Nope
I’ve been saying for a long while that superhero movies are a pestilence, and that the genre is more or less over in all senses of the term unless the superhero-film-in-question has been directed or produced by Chris Nolan or is named Thor or Iron Man.
I haven’t complained as persistently about mythological-medieval quest movies (wide-eyed innocents, cloaks, horses, shadowy forests) in the Joseph Campbell-J.R.R. Tolkien mode, partly because I feel that Peter Jackson‘s Lord of the Rings trilogy exhausted all that jazz. Whatever juice it might have left will be re-exhausted by Jackson’s two Hobbitt films. The genre is totally over, which is to say more or less relegated to the family trade (which has always been a kind of death).
Tens of thousands of Joe Popcorn-type guys are looking at this trailer right now and going, “Oh, God….another one. Well, I guess I can take the kids.”
Actually, what most people are saying is “Oh, another Pixar? Great!”
This looks awful. Really. The girl and the horsie look like they come out of those “My Little Pony” movies from the eighties.
There’s a series of checks before total genre exhaustion:
Best Picture Oscar to start backlash: check
Cheap knockoff starring Nic Cage: check
One final realistic re-imagining by awesome director: check (Valhalla Rising)
Masturbatory Satire: check (Your Highness)
Works for WWII:
Saving Private Ryan (Yes, it won), Windtalkers, Letters from Iwo Jima, Inglorius Basterds
Serial Killer:
Silence of the Lambs, 8mm, Zodiac, NBK (out of order)
One thing I’ll say about this movie–at least it doesn’t have any fucking talking cars in it.
Somebody here hasn’t seen GAME OF THRONES. GRRM FTW!!!
Honestly, though, what makes this look less than stellar is the fact that it looks fairly generic. If the trailer gave any indication that it was putting a stamp of the Pixar personality on it, I’d be a little more jazzed about it.
Seeing Cars 2 later this week, probably in 3D, and I have the same feeling that I get when I spend a lot of money to go to the wedding of two people who I don’t really like.
Mark: Disagree about Inglourious Basterds contributing to WWII genre exhaustion. If anything, it broke the genre out of the post-SPR imitators slump it’d been in, all with washed-out cinematography, mournful trumpet scores, shaky-cam action and whatnot. IB was like a breath of fresh air.
Also, surely it was the Ashley Judd/Morgan Freeman programmers that killed the serial killer genre.
“unless the superhero-film-in-question has been directed or produced by Chris Nolan or is named Thor or Iron Man.”
Is it worth pointing out that one of the names on that list of exceptions (which neatly encompasses 3 out of 4 main entries in the genre due next year), Thor, was all-but completely unknown and un-cared-about six months ago by anyone including a good number of fanboys – and that you were making the same basic assertion then?
Thor? DO I really have to see that?
Thor wasn’t very good.
Eh, I remember a lot of complaints on this site about Up based solely on Russell’s appearance. That movie turned out pretty well. (yes, talking dogs- FLAME ON!)
Anyway, I know it’s not the policy of this website to wait to form an opinion until after the movie has actually come out and been seen – soooo Twentieth Century! In other words, carry on.
In the 70s, every bookstore had TEN MILLION pseudo-Tolkien series– The First Booke in the DragonWarres of Bumfuque Chronicles– and they were all shite, because they weren’t written by a fucking insane Oxford don who spent thirty years talking to himself in invented Elvish before he got around to writing a basic Wizard of Oz-like quest narrative with all that depth of background underlying it.
Oh, and watching all his friends die in WWI might have helped, too. Sauron may not be Hitler but Frodo is certainly Lt. Ronald Tolkien wondering how he got from rural England to the Somme.
So now we’re at the same point in movies, and that’s why everything that isn’t Tolkien seems way too weightless and twee. Only Tolkien lived it before writing it.
I would agree with le corbeau in everything he said. But I suspect Wells considers even Tolkien to be “weightless and twee.”
Oh, and “The First Booke in the DragonWarres of Bumfuque Chronicles” made me laugh because it’s so true.
