2008 Year in Preview

Trailers    |    Posters

What a difference a year makes. Early in 2008, I opined on some of the best and worst trailers and posters I had reviewed in 2007. With a full year behind me instead of a slightly partial one as 2007 provided, the number of posters and trailers I reviewed increased dramatically.

There were 454 films with trailers released this year. Some films had multiple trailers bringing the total number I wrote snippets on to 537. In comparison, 2007 had over 450 trailers from 386 films.

On the poster front, 406 films had posters (some of them placeholders that I graded before I decided to stop) and with some having multiples, I came away with 455 total poster reviews. For 2008, I looked at over 400 posters from 350 films.

Trailers

When looking at the best trailers, some ended up moving to 2009 (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for example), many were for animated films and documentaries and the rest were somewhat disappointing. A grades went out to three films, while several films (more than 15) earned a slightly less perfect A-. Among the worst trailers, there were no F grades, two D-'s and many D's. So, let's start the list off with the Best Trailers of 2008.

Looking at the three best trailers of the year, the ones I gave the highest grades to, deciding which film would top the list and the one that would come in second was a difficult undertaking. In the end, I decided to give top honors to Fear(s) of the Dark, an animated film that gave me great hopes for the movement of animated features into the horror genre. It was taut, engaging and promised a new direction for the medium.

Ranking second for this year was the trailer for The Fall, the second film in director Tarsem's colorful oeuvre. This trailer blended eye-popping visuals with a compelling story to create the kind of experience that would draw many cinephiles to the theater even if only to see where everything was going.

The third A grade given out was to another animated feature, this one for the latest Pixar insta-classic WALL-E. Watching the preview was unlike most other experiences. It didn't go into great detail, but it promised an endearing tale of love between robots that delivered unquestionably when the viewer sat down to watch it at the theater.

Independent films delivered more bang for their buck in this year's Best Trailers list, landing five films in the list. Boy-A was an interesting story of a young man who must merge with society after a crime for which most could not forgive him. There was nothing visually dazzling in the trailer, but the compelling plot made it seem a most interesting prospect.

The third animated film in the list rounds out the Top 5. Waltz with Bashir was yet another departure for the medium taking on the view of a documentarian to explore difficult themes of young Israeli soldiers who were involved in the Lebanon War. The hand drawn style perfectly emphasized the film and made it even more interesting.

Battle in Seattle isn't the kind of film that draws audiences to the cineplex, but this trailer could easily fool you. Dramatizing the WTO protests in Seattle in 1999, the film took a number of known and unknown actors and put them into fictionalized roles of people involved in the conflict. The trailer was far more compelling than the vast majority of documentaries released in 2008.

Big budget features have the most difficult time relating with the audience since they are generally for known quantities that will see the film regardless of what the trailer looks like. So, when I first saw the Quantum of Solace trailer on the big screen, I knew I was going to watch it, but the producers really knew how to titillate the Bond base using the famed theme in a jolting and energetic way. Unfortunately, the second trailer didn't live up to those expectations, but certainly better matched the film in terms of quality.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was a tough sell for anyone. It's a period drama about a man who ages backwards based on a short story of a long-dead author. However, with the headlining Brad Pitt there to sell a wary audience, the trailer sucked the viewer in with visual confections and an interesting premise. It became the kind of film people wanted to see even if it was more akin to the stuffy costume dramas of recent years than to any big budget blockbuster.

Milk has a built-in audience, but the trailer proposes the film is more than just for that specific aud. It's a movie that speaks about one man's struggle for equality. Biopics often feel claustrophobic and dull when explored in trailers, but Milk avoids those pitfalls quite handily.

Although I wasn't holding out hope for a cinematic masterpiece, the trailer for Repo! The Genetic Opera looked a heck of a lot more entertaining than the mystifyingly critically acclaimed Sweeney Todd. It blends two genres I enjoy quite frequently, horror films and musicals. To blend both is quite an achievement and that the trailer didn't come off entirely ludicrous, I have to give it plaudits.

But, at the other end of the spectrum, there are the worst trailers of 2008 waiting for my cynical attention. So, let's get started.

When films look awful, they simply look awful and that goes for any movie that claims itself a comedy yet delivers nothing remotely funny. Beer for My Horses is a very targeted movie. It appeals to one, small segment of the population and that's it. The trailer does absolutely nothing to try and persuade other cinemagoers to check the film, which is a terrible thing for a movie releasing at the cineplex.

With a title like A Good Day to Be Black and Sexy, the poster for the film points directly to how a viewer would perceive it. However, the trailer does little to nothing to suggest the film is a blaxploitation flick and does everything it can to be boring and trivial while failing to suck in an audience.

