rumoured (and seeing as most rumours about this movie are true, I'm probably just meaninglessly ranting here). But the CGI, for goodness' sake. It's not terrible, but by today's standards, it isn't good. I understand that it might not be the completed version, but why would you show an incomplete version? It baffles me.
Next problem: The way Batman is handled in the last part of this trailer. When Doomsday shows up, he says, and I'm not kidding you, "Oh shi--". Why? Just why? That isn't something Batman would say. Then Wonder Woman shows up, and the worst possible exchange of dialogue takes place between Superman and Batman.
"Is she with you?"
"I thought she was with you."
WHY IS THIS A PART OF THIS MOVIE? I'm not one to rage out so much, but this trailer made me. Batman is labelled the World's Greatest Detective. This was pointed out to me by a friend. Why would he ever say anything like that?
Then the last shot is the Trinity standing together, and then 'Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice' pops up on the screen. What I'm thinking here is "They're really focusing on the second part of that title, aren't they?". I knew there wouldn't be a definitive winner between the both of them in this movie, but I at least wanted it to be solely about them. Now I'm afraid that this movie will have too much.

I'm not an anti-DC Marvel fan. I'm not. Most of my comic books/graphic novels are DC properties. But I legitimately criticise anything. Iron Man 2 was terrible, I'll admit it. I'm not going to gloss over anything. This trailer just didn't work for me. I could arguably see act one, two and three (in sequence) in this trailer, and you can't make a movie trailer that way.

I'll make a post about how you should make a movie trailer later in the day (or I'll try to). For now, I'll leave you with this trailer, if you dare to watch it (My advice: Don't).