Brave looks like a cross between Brother Bear and Plundered Hearts.
Bias be gone! Jeff, please give a chance to Game of Thrones. Just stick with it for the first five episodes (where I must admit way too many characters are introduced and it’s kind of confusing)and then get ready for tv greatness that in my opinion not seen since the Sopranos. You watch so many shitty movies you own us to watch arguabbly one of the best tv series ever created
This is to get you ready for Toy Story 4.
How about Monsters 2?
Dudes, trust me, Jeff isn’t gonna watch Game of Thrones. Are you kidding me? Let it go…
Nothing is funnier to me (well not really but still) than all you dudes who’ve been on Pixar’s crank like a crack whore for 15 years going to such GREAT PAINS to distance yourselves from CARS 2, like there’s any perceptible drop in quality from any other Pixar movie… You just don’t wanna give props to something that’s about NASCAR and red state and Larry the Cable Guy or whatever.
Christ, if ANYTHING, Cars is probably the ONLY Dixar movie I’d bother with, because Wilson rules and I saw Larry the Cable Guy in concert once.
GIT R DONE. But, yeah, that’s not fit to shine the shoes of that jerkoff Patton Oswalt as a cartoon rat.
News flash: Those movies are made for CHILDREN.
“Disagree about Inglourious Basterds contributing to WWII genre exhaustion…IB was like a breath of fresh air.”
It’s not mutually exclusive. Satires usually are a breath of fresh, but they also are usually the final nail in the coffin. I liked Scott Pilgrim and Kick Ass (to a lesser degree), but they both close the book on the genre as it was; how can anyone watch Green Lantern or Captain America with a straight face now?
That’s why i thought it so questionable that Cruise would sign up for the super agent satire in Knight and Day. It shut down the Mi francise, which he’ll discover in December.
This is the one that’s a pretty troubled production, right? The one that they fired the director (who would’ve been the first female Pixar director) from?
As it is now, it’s hard to make heads or tails of it. The best Pixar teasers have been pretty good at getting the film’s concept out there, as well as reminding the audience that Pixar makes some classy shit, and this teaser does neither. It’s a girl on a horse, and a bear.
I wonder if this was put together quickly and rushed out to deflect some of the negative Cars 2 backlash out there.
Knight and Day was a satire?
Fooled me. I thought it was just a light, fluffy, completely forgettable summer diversion. It didn’t seem like a real elaborate disection of the genre, or even funny for that matter…maybe a little over the top.
I doubt most people will remember that movie by this December – and that’s assuming people haven’t collectively forgotten it already.
Pixar trailers ALWAYS underwhelm. Remember when the “WALL-E” trailer showed before “Ratattouille” and everyone said “EWWW! he looks like the robot from ‘Short Circuit’! Pixar FAIL!” And we all know how that turned out.
Is that Robert Carlyle? Why do real Scots and Irish sound as fake as people faking the accent?
I thought “Knight and Day” was more a satire of the Cruise persona than the super agent genre per se. And a fine one at that.
Lex is half-right about Pixar. The Toy Story films are all true classics, utterly brilliant films. But for years every single Pixar film has been hailed as a work of genius by the critics. Is there anyone out there, kids aside, who experiences a burning desire to revisit A Bug’s Life or Monsters, Inc.?
Best guesses:
Captain America: $150m domestic, $200m foreign
Avengers: $200m domestic, $300m foreign
Marc Webb’s Spider-Man: $175m domestic, $200m foreign
Zach Snyder’s Superman: $99m domestic, $99m foreign
That’s $1.4billion worldwide among four movies. At some point that adds up to real money, right?
All of those projections are south of Thor’s box office, w/ the exception of Avengers, which is Thor+IronMan+CaptAmerica +JossWhedon, which seems on paper at least to be a justifiable estimate.
Jeff: And this one’s a remake of Princess Mononoke, to boot.
Eloi: “IB was like a breath of fresh air.”
