This is not an exhaustive list of every trailer that came out of this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. As the title says, it’s just the ones that I particularly liked and got me excited about the films and TV shows they’re from.
The placement of the trailers in this list is not at all a ranking. The order is purely random and more like when I saw the trailers more than anything. With that out of the way, let’s dive into this list!
Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling
Rocko’s Modern Life premiered when I was a year old and I was four when it ended. But thanks to re-runs and syndication, I watched the show way later than that, but before I went into secondary school when I was 11. I watched it enough to still remember the theme song. Needless to say, it wasn’t a kid’s show and I didn’t make that realisation until I was an adult. Vague as they are, my memories of the show are quite pleasant and I’m looking forward to this one hour special. It’s set to be released sometime next year.
Pacific Rim: Uprising
I absolutely love Pacific Rim. As a huge fan of Neon Genesis Evangelion (it’s my number one favourite anime), it gave me hope that some day, a live-action adaptation of it could be made (with Asa Butterfield as whatever American equivalent of Shinji Hollywood comes up with, but the kid is getting kind of old now). It was so much fun and the soundtrack was amazing. Giant robots fighting Kaiju. It can’t get more shonen than that and it’s the best anime or manga adaptation Hollywood has ever done…and it’s not even based on an anime or manga. But it clearly takes cues from the medium.
The Jaeger at 0:39 and 0:44 looks like Baymax from Big Hero 6 to me. John Boyega sounds almost exactly like Idris Elba’s character in the first film (it makes sense, he plays the character’s son). This trailer just all together got my super excited for this film. The song helped a lot with that. It’s set 10 years after the events of the first film and will hit theatres on February 23rd of next year.
Blade Runner 2049
I’m excited for this film because Denis Villeneuve is directing more than anything else. He did amazing work with Prisoners and Arrival (one of my favourite films from last year) and I’m curious to see what he does with this property. The cinematography looks to be just as stunning as that from Arrival. This trailer doesn’t give away much in terms of story and I appreciate that. Too many trailers these days give away far too much. It gives just enough to tease and spark interest. Blade Runner 2049 will be released globally, this year, on October 6th.
Stranger Things 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgS2L7WPIO4
I pretty much love this trailer only because it’s Stranger Things. I knew nothing about the series and hadn’t heard about it until the entire internet, it seemed, was singing its praises and decided to check it out. I binged it all in almost one night (It was about 6 AM when I decided to go to bed and watch the remaining two episodes). It was seriously enthralling, thrilling, fun, emotional and just all around excellent. From the writing to the directing, editing, cinematography and soundtrack. It is a great show.
This trailer teases so many things! Will’s deepening connection with the Upside Down, said alternate dimension’s creeping into our world, a return to the Upside Down, that giant spider thing, the original portal expanding, Dustin’s pet from the other dimension, Nancy and Steve having trouble in paradise (just date Jonathan already!) and Eleven coming back.. I need to see it all! All nine episodes will drop on October 27th.
Thor: Ragnarok
The trailers for this film are doing a really good job of selling it. Every single one is fun and exciting, with that classic MCU sense of humour and I’m just anxious to get into the theatre and see this film already! James Gunn has infected the MCU with his style and aesthetic. Ragnarok looks like Guardians of the Galaxy had a baby with Gladiator, Blade Runner and this year’s Wonder Woman. I make the Wonder Woman comparison because of those sublime shots of the Valkyries racing toward Hela on their pegai. They look like paintings and quite similar in style to the sequence in which Hippolyta told a young Diana the story of the Amazons.
The costuming in his film looks fantastic and not just because of he vibrant colour palette they’re going for. Cate Blanchett is stunning as Hela and Chris Hemsworth has never been sexier as Thor; the short hair and facial hair are really the icing on the cake.
I love the whole 80’s vibe they have going on and look forward to seeing how this will lead into Infinity War. Ragnarok comes on November 3rd.
Westworld
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phFM3V_dors
As confused as I was during much of the first season of Westworld, it was so intriguing and compelling that it wasn’t enough to make me give up on the show.
The song used in the trailer is very appropriate and effectively expresses the feelings of the sentient hosts. I like that it’s the only thing we hear throughout the trailer instead of lines from the show. It conveys the theme and tone of the upcoming season well enough.
Dolores looks absolutely joyful running down and shooting the helpless survivors of the massacre from the end of last season. Now that she’s Wyatt, I’m excited to see how much she changes as a character because of it. I also can’t wait to see Maeve’s search for her “daughter” and if the girl will even know or recognise her as her “mother.”
