THOUGHTS: How Two Similar Trailers Give Two Different Reactions BvS & Star Wars 7

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MrMazz

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Edited By MrMazz
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This week has seen the release of two trailers for what will likely be two thirds of a trinity of major film franchises going forward. The second teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and the first trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. They elicited two very different reactions from me. The Force Awakens had me in awe and ready to go back to that galaxy far far away. Dawn of Justice had me if not apathetic out right disinterested in the film. And I am a fan of both properties. Now my unique interest level in each of these going in certainly played a role in my first reactions to them. However, my reaction is also born from their trailer construction and it just so happens that both trailers are structured largely in similar fashions.

There is a key difference between the two trailers that easily influences our reception of their messages, their use of music. I’ve grown a bit tired of John Williams but that tends to happen when you write just about every iconic theme for over thirty years. That doesn’t mean the dude didn’t right a mean score to for the Star Wars series. Force Awakens uses “Binary Sunset” and “Yoda and the Force”, combined they make for a mysterious but adventurous musical base for the trailer, crescendoing to the end in epic fashion. Dawn of Justice will feature music by Hans Zimmer and per the norm; Zimmer composes an atonal beat that marches through the trailer. The generic music produced in the trailer is of a piece with most other major franchise trailers, but it lacks the embedded memory of Williams score.

Both trailers rely on voice over to build a narrative for the trailer and are composed as a montage of scenes revealed out of order.

For Force Awakens the dialog is a modification of Luke telling Leia that he is her brother from Return of the Jedi. The original quote being “The Force runs strong in my family. My father has it. I have it. And... my sister has it.” With the “You have that power too,” coming a line earlier with the beat removed. This makes it sound like Luke is talking to someone, potentially Rey or Finn. This narration also allows for Force Awakens to simultaneously access its past while showing the present. Except for the very end no original trilogy characters are confirmed in the trailer. Though Luke and Leia’s hands possibly appear.

Dawn of Justice dose not quote itself but spends the first half of its trailer (call it the Superman-half) accessing its past, Man of Steel. Itfeatures a cacophony of individuals pontificating and reacting to the events of Man of Steel. Holly Hunter, potentially Neil Degrasse Tyson, and Charlie Rose can be heard. Luthor speaks of knowing now that Devils do not come from the Hell below but from the sky, among talk of absolute power corrupting absolutely and humaniti’s checkered past with following powerful figures. All of this is a self reflexive reaction to Man of Steel, whose destruction turned many people off.

Both of these trailers are composed in montage style. The scenes and shots selected though are completely different. In film, the key differentiators between it and other narrative mediums is the use of camera and editing. Great films use these tools to create great moving images and motion within the frame to tell a story. Tony Zhou of EveryFrameAPainting has an excellent video essay looking at the movement of Akira Kurosawa.

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The Force Awakens trailer is full of movement, both in the frame and momentum created through each cut. The first half using the Skywalker quote features the camera moving in or around symbols of the Skywalker family, assuming the person being handed the lightsaber is Leia (the hand has a ring). After the “This Christmas” title card, the trailer kicks into high gear and is filled with controlled Bayhemic action. X-Wings fly down and out of the frame right. Kylo Ren appears at two points, cutting the frame with his broadsword light saber and than appearing to stop it, with the camera a dolling in. TIE fighters and the Milinuim Falcon battle through a downed Star Destroyer. The only shot of this section that doesn’t have a lot of movement, Rey outstretching her hand to Finn has plenty of background movement and John Boyega facial expression changing from tentative to sure.

Dawn of Justice doesn’t have that bombastic movement. Its montage is composed of more static images: Superman holding up a rocket, being revered by people in Día de Muertos costumes, and so on. The movement is created by the cross cutting between those images and a dolly in to the Superman statue, slowly being lit up and revealing the “False God” graffiti. I really like the first half of this trailer. Because this half has earned its seriousness or at least its composition and content allow me to take it seriously.

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The back half of the trailer, the Batman half, I can’t take seriously. From a movement perspective, it is largely static. It’s easily described as just Bruce Wayne/Batman staring into the distance or the camera hanging on iconography. The most movement comes from Superman crashing to the Gotham street before each hero delves into the titular versus battle.

A talking point I’ve seen come up in the reaction to the first Dawn of Justice trailer is an appreciation that Warner Bros. with their DC properties is tackling “serious” ideas and actively trying to do something different. The latter point I whole heartedly agree with. But what defines serious and by extension a serious film? Marvel Studios provides a good case study in defining seriousness in blockbuster cinema. Over the past 9 years they have released a multifilm (and slightly genre) series that is generally upbeat, on a primary color pallet, with one liners, and all around fun. I would also never say that their films aren’t serious. They take the issues dealt with in their films in as much measure as they can from Winter Soldier’s anger at the surveillance state to the Iron Man franchise discomfort with the military industrial complex(and hyper capitalism that powers it). With their blockbuster multi hundred million dollar budget, they can’t get to overtly political but they manage to strike an agreeable and palatable middle of the road approach to most of these issues. Just tackling issues doesn’t a “serious” film make.

Creating good film is a complex endeavor relying on the synergies of several factors. One of these key factors is of course having a good screenplay particularly the screenplay’s understanding of character and the tie between that and issues the film deals with. A characters arc should be in some way tied to the issues of the film, forming the large idea of the story of the film. Marvel takes its characters seriously, choosing to accentuate and emphasize the necessary and universal elements as they adapt crazy fake god aliens, or a super soldier from WW II, or a man in an iron suit. They don’t turn away from the things that make these characters unique. They are treated with respect. By this I mean largely the protagonists, villains in Marvel films are largely there more as a plot device and have a pattern of being underwritten.

