The first question I am faced with after watching this trailer is: Will I be seeing an updated version of the truffle shuffle? There is no doubt Spielberg had a big ol’ hand in the making of this movie- and everything I’ve seen on it from day one has made it look like its a scary remake of E.T.
This particular trailer has now upgraded that to: Close Encounters of the Third Kind meets E.T. meets The Goonies. All of these things pointing in the same direction: BAD ASS! I will be there with my little kid shoes on- with the same expectation I had seeing any of those films…
You can find the original hi-res video over at twitvid. Or just watch it here!
Now… I will say- I’m not the biggest fan of J.J.’s direction with the kids- their performances come across subdued and teen angsty, as opposed to The Goonies who from frame one were bursting with what can only be described as child-like energy. But, to be fair- film makers could get away with a lot more in the 80’s than they can today… plus, they had to overcompensate with acting because special effects weren’t the king of the cinematic castle back then. That’s also NOT to say I didn’t see moments in the trailer that could lend themselves to that over the top reactionary acting one would hope for from a movie like this, but they were sort of drowned out in the editing.
The use of lens flare in all the none action related scenes actually works for me- it seems like it will help create a faux sense of pace and even emotion, but, if over used could really make the kids’ performances seem forced, and/or arbitrary.
Oh- and for some reason there’s a zombie at 1:54. (jokes- its a dude covered in blood- but the editing and the voice make it look like a zombie the first, second and third time you watch it… I don’t know if that was a purposeful decision, but it definitely adds to the mystique!)
The use of the E.T. sounding theme music didn’t hurt either… this is quite the well cut trailer, something J.J. Abrams has ALWAYS been good at- now let’s see if he can deliver like he did with Star Trek!