Welcome, All Ye who enter!
Welcome to the official blog of Apopkon. For our first post, I wanted to talk about the new slough of trailers that dropped during thanksgiving weekend. Trailers that delight the senses and bring us Christmas joy just a little bit early.
On December 1st, Us viewers became blessed by the movie studio overseers with gifts. And like Christmas, I ran straight to youtube with a child’s wonderment; like a child ready to unwrap a Playstation 5, I tore open the app, typed in the names of the trailers, and watched with delight, curiousness, and slight hesitation. The sense of wonderment remained, but as the trailers unfolded, I found two film trailers banking on our nostalgia. While one of the same trailers or maybe even both tried to right the mistakes of its predecessors. Whatever the case, All three trailers filled me, the viewer, with excitement. The movies are all part of long-running franchises spanning years and various films. I could be talking about all sorts of movies nowadays as many movies have spanned sequels and prequals. Heck, even Top Gun has become a franchise of sorts now. We, as fans, have been lucky in the last few years as superhero movies have filled the screen, and franchises have become big business for studios. What films could I be speaking about?
The Return of Indiana Jones
The first trailer that graced my eyes was the long-awaited trailer for the return of Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, who returns as the famous explorer. We haven’t seen him since his last outing, which many critics and fans panned, including me.
The film’s backdrop is the swinging sixties of the Kennedy era and has a story that flashes back to a de-aged Harrison Ford on one of his many explorations. And, of course, no Indiana Jones movie is complete without the charm of Indiana and a bunch of bull-whip action. I was pleased to watch the last scene where Indiana tries to bull-whip the whole room.
Joining Harrison is one returning character, at least one we see in the trailer, John Rhys-Davis, aka Sallah. And also joining our favorite explorer is Phobe Waller-Bridge (got to love the – in these names). Some of you might know her as the creator and writer of Fleabag. The trailer looks promising and intends to be Harrison Ford’s last hurrah with the character, which he began Thirty-something years ago. The action, the little we see, looks on par with how Spielberg has directed the piece over the years, and the tiny bits of the story we see in the teaser look promising. We hope we will all be enjoying Indiana Jones’s last crack of the bull-whip next summer, and I hope, as most do, Indiana is given a proper send-off.
Indiana Jones and the Dial Of Destiny looks to bank on our nostalgia and love for the character. The film hopes we can forget the crystal skull mess, and I hope it does help us forget. I also hope we don’t see Shia reprising his role as Indian’s son, as he was one of the problems in the last film. The trailer is short and to the point. It doesn’t show much in the way of a story. It has small beats that will keep us guessing for a few weeks into the new year until the next trailer comes out or we learn more about the film’s story.
The Second Trailer released is on its 7th film, Transformers.
The second trailer belongs to a franchise that started with Shia Labeouf and ended with Mark Walhberg; yes, I am writing about Transformers. Some of you thought we had seen the last of this franchise, but not today. A few years ago, they did a soft reboot called Bumblebee, which was a much better movie. It had heart and was good on the action and the human characters. Now, Bumblebee leads us into Beast Wars. A show I would watch lovingly in the mornings before school some odd years ago.
Like the other transformers movies, the film looks to take liberties with the characters and plot as usual. In the original beast wars, Optimus and his crew land on earth during the period of dinosaurs and cave dwellers. Each one takes the appearance of an animal, either living or dead, around them. Optimus becomes a gorilla, Rat-trap, a rat. Cheetor, a cheetah. It was the early 90s, and when you named something, you made them look like its namesake.
The movie appears to take place in the same timeline as Bumblebee or a mix of Bumblebee and Micheal bays transformers as both Optimus Prime and Optimus Primal are in the film. Which they never meet in the cartoon. The trailer looks interesting, and one hopes they do the characters and show justice, but I have my reservations. But the simple fact they have Cheetah running, bouncing over a boulder, and transforming is a win for me.
Finally, Guardians of the Galaxy 3
And last, we have the Guardians of the Galaxy 3 or Vol 3, in which Star-lord and crew work together to take out their new foe and find Gamorra, who all should remember vanished at the end Endgame. I say disappeared, but she walked off and drove or flew away. She is not his Gammora; she is a different person, as those who watched Endgame will know. She is Gammora from a different timeline. The trailer shows a lot of action and features a perfect song selection which, if you’ve seen any James Gunn directed movies, you know he loves his music.
The trailer seems fun and gives minimal story away. It also looks to have enough heart and sadness to draw on your heartstrings as this is their final bow. Like Indiana Jones, the Guardians hope to ride off into the sunset while giving the fans a memorable send-off. Now, this isn’t to say they might not appear in avengers, the Kang Dynasty, or any future movies; I hope they do. But time will tell.
I am highly optimistic and hold out hope for the films.
As the months go on, we will get better looks with the second trailer, and hopefully, they will continue to look promising. It is an excellent time to be a nerd as our favorite things from childhood return and become popular again. Let’s hope these new sequels and continued stories live up to the hype of our imagination.
