Trailers are more than the reason you can come 15 minutes late to a movie. A good preview can get an audience buzzing about a film months before its release, and a bad one can ensure that no one shows up on opening day. To help you sift through the trail(er) mix, here’s the lowdown on seven trailers playing in a theater near you. You’ll never be late to the Bridge again.
The Curious Case
of Benjamin Button
Time isn’t linear — or so Benjamin Button would have us believe.
The trailer, set to a haunting score, makes no promise of a happily-ever-after. But in two short minutes, the trailer reminds the audience to take life as it comes — even if it moves in reverse. This sweet glimpse at what promises to be a beautiful film brings a whole new meaning to the word “retro.”
A (12/25)
—Jason Wald
Revolutionary Road
Ah, Titanic 2: This Time, No Iceberg… Or Boat. Two starry-eyed dreamers are devastated about their mundane married lifestyle in 1950s suburbia. Kate Winslet silently screams over plinky music. Leo DiCaprio pouts and throws his fedora around in frustration. Sunlight filters through trees. People drink orange juice. Presence of an actual plot is highly debatable. B- (12/26)
—Victoria Mazgalev
Quantum of Solace
You know you’re going to see the next James Bond movie, and Hollywood knows it too. So the trailer for what will obviously be one of this fall’s blockbusters merely features microsecond-length bits of action and dialogue that elicit undeserved anticipatory gasps from the audience. More prolonged shots of Daniel Craig’s abs and less of transportation vehicles, please. B (11/14)
—Jayme Chen
Frost/Nixon
Take some old school Nixon footage, add Sam Rockwell with that shaggy haircut he likes so much, sprinkle in some great one-liners about the ’77 Frost/Nixon interviews and stir. The result is a preview of the quality acting, snappy dialogue and, with the Ron Howard directorial stamp, serious Oscar potential that will undoubtedly come with this big-screen adaptation of the Tony-nominated play. B+ (12/5)
—Tucker Johns
Doubt
Doubt knows it has star power: the entire trailer focuses on the movie’s leading lady, Meryl Streep. While it starts out looking like a sequel to The Devil Wears Prada (just imagine Anna Wintour in a habit), the trailer takes on an eerie psychological quality that results in a fair portrayal of the movie’s level of suspense without revealing too much of its plot. A- (12/12)
—Michael Gold
Twilight
Twilight’s unapologetically short trailer leaves much of the film’s plot unexplored — aside from the inexplicable love between the impossibly attractive (and even more impossibly pale) vampire Edward and his high school sweetie Bella. This preview won’t impress newcomers to the novel, but at least they can gawk at the vampire eye candy. C+ (11/21)
—Brian Tran
Harry Potter
and the Half Blood Prince
Though Harry makes little more than a guest appearance in this trailer, the sudden flash from the young Tom Riddle’s sinister face to the adult Voldemort’s menacing one is enough to send chills up any Potter-phile’s spine. The trailer even answers any residual questions about the movie’s release date: the appearance of the word “November” is followed by Dumbledore’s resounding “No.”
B+ (11/21) (7/17)
—Jessica Spiegelman
