Tag Archives: San Diego Comic Con

News, Television

All the SDCC Trailers I Care About, Part Three: Television

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Most years, SDCC adds a ton of new shows to my watchlist, but this year was mostly recaps of some shows I already watch (like iZombie), recaps and trailers for shows that I don’t watch (The Walking Dead, Gotham, Agents of Shield, etc.), and just a handful of trailers for actual new shows that look good. As with the super hero stuff and movies, these trailers also have a woeful lack of women, with not a single new woman-led show being promoted, which likely accounts for my general apathy towards most of this year’s offerings. Still, there are a couple of shows coming up that I’m looking forward to, even if none of them are quite what I really want to see.

American Gods

American Gods looks amazing, you guys. Ricky Whittle is perfectly cast as Shadow, and the rest of the supporting cast is also excellent. I’m a little disappointed/concerned that there’s been no casting news for Sam Black Crow, who figures much larger in the narrative than Bilquis or Easter or the Djinn–all of whom have already been cast–but I’m hoping they’re just saving her as a surprise for when the show finally airs next year.

Star Trek: Discovery

It’s not much, but I’m glad we got something Trek-related. I’m super stoked about this show, and I can’t wait to see the new crew and have some idea of the plot. I’ve always love DS9 best of the shows, though, so I’m slightly skeptical of this being another ship series. Those always struggled with getting preachy and feeling very after-school-special-y or just with being too episodic without a strong overarching story. That said, it’s not 1995, and I have a lot of hope that this new show is going to reflect the best of some of the newer trends in TV storytelling.

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency is among the Douglas Adams books that I haven’t ever gotten around to reading, though I am vaguely familiar with the concept of it, so this show wasn’t even on my radar before SDCC, to be honest. In a largely lackluster year for new shows, this one stands out as a quirky adaptation of a work by one of the great humorists of the genre, and it looks hugely entertaining if you enjoy madcap adventures (which I do).

The Exorcist

On the one hand, I’m not sure why anyone thought The Exorcist needed to be revisited. On the other hand, Geena Davis.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

I am unabashedly excited for this, just like I have been about most of the recent spate of TV productions of musicals. Laverne Cox looks amazing, and Tim Curry is the Criminologist. The inclusion of the audience participation stuff seems iffy, but I like that they’re taking some chances on incorporating some different things into the production so I’ll reserve judgement on it. I’m not expecting great things from this Rocky Horror, but I think it’s going to be fun to watch once.

Lucifer Season Two

There’s not a ton of new footage here, but it’s enough to keep me interested. Season one of Lucifer was inconsistent, to say the least, but I ended up really enjoying the show overall. Tom Ellis often carries the show with just his considerable charisma and excellent good looks, but it’s enough to keep me coming back.

Sherlock Series Four

I generally prefer Elementary to Sherlock, but I’ll watch three or four more episodes of this.

The Expanse Season Two

There are no words for how thrilled I am by The Expanse. It’s the best sci-fi show since Battlestar Galactica in my opinion, and I have every reason to expect season two is going to continue the excellence that characterized the first season of the show. Now I just need them to give us a firm air date for the series so I know how long I have left to get around to reading the second book, Caliban’s War.

(Part One HERE)

(Part Two HERE)

Film, News

All the SDCC Trailers I Care About, Part Two: Movies

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Well, non-super-hero movies, anyway. Well, mostly. I missed Suicide Squad in Part 1, so I’ll put it here.

Sadly, there’s not a whole lot here that’s exciting, though a couple of these look like they’re going to be very watchable trash that’s going to be perfect for late night Netflix-ing in a couple of years. The biggest problem, of course, and the primary factor that keeps me from getting excited about most of these, is the sheer lack of women-led scripts. The only trailer this year to feature a female lead that wasn’t part of an ensemble was Wonder Woman, and it’s more than a little disheartening to see the same trend year after year after year.

Suicide Squad

Suicide Squad ought more properly to have been included in my super hero post, but I just forgot about it entirely, in spite of having thought a lot about it recently as its release date draws nearer. I feel like this movie would be a treasure trove of material to write about here at this blog, and I love Viola Davis. However, Jared Leto’s Joker makes my skin absolutely crawl (which isn’t helped along by his offscreen behavior, either) and I don’t think I can get past the absolutely disgustingness of Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn. She’s so hyper-sexualized and so infantilized and filmed in such a consistently leering fashion that it makes me furious to even see her.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

I’m a little too old to have been interested much in Harry Potter when I was a kid, and I’ve only ever managed to get through the first book as an adult. I quite enjoyed the movies, however, and Fantastic Beasts looks like it’s going to be an interesting addition to the Wizarding world. Unfortunately, the recent furor over J.K. Rowling’s appropriation of Native culture and her erasure of people and history has put a bit of a damper on my enthusiasm for the film. We’ll see, though. Probably my decision on whether or not to see this one will depend on what kind of reviews the movie gets when it actually comes out.

Kong: Skull Island

In the year of our lord 2016. there is a trailer for a brand new King Kong movie, and it actually doesn’t look terrible. It has a far better cast than this sort of thing usually deserves, and it looks entertaining as hell. I figure if nothing else, it’s going to take itself too-seriously enough that it’s going to loop right back around and be hilarious.

Snowden

Speaking of unintentionally hilarious, we’re getting a Snowden movie, because of course we are. Thanks, Oliver Stone.

