Yahoo News What Marvel must learn from Justice League's trailer
There's still a big question mark hanging over Justice League. Warner Bros' DC movies were consistently critical failures for a while, but this year Wonder Woman came along to show that they were capable of making better films.
Will the imminent team-up be as sub-standard as Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad? Or will the DCEU maintain the quality set by Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins?
Well, whatever the case, they can be happy that the latest trailer is much better than anything Marvel has been putting out.
Marvel Studios seems lost in the trailer wilderness lately. The trailers for Spider-Man: Homecoming (admittedly a Sony co-production) featured moments from almost every set piece in the movie, to the point that watching the completed product became a game of guessing which scene would show up next. The movie was enjoyable, but surprises were minimal.
We're anticipating a similar problem for Thor: Ragnarok, a movie whose entire plot seems to have been laid out over two trailers. We're eager to see what Taika Waititi comes up with, and we sure it will be brilliant fun, but it could've been even more so if the air of mystery hadn't been blown so violently away.
We still enjoy our intermittent trips to the MCU, but they are growing less and less surprising, and our excitement is diminishing proportionally. The trailers are a definite factor in that.
The latest Justice League trailer, on the other hand, is a far cleverer piece of promotion. Rather than giving away major plot details (the cuts are quick-fire and follow no obvious progression), it focuses on tone.
What it tells us is that the central theme of movie will be teamwork – with a few interactions thrown in between the characters to show that things won't necessary run smoothly (we're looking at you, Flash, and the pun was intended). It's nothing groundbreaking, sure, but it's what we want out of a trailer. We want a taste of what to expect, not to see all the key scenes laid out one after another.
The trailer also found a way of including Henry Cavill's Superman (a presence that was conspicuous in its absence) without spoiling his inevitable return. A dream sequence isn't a piece of great innovation, but it gets him into the trailer while retaining the mystery of where and when he will show up in the flesh.
Star Wars had a similar problem to Marvel with Rogue One, releasing loads of teasers (packed with footage that never made the final cut, it turns out). Their approach to The Last Jedi has been much more Justice League-like, with the one spare trailer released so far giving almost nothing away. We sincerely hope this doesn't change when trailer two arrives tonight.
The Justice League trailer isn't perfect. It doesn't do much to reassure us that Cyborg (Ray Fisher) won't be the film's weakest link (or at least the most underused character), it does lean a bit heavily on bombastic action, and we are still worried that Jason Momoa's Aquaman is going to be very, very annoying indeed.
But it sets the tone, and teases without spoiling. Marvel could stand to learn a few things from it about how to showcase their future films so we aren't tired of them before they even arrive. Who knows – maybe that's why they're taking so long with Avengers: Infinity War?
Justice League will be released on November 17, when we'll find out if the movie lives up to the trailer. Just don't mention Suicide Squad.
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