Only if you’ve never seen anything from Sam Peckinpah.
Bob: Well, as I pointed out before, BOM noted that even the superhero movies which are making money aren’t making the big money anymore.
Also, there’s no way you can predict Avengers’ gross until at least the trailer comes out. Plus, if that Sherlock sequel disappoints, then Avengers might be at a disadvantage if Downey isn’t considered the draw he was a few years ago. Also, Snyder’s no longer a name to sell anything, so he’s going to have to really deliver on the goods with Supes. And Spider-Man worked partly because of popular up-and-coming actors. Who the hell is Andrew Garfield?
One positive thing that can be said about Game of Thrones (and plenty of positive things can be said) is that there’s absolutely nothing “weightless and twee” about it.
And Spider-Man worked partly because of popular up-and-coming actors. Who the hell is Andrew Garfield?
A popular up-and-coming actor.
Thor was good? Really? Because, you know, anytime the DP goes to the Battlefield Earth School of Cinematography and tilts the fucking camera for most of the movie, it really instills that feeling of “hey, this is kinda of enjoyable”.
And Game of Thrones isn’t that good. I saw 1 episode, and couldn’t believe people liked it. I mean, I guess if you like generic, usually over-the-top acting and cliched characters, who do cliched actions based on cliched medieval politics, it pretty good. Yeah, there’s a midget and a cripple to mix things up, but come on, it’s gimmicky and cheap.
And Pixar is the master of digital cinema. When the worst films in your portfolio are A Bug’s Life, Cars, and Monster’s inc (all in the 2.5-3 star range), you know what you’re doing.
Sorry Thing, but you can’t have a legitimate criticism of Game of Thrones from only watching a single episode, let alone what wasn’t even the first episode based on your description. That’s an assinine thing to suggest.
That’s like opening up a 350 page book, reading nothing but the 25 pages in chapter 14, and then saying the book “isn’t that good”.
Monster’s Inc is their best. Nothing tops Crystal and Goodman. Nothing
What the fuck? Has every Hollywood Elsewhere commenter gone batshit insane? This looks terrific, a needed step in a mature direction for PIXAR, plus their first film with a female lead as the main character (Helen was obviously co-lead to Bob in The Incredibles). You all are terribly cynical assholes who make a life out of hating things. I wish Jeff would ban most of you except Lex (and Kakihara, who is a hilarious caricature of the modern hipster/otaku). Just start anew with less angry people.
I’m sorry but this argument is complete bollocks. There is room for loads of types of genre. LOADS. And how about giving a film that isn’t even completed a goddam chance? My only complaint is that it’s taken a US studio to make a movie about my home country’s rich mythic culture when our own film culture is obsessed with nothing but social realsim and keeping their own liberal guilt in check by consistently making films about lower class people that only they want to see. The genre is NOT dead, nor are superhero films. It will take more than just Green Lantern failing for that to happen. Yes,some of them suck but that can be applied to any genre and I hear no one calling for the end to other types. Accept it. They are here to stay. Also, Game of Thrones happens to be one of the best written and directed TV shows around right now and to diss anything without seeing it simply because of its genre is just rotten.
The voice in the trailer is Kevin McKidd. Just about every name I’ve seen attached to this is Scottish with one or two exceptions. And it’s about bloody time. I’m sick of seeing Scots consistently played by non-Scots who mangle the accents (there ar lots of different Scots accents) and continue to keep alive the myth that no one understands us which, unless you’re conditioned to national stereotypes promoted by igorant filmmakers, is a load of baws, as we say.
Shark, that was incredibly acidic and hateful for someone trying to be the voice of reason.
I think it could be great, but I think that the trailer is devoid of the wit and charm of Pixar. It looks like something that could have come out of any studio.
Hey, I hope that it’ll be amazing, but as a teaser it’s not really doing a whole lot of teasing. Feel me?
I will say that this may be the best animated horse to date. Better than the ones in Beowulf, and the 5 legged ones in Avatar.
