FILM by Shane “Chum” Hnetka
Flicker Alley, a U.S. DVD company that specializes in silent films, has announced an on-demand DVD service. Soon you’ll be able to order silent films that will be custom-burned onto DVDs and mailed to you. It’s the same thing Warner Brothers has been doing for some time with most of their catalogue of films. Check out www.flickeralley.com for awesome films, like the 1925 silent classic The Lost World. It has dinosaurs that attack people.
Trailer Wars
The April 16-17 weekend was a mega-trailerpalooza. First, Disney released the second trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and that created quite the buzz for a movie that doesn’t open until December. It looks like it might be pretty good. I want a poster of that crashed star destroyer in a desert.
Not to be outdone (or at least desperately trying not to be outdone) Warner released (after it was leaked) the first trailer for next year’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which is one of the dumbest blockbuster titles ever. Why not just call it Batman VS Superman? Anyway, it looks like Superman isn’t a beacon of hope, justice and all that’s good anymore. Nope, now everyone’s afraid of him so Batman must kick his ass.
The trailer is dark, joyless and desperately tries to evoke Frank Miller’s classic The Dark Knight Returns, about an old Batman who comes out of retirement to set the world right and kick Superman’s ass because Supes has become a pawn of the U.S. government. It’s supposed to be the final Batman story. Strange plot to start a franchise with.
You know what they called the old Batman-Superman team-up comics? World’s Finest. How times change.
Still Trailing
Also in April, Fox released a full trailer for this summer’s Fantastic Four reboot, which finally shows characters like The Thing and of course Dr. Doom, the only villain the FF can fight on the big screen for some strange reason. The latest trailer for Jurassic World featured dinosaurs attacking people (hmm, sounds familiar). I also believe at some point there was a new Terminator Genisys trailer but nobody cares.
Sure seems like a whole lot of effort just to sell movies but I guess it’s like chumming the water. A little drop of blood and the fans go crazy.
Shane Hnetka is a Regina film and comic book nerd. He also writes Dog Blog’s weekly “Sunday Matinee” column at prairiedogmag.com.
