The final trailer! Less than a month until our Mockingjay rises! Huzzah!
Pause at: 0:24 for sad, scared Peeta. Natalie Dormer is in the background at 0:43, but we can feel her glare all the way over here. If that’s not a One True Pairing at 0:49 we don’t know what is.
Essential Quote: “I have a message for President Snow: If we burn, you burn with us!”—Katniss Everdeen
The Other One Everyone Is Talking About: Furious 7
For obvious reasons, there is a heavy sadness hanging on this trailer. Paul Walker died in a car accident nearly a year ago, and here we see him suiting up for his final turn as Brian O’Conner, the role that broke his career wide open 13 years ago in the first Fast and the Furious installment. No one could have anticipated the initial or enduring success of this franchise, but it gave us a steady drip of Walker’s SoCal good looks and easy charm for more than a decade. Here’s to you, Paul. May so many cars be raced, and so many more sequels be produced in your honor. In addition to the usual suspects, Furious 7 also welcomes Jason Statham, Djimon Hounsou, Tony Jaa, Ronda Rousey, and Kurt Russell into the action. And thank goodness, because the fastest film series in history didn’t have nearly enough of an Expendables edge to it before.
Pause at: 0:09 for our favorite Furious badass. Stop again at 0:19, 0:45, 0:53, 1:22, 1:28, 1:37, 1:56, 2:00, 2:14, and 2:18 for everything you’ve ever wanted.
Essential Quote: “Just when you think it couldn’t get any better, huh?”—Brian O’Conner
The One You Wish Everyone Would Talk About: Ex Machina
This project is exciting from 360 degrees. It’s directed by Alex Garland, the writer behind 28 Days Later, Sunshine, and Dredd; it stars Oscar Isaac, and it’s scored by Geoff Barrow, the founder of Portishead. That is just nuts. Issac plays Nathan Bateman, the reclusive genius CEO of a major Internet search company, and a programmer in his employ named Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson) has just won a competition to spend a week at his palatial mountain home. Upon arriving, Caleb learns he is to be the human component in a Turing test to evaluate, well, the humanity of Bateman’s latest AI project—an absolutely gorgeous droid named Ava (played by Alicia Vikander). Obviously, this movie exists because Ava’s capabilities and emotional/intellectual acumen exceed anything Bateman or Smith are prepared to confront. It’s man versus man. It’s man versus woman. It’s man versus machine. It’s man versus self! Ex Machina looks and sounds as seductive as Ava herself, and the notion of a psychological thriller love triangle between two guys and a stunning robot woman who’s more powerful than both her “suitors” combined sounds like every kind of awesome.
Pause at: 0:49 and 1:07 to meet Ava. Stop again at 1:20, 1:30, and 1:35 to see the haunting realization of a wickedly real AI being.
Essential Quote: “One day, the AIs are going to look back on us the same way we look at fossils.”—Nathan Bateman
The Next Netflix Project: Marco Polo
So this spot doesn’t give us a crazy amount of plot for Neflix’s next series event, but it sure does make it look enticing. Marco Polo focuses on the famed explorer as he makes his way through (and probably just tries to survive) the court of Kublai Khan, the 13th century Mongolian warlord and emperor. From the looks of this it will be brimming with dimly lit opium dens, sex, fighting, mysticism, and all the things we’ve come to expect from sword and sandals programming—except this time in China! The Mediterranean nations don’t get to have all the fun.
Pause at: Netflix is getting its HBO on at 0:22 with some majorly sweeping period set design. Ew at 0:26. Wethinks this is Kublai Kahn at 0:32. Casual naked cartwheeling at 0:45? Casual opium den hangout at 0:49? Really getting their HBO on at 1:01.
Essential Quote: “Marco, the blood of an adventurer courses through your veins, like a sickness. You will enjoy the greatest adventure of all.”
The Sci-Fi Adventure One: The Last Scout
Fifty years from now humanity has obliterated Earth via a nuclear war between China and the United States. Those who could afford to get off the planet through either private or commercial means have survived. Then things take a sharp turn towards Battlestar Galactica when the human remnant sets out for a new home world. It looks Boom! Pow! Space! Explosions! Ending worlds! Good enough! And it’s also a feel good story in that the whole project was funded via Indiegogo. A little science fiction survival story that could!
Pause at: 0:12, 0:18, 0:31, 0:57—way cool.