Delgo not only embodies one of my pet peeves, it suggests a film not to unlike direct-to-video animated flicks that can't cut it in the marketplace. The trailer gives away nearly the entire plot (invoking my peeve) while displaying lackluster animation and lame humor. This trailer makes the abysmal Robots look like a masterpiece.

How people can throw a fit over films like Chuck and Larry while completing ignoring You Don't Mess with the Zohan is beyond me. Is it because the film is made by Adam Sandler, who is a Jew? Does that give him the power to mock his own religious fellows? Discrimination regardless of form is still discrimination and this utterly unfunny trailer does more to alienate like-minded individuals than it does to appeal to Sandler fans.

A comedy that is so utterly forgettable can't be very funny. This exploitative film, Witless Protection, trying to hook itself to Larry the Cable Guy's rapidly falling star, throws as many police comedy cliches into the mix that it's hard to tell if this is really a movie or just a comedy routine.

As a fan of the original Death Race 2000, the new Jason Statham action flick Death Race was a very disappointing trailer-watching experience. The limited vestiges of the original flick are obscured by terrible production values and an over-reliance on action gimmicks. The original film developed a cult following because, like Barbarella, it was corny as hell and not only knew it, but reveled in it. This trailer took the subject far too seriously.

For every Wall-E or Waltz with Bashir, there's a Delgo or a Fly Me to the Moon. Extolling the virtues of its 3-D animation, Fly Me to the Moon through in so many unfunny scenes from the film, that it almost appeared to be a direct-to-video release. What makes it better than Delgo is that the animation isn't nearly as laughable.

Now we get into the real cheese factories. The makers of Zombie Strippers already know it's a bad movie and the preview certainly gives that much away. The problem is, none of the cornball moments in the trailer seem to have any cognitive resonance. It's the kind of film that's just as easily forgotten as it his elevated into the pantheons of kitschy poor taste.

This horror flick must have been so terrible that the box office doesn't remember it. The cheesy story line presented in the trailer is a bit convoluted and seems to be trying to recapture the teen horror audience that seems to have abandoned the genre. All the Boys Love Mandy Lane is one of the many reasons why horror films are starting to die out as much of the creativity is gone.

Master of corny movies and beloved bad movie star Bruce Campbell has a film he can call his own.literally. My Name Is Bruce tells the fictional story of Bruce Campbell as his reputation proceeds him to a small town where they believe that he can deliver them from the horrors and terrors that stalk them in the night simply because he's got experience. My experience is films that rely on that technique aren't worth the celluloid they're filmed on.

"What we have here is a failure to communicate." That classic line has been applied ad nauseum to every poor decision that has ever been made. In this situation, it applies rather perfectly to the art of trailermaking. With the dreadful output of studios these days, a trailer has to sell a movie because little else will. Sadly, those who make the previews don't seem to understand that and seem to be under the impression that merely adequate flogging of a film will project it into the stratosphere. As the awful trailers in the Worst Ten list prove, there needs to be more adherence to the qualities possessed in the Best Ten list to make each trailer engaging and exciting, not pretentious, lewd or boring.

 

Posters

The general quality of poster work this last year was down slightly from 2007 with no absolute masterpieces and two receiving an A grade and four an A-. There were, however, no absolutely deplorable posters in 2008, except a few placeholders, which I have excluded from this year's list of the 10 Best & Worst Posters. There was one F, one D- and a few D grades given to those terrible offerings.

Many of the year's best trailers were heavy on symbolism or inventiveness. Below are the Ten Best posters releases this year.

Heading our list is a film that managed to win the 2007 Academy Award for Best Documentary. Why am I reviewing it for 2008, because the film's official theatrical release was early 2008, not 2007. This means to qualify, the docu showed first at Academy-approved film festivals and then delayed its final release until the new year. Taxi to the Dark Side was a political documentary about torture used in and around the Iraq War. The poster is a magnificent example of how symbolism can work in favor of a poster. The American Flag shadows is visually stunning and evocative. Despite its presence as a 2007 film for the Academy, it is the best theatrical poster of 2008 for me.

Moving from serious political documentary to a somewhat humorous political documentary, Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden provokes laughter in watching the trailer if only in the fact that we've supposedly been on the look out for bin Laden for 7 years and still no one has found him. The title being a reference to the classic computer adventure trivia game Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego makes the poster seem all the more fitting. While the computer game focused on a spy hunt for a noted criminal, this poster takes on a decidedly Indiana Jones adventure quality, even using similar design elements. The trailer isn't much to watch, but the poster is fun and engaging.

The blues have never been better coaxed from a horn in this stylistic poster done in shades and hues of blue. Dark Streets' trailer is rather boring, but this poster is so artistic that it could easily hang in an art gallery with no one taking a second glance.

Appaloosa isn't the film to prove the western isn't dead. It's a bit late for that, actually. However, it does prove that the art of framing isn't dead. Using the lead actors as a window to the lead actress who thereby acts as a tension point between them is something that gets done in movies themselves and seldom on their posters. It's an effective use of design to tell a story with one image.

