Many trailers these days follow a specific formula: send the audience in one direction, give them the twist, and show everybody in the film looking really, really cool. This formula is written on trailer editors bulletin boards. Sadly, that means that when it’s used incorrectly, the trailer, and in man cases the film, become a subject for ridicule.
This happens to be the case with the trailer for Jude Law and Forest Whitaker’s Repo Men. The film follows quite close to the premise of 2007’s Repo! A Genetic Rock Opera, without any of the singing, or Anthony Stewart Head. In this film, a conglomerate puts artificial organs on an open market for people to purchase on a payment plan. When those people can’t pay, the Repo Men step in to essentially “repossess the merchandise.”
The trailer does a pretty good job for the first 90 seconds or so, but then is subject for many shoulder shrugs and “really?!!?” exclamations towards the end. We’re all aware that Law and Whitaker aren’t known for their best picks in projects (I’m looking at you, Battlefield Earth and A.I.), but do we really need a sci-fi thriller-turned-action-blowout from the two actors?
It just doesn’t seem like the best use of their talents. Like Helen Mirren playing the Bride of Frankenstein. We all know she could do it, but is it necessary?
Check out the red band trailer for yourself after the jump, and see how the preview does it justice on April 2nd, when Repo Men hits theaters.
nathan
January 17, 2010 at 7:32 pmYeah I can see how stealing an idea can be disheartening