Cinematographer Jack Cardiff, 1929

There is only one word to describe the multitude of trailers rolling out this week: epic.  Stunning visual effects, powerful film scores, and, most importantly, long run-times, are what make audiences flock to the theater summer after summer.

Honestly, it was hard for me to narrow down this week’s selection, but I have included as much as possible.  This week also brings two new features designed to break up the monotony of Hollywood blockbusters.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II

Click to see the trailer

As a fan, I couldn’t be more excited about this trailer.  I literally watched it three times in a row.  Honestly, as much as I love these books, I have always been cautious of the film franchise.  Terrible pacing and poor character development were what was normally found in the Harry Potter films year after year, almost as if they were never designed to stand alone, but made exclusively for people who where already fan of the books.

But splitting this last book into two parts was a brilliant move.  Even though it was most likely purely a marketing move to milk this franchise as long as possible, having two feature films has finally given the screenplay the room it needed to breath and to take the time to explore the relationships between the characters that make this fantastic world believable.

Looking directly at the trailer itself, we find it properly utilizing this new “epic trailer” structure that has been emerging recently, which consists of a 90 second theatrical trailer which ends with a dip in the music and poignant one-liner, only to explode into the final minute of epic montage footage set to the most powerful moments in the score, purely for the sake of being flashy.  It is almost like the trailer is saying, ” This movie is too epic.”

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There is no doubt this weekend is going to be a massive draw for the overall box office. Between Warner Brothers’ Inception, and Disney’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, there will be plenty of things for adults and kids alike to check out in theaters.

The latter of the two films is quite intriguing because it’s a feature script based on the short from Fantasia of the same name. Only instead of Mickey Mouse, we get Jay Baruchel and instead of the silent wizard, we get Nic Cage. One of those trades sounds worthwhile.

The film is also supposed to incorporate some of the elements of Harry Potter, while staying as contemporary as a film like Jumper. Also, expect plenty of high-tension CG fight scenes taking place in downtown Manhattan.

We’ve got four new clips from the film you can check out, including one with one of our favorite film baddies, Alfred Molina. Take a look at them after the jump. Catch Disney’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice in theaters this Friday.

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The Magic Castle. A place of mystery and enlightenment. A secret academy of the magical arts. A place of hidden caverns, moving bookcases, and many, many owls. Traditionally, only those invited by a magician may enter. So when I received an invite, delivered to me by an undisclosed source, I unraveled the parchment, and jumped at the chance to visit this mysterious kingdom. What follows is a journey through a supernatural realm few have seen, and even fewer have lived to talk about.

Many muggles have not heard of the legacy that is the Magic Castle, due in part to its secret nature. So for those muggles, let me give you a little background. In the words of the establishment itself, “The Magic Castle is the private clubhouse for the Academy of Magical Arts, Inc, a very special organization devoted to the advancement of the ancient art of magic.”

The academy sprang from the ruins of a worn-down apartment building. Milt Larson, a television writer and son of a magician, saw the treasure that seeped in the mortar. He bought and restored the building back to it’s Victoria grandeur. Its doors were opened to a select few on January 2, 1963. Since then its members number around 5,000, yet it remains a “secret” social order.

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Of the mid season shows kicking off on NBC this year, one has seemed to stick out above the rest. Done in the vein of Smallville or Muppet Babies, Merlin is the episodic adventures of the great English wizard when he was only a teen, coming to terms with the mystical world he would one day rule.

The series was created by the same team that brought the witch drama Hex to the BBC a few years back. In fact, Merlin originally aired on the BBC back in September of 2008, and now NBC is bypassing BBC America to bring it straight to primetime network television. Merilin airs on NBC every Sunday night, with episode 9 hitting this weekend.

Check out a brand new clip from the series after the jump.

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