Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.
Remember how excited people were when the first season of Stranger Things came out? And how that excitement perhaps flared up again with one or two setpieces in every season (“Running Up the Hill”! “Enter Sandman”!), but somehow it never quite captured that initial feeling that we were watching something that was both familiar and new? In this week’s Six Damn Fine Degrees, Sam argues that, just perhaps, J.J. Abrams’ Super 8 was the better Stranger Things to begin with.
Meanwhile, Matt wrote about a different kind of alien encounter aboard a 1970s oil rig – and about how near-photorealistic graphics are often not enough to make a place truly feel real.
And what other trailers do we have in store for you this week?
Matt: I’m sure there are tons of trailers out there for novel stuff. I’m also sure that some, even most, of the above will be perfectly serviceable or even good. I’m not one of those people who think that originality is the be-all and end-all of entertainent and/or art. But it’s still dispiriting to see how many of the recent trailers were for sequels, spinoffs and reboots of existing IP. And none of the trailers and teasers above give me much of an impression beyond “Hey, someone will remember seeing the original, right?”
A Damn Fine Cup of Culture 