Conflicted Feelings About Trailers A-Go-Go: "Avengers" and the "Promethus" viral short

[thehefner]

I hate to say this--to be the ONLY person I've seen so far to say this--but "meh."

I'm actually at that point of superhero exhaustion where the Avengers trailer does absolutely nothing for me aside from that bit of the Hulk saving Tony and Loki's snazzy new outfit. I never wanted to feel this way, but ugh, I just can't muster up anything close to enthusiasm for it. At this point, it feels like being excited for the next big event storyline, all hype and gimmick, which has almost certainly been overly-produced by committee until all life has been mushed out, just as Iron Man 2 was. There's too much at stake with this film for there to be much anything in the way of breathing space, creatively-speaking. And whatever there is will be coming from Joss Whedon, whose dialogue and creative bad habits I absolutely loathe.

In more intriguing-to-me news which will only be relevant to the more hardcore geeks amongst you:

God, he's so magnificently hubristacular. Also, I love that the format for the film is a TED Talk. I don't know why, but that touch makes me ridiculously happy.

That said, some people are taking Ridley Scott at his word that Weyland will be the one and only connection between Prometheus and Alien/Aliens (there are no other movies! None!). This is patently not true, considering that the also-awesome trailer clearly showed the same ship and "space jockey" room from the beginning of Alien. So either Ridley's gone Lucas-levels of delusional on us or--more likely--he's fibbin' to try and keep a few surprises secret.

I can't imagine that we won't see ONE glimpse of a Xenomorph, even something as small as an egg. But even still, I don't need that. I like that they're fleshing out the Weyland-Yutani Corporation in of itself. I think that'll add some nice extra enjoyment to the older movies.

Of course, the question now is whether nor not Aliens VS Predator is continuity, since Lance Henricksen played Mr. Weyland. People are already speculating that Lance and Guy could be uncle/nephew or something. I like the idea that Guy!Weyland designed the Bishops after his uncle. Of course, that would mean that he's the same guy who's in Alien³ WHICH DOESN'T EXIST LALALALA NEVER MIND.

And just to bring this back full circle, I feel it worth reminding the world that Joss Whedon wrote Alien Resurrection. While I love me some Marvel comics, I think I'll be putting all my intrigue on the side of Prometheus.

Never mind that Prometheus is being co-written by one of the main writers for Lost, so your own mileage may vary there. Hopefully Ridley's creative control with counteract any of Lindleof's bad habits.

Comments

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

Still, though ... robot Fin Fang Foom at the end of that trailer.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Is that what it's meant to be? It just looks like a Bay-Transformers-derived robot of what I assume is from the not-Skrulls alien army at Loki's disposal.

[kmousie.livejournal.com]

I should totally leave a pithy comment on the topic of your post, but my brain is shrieking, "HI, JOHN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" So, uh, hi. :-D I miss you, man.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Miss you too! I so rarely have the ability/energy to compose entries here these days. I hate that I've become one of those people who largely posts personal stuff to Facebook, but that's mainly because it's where everyone is. But I'm still active on LJ over at about_faces, which is pretty much my main hub for online activity, and where what little of my geek energy goes nowadays. I know you're not really into Batman, but hey, you're always welcome to poke in 'round those parts! I post all kinda of neato stuff, I swear! :)

[kmousie.livejournal.com]

I'm not into Batman the way you're into Batman, but that doesn't mean I'm not really into Batman! I'll friend/watch about_faces too. And we should be Facebook friends, no?

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

We should! Search for me! I'm the John Hefner who looks like the Riddler! :D

[kmousie.livejournal.com]

Friend request sent! Yay!!

[chickenhat.livejournal.com]

2023 and people are still wearing business suits with badly tailored breaks in the pant cuffs?

And also, a plain light grey tie with a medium grey jacket? Only one button? I'm even disappointed with the pattern on the fabric. REALLY mad that they've got skinny Guy Ritchie and they couldn't even splurge on a VEST! (He'd look fabulous if they unbuttoned the jacket and had him in a vest.)

At least in Aliens Paul Reiser turned his collar up and TRIED to make it look like we'd be wearing something a little bit different, but NO, apparently humans are boring and we've apparently stopped evolving for the next 10 years.

*pout*

At least the E-Suits look cool.

And maybe there'll be some cool xenomorphs.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

It's one of those things we'll have to accept, just as we'll have to accept that somehow people several years after this story will all be wearing 70's beige spacesuits and using computers with green text on black backgrounds.

As for xenomorphs, I think the best policy is to go in expecting little to nothing. Let's try to take Ridley at his word as much as possible so that we can be pleasantly surprised with any scraps that come our way.

[tamburlaine.livejournal.com]

Guy Pearce totally gave me a boner in that short.

Just imagine what the FILM is gonna do. My underpants are going to explode!

[tamburlaine.livejournal.com]

I get nerdboners. Do you? Should I seek help?

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Nerdboners are an acceptable, healthy, and natural part of being a passionate person with interesting interests. But what do I know, I'm only an amateur geekologist.