So Jeff admits that Iron Man and Thor are popular, and actually liked X-Men:First Class, but still is sounding the death knell for superhero movies? Because of Green Lantern, which is only an under-performer, not an outright bomb? This doesn’t really make much sense.
To be honest, I though Macdonald was doing a terrible Scottish accent on Boardwalk Empire, and come to find out she’s actually Scottish. Actors do a very good job of mimicking the scottish accent, because it’s hard to tell the difference from the real thing
Game of Thrones is better than the last five movies Jeff’s loved, which proves him wrong in one.
But yeah, it’s not like Jeff loved The Sopranos or The Wire or anything. That HBO deal– you know, where they only make everything totally fucking awesome– is still beneath him.
As for this… it’s Pixar, it’ll be good, duh.
In the 70s, every bookstore had TEN MILLION pseudo-Tolkien series– The First Booke in the DragonWarres of Bumfuque Chronicles– and they were all shite, because they weren’t written by a fucking insane Oxford don who spent thirty years talking to himself in invented Elvish before he got around to writing a basic Wizard of Oz-like quest narrative with all that depth of background underlying it.
Oh, and watching all his friends die in WWI might have helped, too. Sauron may not be Hitler but Frodo is certainly Lt. Ronald Tolkien wondering how he got from rural England to the Somme.
So now we’re at the same point in movies, and that’s why everything that isn’t Tolkien seems way too weightless and twee. Only Tolkien lived it before writing it.
“partly because I feel that Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy exhausted all that jazz”
Jeff — you deserve to get a lot of shit on this, because all you ever did was bitch and moan about the LotR movies, which are pretty much generally agreed upon as the cream of the fantasy crop, and now you say they “exhausted all that jazz?”
If you can’t appreciate something in the first place, how on earth can you be trusted to tell us when a genre is “going downhill,” “becoming extinguished,” or whatever else? You need to have at least a modicum of objectivity when it comes to a specific form of filmmaking, or you should just do the honorable thing and fall on your sword and say “I don’t understand this stuff, never have, therefore my opinion on it is null and fucking void?”.
I mean, that’s pretty much the way I feel about rom-coms — you know, go consult Stephanie Zacharek (or Lex) if you want to have any sense of context from which to place those films. I honestly don’t know what distinguishes the good from the bad (or the ugly). It’s not that they’re “bad,” or don’t serve any cinematic purpose — it’s just that I have absolutely no taste when it comes to the genre at-hand, and I’m almost always the first to admit such.
Having said all that, I don’t know how anyone is writing off this flick based on that short little teaser posted above. I haven’t quite gotten around to seeing Cars 2 yet, but Pixar’s track record is pretty damn impeccable. I would not be quick to write off anything they’re producing.
“Mark: Disagree about Inglourious Basterds contributing to WWII genre exhaustion. If anything, it broke the genre out of the post-SPR imitators slump it’d been in, all with washed-out cinematography, mournful trumpet scores, shaky-cam action and whatnot. IB was like a breath of fresh air.”
ABSOLUTELY. Disclaimer: rabid Tarantino-ite and whatnot, but you know, I still feel like this is his one flick of the ’00s that somehow doesn’t get nearly enough credit (if someone wants to call the Kill Bill movies overrated, I’m not really going to bother mounting much of a defense).
The way he brings “the old” (the WW2 tropes, Hitchcockian suspense) in with “the new” (meta-humor, the neo-modern “war on terror” metaphor surging through the film’s veins) is really nothing short of astonishing. It’s almost an impossible balancing act to pull off, and he does so (nearly) flawlessly, IMHO.
“Is there anyone out there, kids aside, who experiences a burning desire to revisit A Bug’s Life or Monsters, Inc.?”
I love Monsters, Inc., own it, and throw it in every couple of years. It’s not just a great animated film — it’s a great film, period. YUP YUP.
That’s the thing about Pixar, though. Everyone kind of has their own little favorites among the collection, but everyone pretty much agrees that none of them are straight-up terrible except for those Nazis amongst us who just can’t help badmouthing them despite not having seen frame 1 of any of them (*ahem*).
