Besides chiming in on two
different trailers for the same film, usually you don’t get the opportunity to be
a critic and dissect two nearly identically premised movies back-to-back. We’ll
begin with a peak at the first feature-length trailer for The Hunger Games starring Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson before
the sizing up commences.
This immediately brings us to our featured clips this
week, Snow White and the Huntsman starring
Twilight’s Kristen Stewart and Thor
himself, Chris Hemsworth, and Mirror,
Mirror, a more family-friendly charmer from Immortals director Tarsem Singh. Which of these fairytale
reimagining’s will be the fairest of them all come 2012? Let’s take a look –
it’s Trailer Tracker.
New clips this week:
Snow White and the Huntsman
Mirror, Mirror
The Hunger Games
The Hunger Games
Following a rather secretive
first look, we now get a full-length set-up of the ambitious adaptation that is
The Hunger Games. Jennifer Lawrence
stars as Katniss Everdeen, who voluntarily replaces
her younger sister in the titular tournament – to the death – among two other contestants from
each of the many districts in this dystopian, totalitarian world. The result:
probably awesomeness, though the clip really is about setting up this world and
not really revealing the action, though it is deliciously hinted about during
the final seconds of the trailer. This is an ambitious project to say the
least, as the gritty subject matter will likely be stripped down which may irk
fans, and a lack of starpower may contribute to a lake of virgin interests. Regardless,
I am at the climax of intrigued.
The Showdown:
Snow White and the Huntsman
Mirror, Mirror
The Rundown:
With the inevitably mammoth debut of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 looming, two movies aiming at a similar demographic hope to capitalize on at least a bit of that audience. The first to break was the dark and hyper-stylized Snow White and the Huntsman starring a sinister-looking Charlize Theron as The Evil Queen, Kristen Stewart as Snow White and Chris Hemsworth as the titular Huntsman. In this revisionist tale, the queen aims to finish off what the mirror predicts to be the fairest of them all, by hiring The Huntsmen to finish her off. As fate would have it, he falls for the lovely damsel and they venture to defeat the powerful queen. Epitome of a first-time director Rupert Sanders (I am still unable to find out any prior credits for the man) takes the helm, but whatever his roots, his visual flair rivals that of any filmmaker before. From creature design, to the extremely unique takes on the traditional story elements such as the magic mirror; even if the narrative turns out to be muddled, it will be a feast for the eyes.
Tarsem Singh just scored a number-one hit with the bloody epic Immortals, and in the process added another unique entry to his filmography which include The Cell and The Fall. Unlike “Huntsmen”, Mirror, Mirror will take a darkly comedic look at the fable, where Snow White (Lily Collins) teams with the seven dwarfs to vanquish a vain and evil queen (Julia Roberts) who swoons over Prince Andrew (Armie Hammer). Truly surprising having now seen the trailer is how much this seems to be a comedy more in the vein of Stardust than a moody revision like Red Riding Hood – coincidently a very good thing when looking at those two movies in particular. Very much like the trailer for “Snow White” the focus is very much on the queen and not on the princess, though perhaps the starpower of Roberts and Theron outweigh that of Collins and Stewart.
The Verdict:
It’s a funny thing when first impressions are altered, and even stranger when the real thing obliterates or deflates all expectations. If when viewing the trailer for “Huntsmen,” hearing testimony, looking at trailer screenshots, etc. ten times out of ten – hell, a hundred times out of a hundred – I would have chosen that feature to be directed by Tarsem Singh. The style is bang-on with his earlier efforts (particularly The Cell) as is the atmosphere and set design. On the other hand, Tarsem’s actual directorial effort is not only rather kid-friendly and bland, but features none of the visual panache. Apparently a complete reversal of anticipation is possible.