The cleverness of the globe as a mere droplet of water is enough to keep this uncluttered poster for Flow from blending into the background. Sure, some might see it from a distance and ignore it, but up close, the detail is engrossing.

It's hard to explain why I like this poster. Looking back at it, it seems like any number of other action posters I've seen, but something about the color usage, the layout and the imagery makes Tell No One the kind of poster that would subdue the unexpected into buying a ticket.

Blue turned out to be one of my favorite colors in poster design this year. So few films use the somber color, but Fugitive Pieces does so in the melancholy way in which the film requires. Lovers silhouetted on a beach, the people in their lives blended with the clouds. It all works so well together.

With my preference leaning towards blue in 2008, my least favorite color for posters this year would have to be yellow. So many poster designers have used the color that it is nothing but a garish explosion in the medium. One poster, however, escaped that dreadful designation through use of symbolism. Smother features an overly excitable mother drowning her son in affection. It may be how many of us wish our family relationships were, but the poster effectively and evocatively captures that premise.

A rather brazen film about solidarity amongst the living dead, American Zombie takes the undead humor genre in a new direction. Much like 2007's Fido, the whole concept seems so far fetched that it might actually be funny. The protesting fist thrust into the air of the poster might be rather cliched, but its living-dead flesh elevates the entire poster and makes for an interesting exposition.

And last, but certainly not least, the poster for Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys is probably the least embellished poster of the year. It is the most simplistic and elegant designs I've seen in some times. The only problem is that anyone who hasn't seen the film or isn't familiar with Perry and his filmmaking might not get the symbolic representation here. The white hand grasping the black neck. At first, you wonder what exactly it is but once the statement grabs you, it seems obvious but entirely effective.

Excluding nearly all of the placeholder posters for 2008, there are a few that look so much like final products that I couldn't help including them in the list of the Ten Worst Posters of the year.

One of these is the poster for the Uma Thurman/Evan Rachel Wood film The Life Before Her Eyes. Looking at this poster, you might be led to believe that there is nothing of interesting in their lives and that is a disservice to the film, the concept for which at least looks interesting.

Ballast is clearly an independent film that doesn't care about box office success. Otherwise, how could you explain them choosing to blow up the lead's face and splash it across the poster when he has no name recognition and there is nothing in the poster that really says anything meaningful about the film.

Nicolas Cage continues his streak of mediocre films with Bangkok Dangerous, the poster for which is so incredibly bland that only Cage's mug being used as a selling point keeps this poster from being the worst of the year. It's the only thing it has going for it.

Under the Same Moon presents a rather questionable poster (or placeholder as it could be). Just displaying a scene from the film, one so unemotional, doesn't do anything to draw an audience in. The foreign title below the English title certainly doesn't help matters any.

What better gift could Disney ask for than to have John Travolta and Miley Cyrus headlining their film? Apparently they only barely recognized that with this rather boring poster that puts their names above the Disney logo but expects the title alone, Bolt, to sell the film. And with a tedious and obnoxious trailer in tandem, I can't see how this film could actually make money for them. Maybe they did estimate their logo's weight with this one.

Another seemingly placeholder-like poster, there is far too much detail here not to be used for mass marketing. With a title and a list of stars, the producers were obviously thinking this would be an effervescent attraction for moviegoers. The trailer for Sunshine Cleaning was less than spectacular and this poster while colorful and massively detailed, it's no wonder the movie simply disappeared without much consideration.

Obviously producers needed nothing more than Jim Carrey to sell his latest film Yes Man which presents a poster so egotistical that it's a surprise Sherlock Holmes didn't rise from the grave to create it for himself (or perhaps it was Mel Gibson?).

Elegy takes everything I dislike about posters and puts it together. The 2007 motif of black-white-and-red is employed here with the same boring effect. Combine the lazy, squared film scenes to the poster and you have a poster so lifeless that the title becomes a euphemism for the poster design.

A scene from the film, blown up to poster-sized proportion and tacked up with a vanilla title. The poster for Redbelt is slightly blurred to draw your attention to the core scene, the fighting trainer standing over a felled prizefighter opponent hardly captures the film's plot and looks more like a boxing match advertisement than a movie poster.

Closing out the list of the worst is the poster for the documentary sequel Goal 2: Living the Dream. Relying entirely on soccer stars to sell the film, the designers obvious overestimated the appeal within the United States. Sure, a documentary isn't bound to have a compelling poster, but this is as far away from compelling as a poster can get.

 

What a long, strange year it's been. The political arena was far more interesting than much of what Hollywood put out, but in the end, the trailers and posters of the year were still fairly adequate and there were plenty of successes to go along with the many more failures.

Enjoy 2009 and let's hope for better posters and trailers all around.