Star Wars the original trilogy or just the original in particular took its characters seriously. This is largely a byproduct of George Lucas’ effectively synthesizing his love for Kurosawa samurai features and classic sci-fi, all of which is strung up with Joseph Campbell’s Hero Journey monomyth. Luke’s emotional transformation from country bumpkin pining for adventure to Rebel space jockey is treated with respect and importance. His emotional state and those of Han and Leia, as well matters.

Character and the proper articulation of that character is what matters to a good film. This is also the place where Man of Steel fails the hardest. Film Crit Hulk has an excellent two part breakdown of Man of Steel and character HERE and HERE. The way the film plots Clark Kent and his actions and how those actions are narrated to the audience is disconnected. He is framed consistently in Christ imagery, and the camera treats him as a benevolent force when nothing in the film indicates that’s who he is. Perhaps a source of this disconnect is thatClark Kent in this rendition is more in the Aristole tradition, one that is propelled more by plot than the other way around. He is forced to become Superman and dawn the symbols.

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So while Man of Steel biffed its narration of the Superman character, the Dawn of Justice trailers conscious access of the criticism of the film makes me hope Terrio has a better understanding of the character than Goyer, and by extension the film itself. The Batman half as previously stated I don’t care for. Zach Snyder may not be the greatest storyteller but the man knows how to compose great images (maybe just not great moving images). With Frank Millers The Dark Knight Returns serving as a visual and source foundation for the film, Snyder is easily able to appropriate Returns iconography. It provides him a much easier source material to adapt than Superman. Man of Steel had some of the characters signature poses but juxtaposed him as a Christ figure so often that I think Snyder didn’t have a good idea of how to actually make Superman look heroic.

This is where things get kind of tricky, with both properties. Being long running trans media properties, there is a extra textual understanding the viewer has for Force Awakens and Dawn of Justice. Neither Batman or the Force Awakens new kids have really spoken. Both are draped in contextual imagery, only one doesn’t feel hollow. The Force Awakens trailer presents its characters as important and human, Fin looks distressed several times in the trailer. Rey has an adventurous roguish glint in her eyes. Poe really likes to fly X-Wings. Even Captain Phasma, the Chrome Trooper, has a bit of character too her. Batman doesn’t, his presentation feels shallow with unearned seriousness. It is draped in Dark Knight Rises imagery and stoicism as audiences have not been properly introduced to the character. I may not like this rendition of Superman but we have been properly introduced. Batman is just presented in a way that hits all the iconographic check boxes and doesn’t come off as having earned them. So I can’t take it seriously.

As pieces of marketing material (one of thousands between now and release), their job is to expose in some way what their specific property is about. Other than rumors and brief talk from official sources, we know next to nothing about the Force Awakens’ plot. But that doesn’t matter because the characters and film at large has been introduced to us in such a way that we have some kind of an idea. The first half of the Dawn of Justice trailer does this too. The back half is where it falls apart and you have easy ammunition to throw at Snyder’s faux-serious aesthetic, leaving me apathetic to that films prospect while I cannot wait for The Force Awakens.

I am Michael Mazzacane and you can find on Twitter @MaZZMand atcomicweek.comand weekntv.com

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TheLurker

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Nicely said sir. Nicely said indeed. :)

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EyeDCyou

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I have to disagree with somethings here. Both trailers did their job. BvS was a teaser, and it teased. Star wars was a trailer. And it... you know... trailered.

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_Mongul

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This reviews are pointless, because it's all subjective.

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@_mongul: Firstly this isn't a review. Second the point of criticisim is too elucidate our understanding of the media we intake and our reactions to them through their constructtion and techniques employed

@eyedcyou: I'd counter that the Force Awakens trailer is also listed as a Teaser. Which is meant to entice, and it did. Thats why I didn't like the BvS trailer I'm not enticed (despite rather likeing the first half). We'll get a full theatrical trailer for Star Wars that gives some hint of the plot (or at least act 1 stuff) in about 3 months or so.

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_Mongul

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@mrmazz: Firstly, ditch the thesaurus.

Second, nothing you say matters because it's subjective.

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MrMazz

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_Mongul

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EyeDCyou

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@mrmazz: and to counter your counter. You should compare BvS teaser to the first Star Wars teaser. (BTW I did like the star wars trailer more, but I think that they don't need to be compared)

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the_stegman

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#11 the_stegman  Moderator

I loved both trailers.

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stormshadow_x

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#12  Edited By stormshadow_x

@eyedcyou said:

@mrmazz: and to counter your counter. You should compare BvS teaser to the first Star Wars teaser. (BTW I did like the star wars trailer more, but I think that they don't need to be compared)

This. Compare a Teaser ( First Teaser at that) to a Teaser (The First teaser).

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Magian

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Those two trailers were just too different to compare really. But I liked both of them.

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DrF8

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I loved both of them

I was biegły dissapointed in the first Star Wars trailer.

I'm watching the BvS trailer over and over and over and i love it

I'm doing the same with the SW trailer

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Marcus_Halberstram

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It was still miles ahead of the first Star Wars teaser.

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#16  Edited By Superguy1591

To be fair, The Star Wars trailer was an extended teaser while the BvS trailer was a first teaser.

You have to compare BvS to the first teaser. That being said, I a, more excited for SW than BvS and BvS didn't make me think that, as a Superman fan, I would enjoy it.

BvS has a year to go. It probably shouldn't blow it's wad on the traditional 1 year to go teaser.