[insaneboingo.livejournal.com]

I completely understand your feelings for The Avengers. I've been pretty burnt out with all of the superhero movies for some time. And, like you, I was just sorta "eh" about this trailer. It is possibly also because I still have massive qualms with several casting choices (Scarlett Johansson and the new Bruce Banner, mainly) but also, I just don't think there was any kinda "wow" factor to this trailer.

I was happy to see The Hulk save Iron Man, and I was happy to see Stark Tower (I'm not even sure why, it just made me smile.

I am incredibly excited for Prometheus. Incredibly. One of my best friends and I had an hour long squeefest when we first saw the trailer. I am loving the viral marketing as well. *draws hearts*

[deadwalrus.livejournal.com]

Actually...I sort-of agree. My housemate is incredibly excited for it and I get into in-depth discussions with him about it, but my enthusiasm is mostly faked. Apart from the phenomenon of simply marrying a selection of franchises together into one movie and seeing what happens thereof, it's not really grabbing me very much.

To tell you the truth, I suspect it'll be not unlike another Transformers or Die Hard movie, with a sprig of Chris Nolan. Plenty of snappy quotations, merchandise-worthy costumes, gigantic set-pieces that'll get uploaded to YouTube so that bored teenagers can like the singular comment "Awesom!!111!!one! Iorn man rules" twenty-five times in a row. But nothing that's going to get me watching the movie more than once, if I care enough to watch it at all.

[impossible-pain.livejournal.com]

woah, that's some righteous pre-judging, dude. i'll bet you didn't like it, either, did you?

i loved the TED talk, too. brilliant idea (seems lindelloff-esque to me).

also, i like alienᵌ + alien resurrection...
in particular i think fincher's alien is an underrated masterpiece...

forget avp, though. that didn't happen.

[deadwalrus.livejournal.com]

Also, here's a thing - Prometheus is all about the scientist explorers seeking out the alien 'Gods', and possibly trying to steal their technology, right? A sort of "Ridley Scott Presents 2001: A Space Odyssey", sort-of-thing. Immediately analogous to the Greek mythological figure referenced in the title.

Scott's handed us a vital clue here, cloaked in misdirection. Weyland mentions the legend of Prometheus, and the immediate hoped-for reaction in audience members is going to be "Yes, cool, that's that title of the movie and the spaceship". But that's not the significant part. Notice his emphasis is on the Titan's punishment - "tied to a rock as an eagle ripped through his belly, and ate his liver over and over. Day after day - Ad Infinitum".

No way, no WAY is Weyland the only connection. One way or another, we're going to see how that Space Jockey got opened up from the inside. And we're going to find out what the Prometheus did to warrant the alien gods releasing their 'Eagle'...so to speak.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Sorry for taking so long to respond to this, since I wanted to mention that this is an excellent observation that I completely missed.

[night-train-fm.livejournal.com]

I'm not really sure what they're doing with Loki's robot army either; based on the trailers, they have even less charisma than the Bayformers. Unless there's an actual twist involving them, it looks like they're just Loki's props in-and-out-of-universe, with the team vs Loki (and each other) delivering the actual conflicts.

I seem to recall you defending Iron Man 2? (Although I admit it didn't feel quite as...organic ? Is organic the word?)

Personally, I blame your superhero-related funk on your inexplicable decision to subject yourself to the Green Lantern movie.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I did like IM2 at the time, and was frustrated with people for disliking it for reasons which annoyed me, but which I cannot recall at present. Since then, though, I've grown frustrated the more I think about how IM2 turned into a great big tedious dry-run world-building exercise for Avengers, as well as how it wasted Whiplash, who actually had a legit reason to hate Stark that went completely unexplored. What really killed my enjoyment was seeing the originally filed opening scene, which was so completely superior to the one they used instead. It perfectly encapsulated how they (Marvel, not Faverau) entirely misunderstood what made Stark so goddamn compelling in the first movie. It emphasized the superhuman celebrity over the flawed human inside the armor, and that pisses me off more than I can say right now.

[night-train-fm.livejournal.com]

Valid points all. At least Thor was good - I'm kind of surprised how fond I am of it in retrospect. The basic setup - two brothers, one of whom happens to have 'fangirl bait' practically stamped on his forehead, vying a throne - doesn't do anything for me on its own, and yet...

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

I'm always happy to see people *not* absolving Whedon of all responsability for Alien: Resurrection's suckiness.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Granted, I'm predisposed to be harsher since I'm decidedly not fan of Joss', but even still, that film was fucked up right down to the script level even before the Delicatessen/City of Lost Children/Amélie director gave his own... unique flair to the film. Never forget the alien/human hybrid (a bad idea no matter how it would have been designed) and Brad Dourif's line, "You are a beautiful... beautiful... butterflyyyyyy."

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

The crew of the Betty in Alien: Resurrection is *so* clearly a prototype for that of Serenity on Firefly. It's only that Jeunet's style makes their grotesque traits stand out more, whereas in the TV show & the movie the style (and his being in love with them) sugarcoated them.

I'm a fan of some of of Whedon's works (I freaking love Buffy when it first aired), but not of the cult of personality around the man, and there are patterns I've grown to loathe about his body of work, and several of them can be traced back to A:R, no matter that he tries to disown it. They're there.