A Smattering of Comic Movie Trailers (and Posters)

It’s San Diego Comic-Con weekend, so a bunch of comic book movie trailers (and posters) have been released. Here are the ones I’m most interested in talking about.

The Justice League trailer is a lot of unconnected scenes, but they open with Wonder Woman, showing that maybe they learned something from the success of her film. (I do wish Gal Godot would stop looking so puzzled when her character’s supposed to be concentrating, though.)

Oh! Don’t watch this if you didn’t see Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, as I didn’t, because the apparent premise of the team assembling is based on a pretty big spoiler from that movie.

Love J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon! Aquaman (Jason Momoa) looks great. I’m glad they’re giving Ezra Miller’s Flash a sense of humor, because God knows the DC films need a lot of that, but it’s still weird not seeing Grant Gustin in that role. I’m curious to see how much of Cyborg’s (Ray Fisher) story we get.

I wish there was another female hero involved, and the whole thing still looks overly bombastic. Am I supposed to understand the threat here? Because I have no idea who or what they’re fighting. Which I, in my old-fashioned way, still think matters.

Apparently, it’s Darkseid’s Parademons. (Thanks, Susana.) And now Cyborg’s origin is connected to him. Hunh. Obviously, we’re supposed to have seen the first trailer already. My fault for not paying attention until after I saw Wonder Woman. Justice League is due out in November.

Justice League movie poster

Speaking of Wonder Woman, Professor Marston & the Wonder Women brings the story of the heroine’s creator’s odd life to the screen in October.

Readers of The Secret History of Wonder Woman know the trio that made up psychologist William Moulton Marston’s (Luke Evans) home life, including his wife (Rebecca Hall) and student Olive Byrne (Bella Heathcote). Moviegoers may find the story surprising. I’m looking forward to seeing it dramatized.

There’s a new trailer for Thor: Ragnarok, the third movie starring the alien Norse god, also due out in November. In it, Thor (now with short hair) gets captured and forced to fight in a gladiatorial ring against the Hulk on an alien planet.

Loki’s (Tom Hiddleston) back, which is always good, and Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie looks terrific. No line as good as the first trailer‘s “He’s a friend from work!” though. The poster is insanely neon.

Thor: Ragnarok poster

The Kingsman sequel, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, is out in September. In it, the British headquarters of the secret service group is destroyed, so they team up with “an allied spy organization in the US called Statesman”.

(There’s also a red band version, which appears to differ mostly in use of the F-word.)

I’m disappointed they’re playing up the cowboy aspect of the US agents so hard, but that’s because I wanted to see the US characters as well-dressed as the British. And Colin Firth’s character isn’t dead after all!

And it’s not based on a comic book, although there was a stunning graphic novel adaptation of it, but here’s the teaser for A Wrinkle in Time, coming March 2018.

Meg Murry (Storm Reid) sets out to rescue her brother (Deric McCabe) and father (Chris Pine) with the aid of three supernatural beings (Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling). It’s one of the classics of children’s literature, one of the few with a scientific basis and a girl hero, and I can’t wait to see it.

A Wrinkle in Time



9 comments

  • James Schee

    Im guessing that is Steppenwolf the league is fighting. He’s similar looking and apparently got same plan as the character dud in the Earth 2 series that was part of New 52.

    Thor with short hair just looks wrong to me.

    Best trailers I saw where for DC tv shows and Lucifer.

  • I like Thor’s hair! The long hair looked a bit like a refugee from a heavy metal band.

    I haven’t seen the Lucifer trailer yet, but I kind of like not knowing what to expect when I know I like the show.

  • James Schee

    Lol I dont know it’s almost a Felicity hair moment for me. But movie does look fun which we could use more of.

    Trailer doesn’t spoil just quick scenes of stuff you’d expect anyway. Glad they are keeping the actress that played his mom. And curious how Tom Welling(Clark on Smallville) will be used as he joins the show.