Having said that, I just looked at RT on Cars 2 and I was pretty shocked to see it rated so low. I had just assumed it got pretty great reviews across-the-board based on Ebert’s take on it last week (I know, I know — always a mistake to make that assumption).
My daughter thinks this looks really cool. No one gives a fuck what the rest of you think.
” The Toy Story films are all true classics, utterly brilliant films. But for years every single Pixar film has been hailed as a work of genius by the critics. Is there anyone out there, kids aside, who experiences a burning desire to revisit A Bug’s Life or Monsters, Inc.?”
I’d say the first two Toy Stories, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Up are as good as Pixar’s reputation.
So’s the first half of Wall-E.
The annoying one I don’t want to ever see again is Ratatouille. Or the second half of Wall-E. Cars is for little boys, who love it understandably, but no one over 14.
The underappreciated one, that they had a lot to do with even though it’s a Disney project and they don’t claim it as their own, is Bolt, which has more heart than a lot of their official work.
“You just don’t wanna give props to something that’s about NASCAR and red state and Larry the Cable Guy or whatever.”
Meanwhile, Cars 2 is only one of those things. Not NASCAR, not red state. It’s more like an animated Chris Farley movie than anything else. Take the basic plot, make it live action, resurrect Farley, make his character Wilson’s fumblin’ & bumblin’ brother, cast David Spade in the Italian racer part, and there you go. DONE.
Ratatouille is annoying because of Patton Oswalt. The rat should have been some sensitive Elijah Wood-type character. Instead they made him the most annoying dickhead in Pixar history, solely because of his voice.
@Bents
I think I can say that, if after reading those 25 pages I could type a better chapter by slapping my dick on a keyboard, it doesn’t matter if I started on page 1 or page 200. If there’s bad writing and acting in the fucking season finale, after all the exposition is done (which is always, always, ALWAYS the worst part of anything) and when the show should be trying to wow the audience, why should I think I’d change my mind once I saw it from the beginning? What, did the actors say “well, I’m going to do an amazing job during the filming of the first 3 episodes, but then I’ll start acting like I’m the third lead in a middle school play”? Did the writers say “I just wrote the first 5 episodes of Game of Thrones that make women orgasm and men pregnant, but for the rest of the season, I’m going to have someone punch me in the face every time I write a line of dialog”? Maybe I’m just being a fantasy snob or a hipster or whatever, but I’d rather watch True Blood than Game of Thrones. At least I can pretend that it’s just a porn to help my mind cope with the fact something so badly written and acted can still be on the air.
lol, Ratatouille‘s definitely not one of my faves, for various reasons — Oswalt being somewhere among them.
Talk about a movie that’s hard for critics to diss, though…flick actually makes the presupposition that being validated by an arbitrary trendsetter of taste is important — nay, vital — to one’s self-worth!
The animation looks beautiful, as always. This is just a teaser, so who knows what the film has in store … but I will say it looks a bit generic at this stage. Kinda didn’t like the design of the horse, who will obviously be a major character – why so pudgy and stubby-legged? Love the hero’s flaming hair, though.
I think you can count on a positive message about being brave and strong, and told (for once from Pixar) from a female perspective. That can’t be a bad thing, right?
” The Toy Story films are all true classics, utterly brilliant films. But for years every single Pixar film has been hailed as a work of genius by the critics. Is there anyone out there, kids aside, who experiences a burning desire to revisit A Bug’s Life or Monsters, Inc.?”
I’d say the first two Toy Stories, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Up are as good as Pixar’s reputation.
So’s the first half of Wall-E.
The annoying one I don’t want to ever see again is Ratatouille. Or the second half of Wall-E. Cars is for little boys, who love it understandably, but no one over 14.
The underappreciated one, that they had a lot to do with even though it’s a Disney project and they don’t claim it as their own, is Bolt, which has more heart than a lot of their official work.
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