Blair Witch

Straight from the land of sequels that no one ever wanted or asked for comes Blair Witch, which looks about as good as the original. Interestingly, early reviews have me cautiously optimistic about it, though I’ll definitely wait to watch it at home since I don’t like going to the theater to be scared.

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

This is hands down my favorite trailer from this year’s SDCC. I don’t get it at all, but I cannot wait to watch it because it’s so bizarre. Roose Bolton and Littlefinger are both in it, and Jude Law is an evil wizard. Charlie Hunnam’s abs make an appearance. Everyone talks like they’re in deleted scenes from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Some kind of giant elephant dragon monster is smashing everything, and there’s a witch and a flying snake thingy. And what is the deal with the costuming? I will almost certainly be there on opening night for this wild ride.

For the Love of Spock

This Kickstarted documentary about the life and influence of Leonard Nimoy isn’t actually a Comic Con trailer, but it did come out last week. Just the trailer had me in tears, and I cannot wait to watch this and have a good long cry about it.

Film, News, Television

All the SDCC Trailers I Care About, Part One: Super Heroes

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As always, there are many (so many) trailers from this year’s San Diego Comic Con, and I have things to say about most of them, so I’ll be splitting this into a couple of posts to have room for commentary. First up, superhero stuff!

Marvel and Netflix released three trailers at SDCC, for upcoming shows Luke Cage and Iron Fist and a miniseries called The Defenders that will feature, Jessica Jones, Daredevil, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. I was hoping for a season two trailer for Jessica Jones, and I would even have settled for an announcement of another woman-led series, but neither of those things happened. Instead, we just got this trio of mostly-sausage fests.

Of the three, Luke Cage has been the one that I’m most excited about since I already liked Mike Colter in the role on Jessica Jones. However, a trailer with literally not a single woman in sight and the repetition of a pretty gross lyric from an Ol’ Dirty Bastard song doesn’t really inspire me to tune in. I’m sure it will be fine, but I’m starting to think it’s not going to be for me.

Finn Jones seems to have kept his disheveled Loras Tyrell look in this first look at Iron Fist. However, I’m more irritated that the first footage we get to see of the show starts with the heavily implied fridging of Danny Rand’s mom. I mean, alright, that’s one way to start a story, but it’s unoriginal as shit.

This teaser for The Defenders doesn’t actual show any footage and basically just serves to introduce the concept of the show and its planned 2017 release date. I’m guessing late 2017.

Marvel and FX have teamed up for a new super hero television show, Legion, which is about the eponymous mutant and his struggles with mental health.

I guess he’s Charles Xavier’s son or something, but I don’t know that much about X-Men and am not convinced this concept isn’t going to turn out to be extremely problematic. It’s also hard to tell what tone this show is going for. It seems like it’s trying to be funny, but it all looks so grim and monochromatic and seriousness that I couldn’t tell if it was supposed to be humorous. Maybe a couple more trailers as we get closer to the show’s early 2017 air date will convince me to turn in, but right now I’m only mildly curious about it.

Marvel also shared a new trailer for their Doctor Strange movie, which hits theaters on November 4 of this year.

Listen. Doctor Strange looks slick, and make-up and costuming and whatever that scruff is growing on Benedict Cumberbatch’s face have him looking the part, and I love the magic effects–that folding city looks rad–but I just can’t get on board with this film. It’s blatant Orientalism (something I think we’re going to see in Iron Fist as well) is just downright unpleasant to watch, even for just a couple of minutes. I don’t think I want to subject myself to two straight hours of it, even if Chiwetel Ejiofor is in it. Also, can we talk about how awful Tilda Swinton looks? That’s practically straight up yellowface, and I’m very disappointed in her.

DC and Warner Brothers didn’t have nearly so many properties to share this year, but to their credit the ones they did share were much less problematic-seeming than what Marvel had to offer. Both DC trailers, for Wonder Woman and Justice League actually have me cautiously optimistic that I may someday see a DC movie in a theater again.

I do have some mixed feelings about this Justice League trailer, but it looks a good deal less grim than some other Zack Snyder flicks, and I actually laughed a couple of times during this footage. I have thought since I heard the news that Ezra Miller was well-cast as the Flash, and I’m thrilled to see more of Jason Momoa’s Aquaman. However, I get the feeling that Wonder Woman is being demoted to sidekick status, and it’s disappointing to see that she’s the only woman in the movie (at least so far). Justice League looks marginally more fun than Snyder’s other fare, but still not great.

So, I know I’m still salty about the skeevy poster for Wonder Woman, but I just do not get the hype for this movie. Like, sure, I will probably go see it in order to support women-led films or whatever, and it looks pretty good, but there’s no way this movie is going to really deserve all the “This is the superhero movie we’ve been waiting for!” love that I see it getting in feminist-friendly corners of geekdom. The film does appear to have some incredible artistic action sequences that I’m looking forward to seeing on a big screen, though I saw at least one obvious crotch shot of Wonder Woman in the trailer that is kind of disheartening. In any case, I’m sure Wonder Woman will be okay; it may even turn out to be really good, but at this point in my life, after many years of disappointments, I’m keeping my expectations low. I’d rather be pleasantly surprised than let down once again. Also, this is the only woman-led super hero project with a trailer at this year’s con, so that’s depressing.

(Part 2 covers non-super-hero movies plus Suicide Squad HERE)