  • Daniel

    I think the Justice League trailer looks great. But then I’m someone who unapologetically loves what Zack Snyder has done with the first two films in the series (not having a preconceived bias—like most fanboys do—allows one to enjoy films on their own merits, not just based on whether or not they meet my own ideas of what it *should have* been).

  • I couldn’t get past the Superman in his movies not being like any version of the character I knew. But then, I gave up on his films after Sucker Punch. (I really should repost that review, just for posterity.)

  • Daniel

    “I couldn’t get past the Superman in his movies not being like any version of the character I knew.”

    That’s pretty much the point I was making. The Snyder films take a different—yet still completely valid—approach to the character(s). One can obviously be free to like or dislike that approach, but not liking something because it doesn’t match one’s preferred version does not make those films bad or poorly made (as many critics and fanboys have asserted) any more than arguing that Chagall’s “Blue Man” is a bad painting simply because one prefers the color red.

    It is possible to like films that go counter to one’s natural biases. It think the Marvel films are too glib and jokey for my own personal preferences, but I still find most of them entertaining by evaluating them based on what they set out to create (even though, had I been in charge, I would have taken a completely different approach), and recognize the craft that went into making them.

    That’s not to say that standards don’t exist. For instance, I would argue that “Suicide Squad” is a staggeringly bad film by using objective criteria to evaluate its quality (poorly written, poorly edited, poorly structured, poor shot selection, etc.).

  • I disagree that his version of the character is “valid”, but I’m old-fashioned that way. It doesn’t matter to me, except that I disagree with your assertion (as I’m reading it – I may be mistaken) that I can’t say the movie is bad for that reason. It’s similar to how, if someone decided to make Batman a sunbathing surfer dude, I could say that that approach was a bad idea because it missed the whole point of the character. :)

    Then again, I love the inclusion of humor in the Marvel movies, so it’s clear we just don’t agree on what a superhero movie should look like.

  • Daniel

    “…[If] someone decided to make Batman a sunbathing surfer dude, I could say that that approach was a bad idea because it missed the whole point of the character.”

    But they more or less did that in an episode of the Adam West TV series (Batman vs. Joker in a surfing competition). And yet people have reconciled that the Adam West version of Batman can equally co-exist alongside the Christian Bale version of Batman with both interpretations being equally valid. Some people may prefer one version to the other, but preference does not equate to judgment of quality. In fact, that’s been the whole basis of the recent critical re-evaluation and re-embrace of the Adam West series in recent years after having been shunned by fanboys for 30 or 40 years.

    (Aside: Negatively judging the Adam West TV series as being of lesser quality (as people used to do) because it takes a more lighthearted approach to the character would be like dismissing The Godfather trilogy because it wasn’t as funny as Johnny Dangerously. Work should be judged on what it set out to do, not on how it aligned with one’s preconceptions.)

    People could make the same case (no pun intended) about the Basil Rathbone version of Sherlock Holmes vs. the Benedict Cumberbatch version (which radically changes much of what makes up the Sherlock character, yet which most Sherlock Holmes fans embrace nonetheless). I would argue that the Zack Snyder version of Superman, Wonder Woman, et. al. can also peacefully co-exist as equally valid interpretations alongside Christopher Reeve, Lynda Carter, the CW DC shows, etc.

    I’m personally fine with the Marvel movies and their lighter approach even though it doesn’t align with my personal preferences, just as I’m fine with The Chronicles of Prydain co-existing as a more lighthearted approach to fantasy storytelling sitting alongside a more adult, realistic approach to very similar material taken by Game of Thrones. I’m of the mind that more variety in interpretations is better than less.

    In the end, I’m not trying to change people’s minds about what they should or shouldn’t like (reasonable people can disagree, different strokes for different folks), but rather hoping to convince people to be less quick to dismiss something as being of lesser quality simply because it goes counter to one’s own biases and preferences.

  • Thank you for making such a literate case. Lots to think about.

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