Trailers! Trailers! May 2016 Edition

I'm catching up on major trailers that have premiered in the last few months, including some of the major fall and holiday releases.  There are fewer titles here than usual, but boy is there a lot to say about them.  Al links below lead to Trailer Addict.

Rogue One - Not much to see yet, aside from an introduction to our main character, Jyn Erso, and glimpses of the rest of the film's impressive cast - Donnie Yen, Ben Mendelsohn, Forrest Whitaker, and Diego Luna.  No sign of Mads Mikkelson yet.  I'm not sold on Jyn, and I'm not a fan of Felicity Jones, but I'm receptive to what Gareth Edwards and crew are trying to do here.  The old school "Star Wars" imagery looks gorgeous, and it's so good to see Mon Mothma again.  I fully expect that this will turn out to be a better film than "The Force Awakens," though it won't be remotely as successful.

Doctor Strange - Benedict Cumberbatch tries on a new accent while Scott Derrickson does his best Christopher Nolan impression with the snazzy visuals.  It all looks mighty impressive, though I have one quibble with the casting of Tilda Swinton as the character of the Ancient One, who has usually been portrayed as an old Asian man.  However, "Iron Man 3" found a way around the Orientalist minefield that was the Mandarin, so I'm going to wait and see.  There are still a lot of ways that this movie could go wrong, but it looks like it's going to be a lot of fun in any case.  This remains my most anticipated superhero film of 2016.

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children - I was caught off guard by the amount of CGI being used here, and how cartoonish some of the characters are.  This feels like a live-action adaptation of something that was previously animated, and not in the way that I usually associate with Tim Burton.  I'm not sure what to think of this yet, which is probably a good thing, but my expectations aren't very high after the superficially similar "Dark Shadows" tanked. However, I am glad to see that "Miss Peregrine" has been moved off the Christmas release date and into September, where it should have a little more breathing room.  

A Monster Calls - I've liked everything I've seen so far from Juan Antonio Bayona, and the trailer for "A Monster Calls" definitely has me excited.  Here, he's reteaming with much of the creative talent behind "The Impossible" for a fantasy-horror film.  The fairy-tale monster, the building undercurrent of dread, and the unusually colorful visuals suggest that this may be Bayona's "Pan's Labyrinth."  So much wonderful atmosphere comes across through Liam Neeson's narration alone. I understand the source material was aimed at a younger crowd, though, so it's not clear yet what audience the film is gunning for.  

Sausage Party - I strongly suggest that there may only be one real joke of any merit in "Sausage Party," and it's right there in the trailer: sentient food carnage.  Frankly, I'm still surprised that this movie was made at all, and I'm dubious about its prospects after the things I've heard about the script and the production.  I'd love to see more R-rated animated films, but this one just rubs me the wrong way.  To be fair, this is true of just about everything that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have been involved with, so the movie may actually be on the right track for their particular audience.  

Ghostbusters - I was pretty tickled by the wellspring of ire that this trailer seems to have provoked, because I don't see anything to get worked up about.  Frankly, there is not nearly enough shown for me to be able to tell anything yet, except that Melissa McCarthy and Leslie Jones will be screaming and yelling and carrying on at some point, and that the CGI ghosts look pretty good.  There is no possible way that this will live up to the original "Ghostbusters," but for what it appears to be aiming for, I think it's shaping up pretty well.  Compared to all the other 2016 reboots and remakes, this is still one of the most promising.
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