Outside of those two things, I just want to see what’s going on in the park in general and how the board is handling this crisis. Robert truly left them with one hell of a mess to clean up.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle
This trailer is more or less nothing but action and that’s really all we want from a Kingsman film isn’t? This isn’t one of those films you watch for the story or the theme or some profound exploration of the human condition. All I want from this film is some heart pounding action, awesome and quippy characters and just all around fun. And this trailer delivers on all of those fronts.
The action here looks so very, very entertaining and cool. I’m hoping we get another fight scene like the one in which Colin Firth killed every single person in the church in the first film. Speaking of, he’s back!
I love the idea of Julianne Moore as a villain, Pedro Pascal as a Southern gentleman and Channing Tatum. I love the idea of Channing Tatum. He is charismatic in every film he’s in, especially ones that lean toward action and comedy. Kingsman will be released on September 22nd of this year.
Marvel’s The Defenders
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_6J9BqgonU
I already talked about why I’m looking forward to this show in my recap preview. I love Sigourney Weaver. In anything. But especially when she’s playing characters like these. Like with Julianne Moore in Kingsman: The Golden Circle, I really like the idea of her playing a villain.
Two things that stand out to me in this trailer are the chemistry between our four heroes and the fighting.
They way they interact with each other feels so natural and despite the bit of tension and antagonism, it looks like they actually do like each other. I love the dynamic in the group. At least as much of it as we’ve seen so far. Luke telling Matt that they’re not going to hug – at the end of the trailer – followed by Matt’s laugh…that whole exchange felt so organic and real. Like it was a blooper that worked so well that they left it in. Matt’s reaction is so genuine.
The fighting already looks worlds better than the mess we got in Iron Fist and we’ve barely seen any of it. Hopefully Finn Jones has improved enough that his fighting doesn’t look slow and lazy. The hallway fight that we keep seeing more and more of with every trailer is the one fight I’m looking forward to seeing the most. Probably because it’s the one we keep seeing over and over again. In any case, I’m all in and ready for this show when Netflix releases all of the episodes this August on the 18th.
The Gifted
Another Marvel TV series! This time one set in the world of the Fox-owned X-Men. Stephen Moyer returns to the small screen in a franchise that his IRL wife, Anna Paquin, is a part of (she plays Rogue in the films).
Fox hadn’t been doing too well with their X-Men films until we got Deadpool and Logan. They hit it out of the park with Legion on the TV side of things as well. Fox seems to be on an upward swing with this franchise and Gifted seems to be continuing that trend. It looks a whole lot better than the other upcoming Marvel TV series on Freeform, Cloak and Dagger, at the very least.
For all I know the series could turn out to be pretty bad, but the trailer convinced me to give it a chance. It premieres on Fox on October 2nd.
Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie
Nickelodeon is feeding off of our 90’s nostalgia once again with this two-hour film about our favourite cartoon character with a football shaped head (aside from Stewie Griffin).
This was the perfect kind of trailer because as the characters spoke about the impact Arnold had on their lives, we got to reminisce about the impact that the show and the character had on ours. And we got too see all of our favourite characters while they were at it. It’s emotional manipulation, to be certain, but the kind I can’t exactly be mad at. We’ll finally find out what happened to Arnold’s parents in November.
Teen Wolf
We need to kill that kid in the beginning of the trailer, whoever he is. I already don’t like his meddlesome, secret exposing, bold ways. He must be very brave, or very stupid, to challenge the pack like that. He needs to be gotten rid of. Perhaps he’s part of this “army” Allison’s grandfather is raising.
The subduction zone voice over perfectly sets up what we are to expect this season. It said either you get tiny quakes or a big one, but I feel like both apply to this show. Every enemy and entity the pack has faced before were the “series of small quakes.” The events of this season will be the “devastating quake.”
The pack will face their greatest threat ever and I fully expect this show to go out with a bang in these final ten episodes when it returns this Sunday, July 30th.
The Lego Ninjago Movie
All I have to say about this trailer is that it shows that this is in line with the tone and comedy of the other two Lego movies; The Lego Movie and The Lego Batman Movie. I really like and enjoy those two films so I expect I will with this one as well.
It looks fun, it looks funny and like an all around good time. I’m here for it.
Honourable Mentions
These are the trailers that haven’t quite sold me on the film or TV show they’re advertising. Some of the things here however – Justice League, Inhumans and American Horror Story: Cult – I’ve already decided I’ll watch. Click the titles to open the trailers in a new window
Bright:- It feels like it’s trying to do too much; buddy cop + fantasy + action thriller. I’m skeptical.
Marvel’s Inhumans:- Looks really, really cheap.
Justice League: – I prefer the first trailer.
Ready Player One:- I got hardly any sense of anything. Not even the tone. This trailer didn’t impress or move me at all.
American Horror Story: Cult:- This series isn’t as good as it used to be but…I’ll watch.
