Two highly anticipated movies of a very different order got their teaser trailer debuts today. An easy topic to comment on, but I will try to refrain from navigating the assumption road of how good these films will or won’t be since I now have celluloid evidence they exist.
First, The Master is the follow up by Paul Thomas Anderson to There Will Be Blood. The continuation feels pertinent as Anderson is continuing with a similar historical feel, look, and mostly a similar production crew. One thing that can be said is that Joaquin Phoenix looks perfectly realistic and detailed in the simple scene featured. Always a brooding talent, Phoenix has taken the Kevin Bacon route of “one for the reel, one for the meal” in choosing roles. The only disappointment is his choices for more quality roles has only allowed for so much introspection. Here’s hoping for a little more meat on his plate in this one. For Anderson in his youthful directorial career, variety has been the only commonality between all of the films. If the Master feels more like the last, Anderson may be more interested to hone in on a style, structure and form of storytelling. Should make for interesting development over genre jumping.
Then Skyfall, the delayed 23rd James Bond entry, hit with its first images and scenes. Included is every expectation of Daniel Craig featuring gun in hand, saying a line implied to be witty, and some explosions. The continuing director carousel in the series assumes some changes will happen with every feature. At helm this time, Sam Mendes, seems to lace more dramatic shots where lighting and darkness allows for some change in a tonal feature. Just a few shots so who knows if any tonal quality within the movie will adhere to some uncharacteristic Bond shots, but word is from the production truck is that Daniel Craig went back and read all of the Ian Fleming novels again and was told by Mendes to contribute the jaded character from the novels to his performance. The only other Bond actor who ever tried (it seemed) with any sincerity was Timothy Dalton. During filming, Dalton was infamous for having copies of the novels in hand over even his script. I wonder if the current production age where a million explosions dress every action film will allow for a darker tone to really set into a Bond story, but here’s to a portion of hope.
Film Splatter 