|
Reviewinator |
| Starring |
Morgan
Freeman
Jason
Lee |
| Director |
Lawrence
Kasdan |
| Official Site |
Link |
| US Opening |
March 21, 2003 |
| Rated |
R |
| Genre |
Sci-Fi/Horror |
| Trailer Clichés |
Evil sensing animals, broken door
handle. |
| Explosions |
1 |
| Weapons |
Hunting rifle, helicopters, assault
rifle, missiles, something behind the door. |
| Voice Over |
Yes |
| "In a world where..." |
"A circle of friendship,
a web of mystery..." |
| Spoilage Factor |
45% |
| Geek Factor |
20% (alien invasion) |
| See Trailer? |
Yes |
| See Movie? |
Yes |
A trailer shouldn't be a mini-version of the movie with only the
obvious ending missing. A trailer should give a sense of what the
movie is about, tease us with enough details that we want to see
some more, but not give away what look like important surprises.
I think the trailer for Dreamcatcher succeeds on all counts.
A snowy evening in a hunting cabin, four amigos toasting an old
friend with three names who's not there. Since this trailer is based
on a Stephen King novel, we can assume that the hunting cabin in
which they are drinking is in Maine.
That's the last we see of these friends having a good time. Cut
to a snow-covered, majestic pine forest. We're led to believe that
Jonesy is involved in a rollover involving what appears to be a frozen
body sitting in the middle of the road. This is based on a King story,
remember?
Next, all the animals in the forest, who always can sense danger
better than humans (in movies anyway), are running away from something.
The voiceover tells us it's an alien invasion.
Morgan Freeman and the army are called in to contain this invasion,
but I'm not sure if that makes the situation better or worse. "Nothing
gets out of their perimeter alive," he says. He also laments, "The
idea of slaughtering Americans just turns my stomach." Is there
some group you'd take pleasure in slaughtering?.
Now our buddies are trapped on the outside by the American-slaughtering
army and hunted on the inside by an alien that can take possession
of their minds and bodies. Time to get a new dreamcatcher.
 |
|
Heeeeeeere's
Jonesy
|
In what could be the only case of the trailer revealing too much,
we get a brief glimpse of what might be the alien. A giant, face-sucking
leech that can steal your soul, but the scene passes so quickly that
it might've just been Courtney Love.
The trailer avoids the quick-cut ending. Instead Morgan Freeman
intones, "Come with me Owen, I'll show you things you wished
you'd never seen." From the looks of the trailer, I don't think
he's talking about this movie.
Conclusion on Trailer: Enough plot is revealed that we know
what happens, but the out-of-sequence delivery makes us unsure that
we've seen it all. I'm left wondering: Is the Freeman character good
or evil? Are any of these friends going to make it out alive? That's
the mark of a quality trailer. Watch it.
Conclusion on Movie: Looks like it could follow in the footsteps
of another excellent Stephen King based horror flick, Misery.
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