The Love Story: Comet
Wow. Considering the emotional impact of this trailer hit with the weight of an entire movie, Comet will either be a wondrous visual feast of well-executed romance or just an emotional death sentence. It follows the story of Dell (Justin Long) and Kimberly (Emmy Rossum), a couple who meets at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery to watch a meteor shower. And that’s where it stops making a whole lot of linear sense. The narrative jumps across time, and seemingly a little bit of space, too. We see Dell and Kimberly alternately as head-over-heels for one another and on the brink of emotional ruin. And we would love to tell you more about it, but really that’s all we’ve got. One thing’s for sure: It’s great to see Justin Long broadening his range with this and the recent nightmare of Kevin Smith’s Tusk. He couldn’t just be a version of the Mac vs. PC guy forever
Pause at: 0:33, 0:47, 0:53, 0:56, and 1:41 for snaps of some of the luscious art direction happening in this movie.
Song: Tom Rosenthal, “It’s OK”
Essential Quote: “There are parallel universes out there where you are with me, and whatever universe that is, that’s the one my heart lives in.”—Dell
The Trippiest: A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
This is an Iranian vampire western that takes place in a town called Bad City. Excited yet?? Bad City is home to all sorts of unsavory elements: streetwalkers, junkies, gangsters … and a lonely vampire that is quietly stalking the residents of this hopeless ghost town. This trailer looks a bit like if Robert Rodriguez directed Let The Right One In and set it in the Middle East. But instead, it’s the first movie from director Lily Amirpour, and it draws inspiration from horror, graphic novels, spaghetti westerns, and the “Iranian New Wave.” We didn’t realize it before, but now that we’ve gotten a taste this is obviously a soup of inspirations we can’t live without.
Pause at: 0:19, 0:27, and 0:44 to see a girl who can most definitely protect herself on the mean streets. Stop at :49, :50, 1:03, and 1:15 for more unique creepies.
Essential Quote: “I’m bad.”—The Girl (Sheila Vand)
The Quirky One: Zero Motivation
Ever wish there were more send-ups of the boring day-to-day operations carried out by women in the Israeli Defense Force? Us too! And our wishes have been granted in the form of Zero Motivation, the first directorial effort from Israeli filmmaker Talya Lavie. It zooms in on the fake lives of several women stationed at a remote desert base with nothing much to do but play Minesweeper and shoot each other with staple guns until their two year term of service is up. It’s sort of like Office Space meets Sgt. Bilko, but with a more acutely sharpened satirical sensibility. Sounds like fun!
Pause at: 0:19. Hard at work. The thrill of service at 0:24, 0:37, 1:26 and 1:48.
Essential Quote: “We’re laidback around here.”
The Small Screen Standout: Babylon
Perhaps one of the greatest elements of this Golden Age of television is the influx of international influence on our domestic shows, and direct access to imports from other countries—mainly the UK. Another great externality? Top-notch film directors and performers making the jump to small screen because juicy roles in serials are as compelling—if not more so—as the movie scripts getting thrown at them. And thanks to all that, here we have Babylon. It’s helmed by Danny Boyle and stars, Brit Marling (swoon), James Nesbitt, Jesse Armstrong, and Paterson Joseph, among others. It’s a comedic drama, but because it’s British, still looks a lot more Luther than Brooklyn Nine-Nine in it’s sensibilities—consider, perhaps, the underrated 2009 one-season wonder The Unusuals for reference. The London police force is suffering a serious image problem, and Chief Constable Richard Miller (Nesbitt) has hired new media whiz kid named Liz Garvey (Marling) to bolster its public relations arm. Unfortunately, a massive outbreak of violence erupts right as Operation Goodwill is set to take effect. This six-part series looks lean, mean and well-worth investing in.
Pause at: 0:27. Street riots are just so bad for business. Look at that Nesbitt scowl at 0:30 and 0:34!
Essential Quote: “Adolph Hitler would sometimes appoint two people to do the same job just to see who was best.”—Liz Garvey, drawing inspiration from all the right places
The Scary One: Starry Eyes
It’s that old familiar story: Girl goes to Hollywood with dreams of making it big … only to sell her soul for fame and transform into a perversion of nature. You know, normal stuff.
Pause at: 0:52. Run away, Sarah! Then at 0:54—we said run away, Sarah! 1:09, 1:20, 1:41, and 1:53 are what happen when you don’t just run away!
Essential Quote: “Sarah, if you can’t fully let go, how can you ever transform into something else?”
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