5 Film & TV Trailer Explanations From This Week: #2
The Aftermath, Escape Room, Narco: Mexico, and more.
So, I didn’t know that the upcoming Halloween season would also bring with it a ton of horror movie trailers for 2019. I tried to avoid them in this round-up, but I couldn’t avoid them all completely.
Giving up my sleep for 3 minutes of jump-scares isn’t worth it, though, so it’s just one trailer out of five. Sorry, everyone.
1. The Aftermath (2019)
What is this movie about?
Based on a novel by Welsh author Rhidian Brook, this romantic drama centers on an unexplored part of human history: the aftermath (hence the name) of World War II.
As British soldiers are sent to Hamburg, Germany, to manage post-war reconstruction, tensions remain high between Germans and the English. A British colonel (Jason Clarke) and his wife (Keira Knightley) are given a house to stay, but instead of kicking the former occupants (a widower, played by Alexander Skarsgård, and his daughter) out, the former decides to try to live in harmony with them.
That’s weird, to say the least, and even weirder is when the colonel leaves town, leading his wife and freaking Alexander Skarsgård alone in the same house….there isn’t much online about the movie, but I assume it’s an intriguing premise that’s going to devolve into a pure romance piece.
What’s the trailer saying, if I can’t be bothered to watch it?
It’s pretty much what I said above; the trailer is interesting because it initially shows the distrust between Knightley’s character, a British civilian, with German civilians after World War II.
That’s a part of history that I haven’t seen represented on film, and the first half of the trailer focuses on that as well as an interrogation of Skarsgård’s character about whether his loyalties still lie with Nazi Germany.
The second half, though, becomes a classic romance piece, paired with some historical backdrop: woman gets attracted to a man who isn’t her husband because her husband leaves her alone against her wishes, then they sleep together after a lot of flirting.
Why the hell should you care about this?
Kiera Knightley is having a bumper few months; she has Disney’s The Nutcracker and the Four Realms and Colette coming out soon, and Berlin, I Love You and Official Secrets going through post-production.
Also, Knightley and period films usually means box office (and Oscars) gold.
2. The Kid Who Would Be King (2019)
What is this movie about?
I think this movie might be inspired by this news article but I’m not positive:
But anyways, The Kid Who Would Be King is about a regular boy (Andy Serkis’ son Louis Serkis) in modern-day England who pulls Excalibur out of a stone, and, in the process, unleashes an ancient evil along with it…
He then has to form his own roundtable of knights, with the help of Merlin, (played by English actor Angus Imrie and, somehow, Sir Patrick Stewart at the same time) and recruit an army to fight the evil Morgana (Rebecca Ferguson).
What’s the trailer saying, if I can’t be bothered to watch it?
The trailer shows the classic hero’s journey, tailored for kids: a boy is bullied in school, then somehow finds a sword in a stone…he then has to learn how to become a proper warrior and leader.
It’s a fantasy movie directed squarely at kids, and it leans hard into the premise, with the main character recruiting his friends as knights, and his classmates as soldiers.
It doesn’t shy away from the ridiculousness of a kid being a knight, but it also asks for suspension of disbelief (how are there so many sets of armour readily available in a small town in England?).
Why the hell should you care about this?
If you have pre-teen children, this seems like a fun, “The Mummy for kids” movie that’s bound to bring children into theatres.
I wouldn’t be surprised if swords and armour are going to be the next big trend coming back for children’ (or teen) toys.
3. Destroyer (2018)
What is this movie about?
It’s a story about a detective played by Nicole Kidman, who was involved in an undercover operation gone bad. She disappears off the map, but years later, resurfaces to help dispense some justice on the rest of the gang members.
What’s the trailer saying, if I can’t be bothered to watch it?
At first, the movie seems like a mother-daughter film, with Kidman speaking to her daughter about her past life.
It then goes backwards in time to show her as a detective, romancing Sebastian Stan (yes, Bucky is in this movie too!) while being undercover at a gang. Something goes wrong, explosions go off, and she drives away while crying.
It then flashes back to current day, where she’s come out of hiding with lethal intentions to hold some big-ass guns and shoot gangsters.
Why the hell should you care about this?
Every article I’ve seen about this trailer focuses on Kidman’s ‘physical transformation’ (you can see how she looks like in the image still for the trailer), which indicates that it’s going to be another award-show contender for its ‘Hot actress who went ugly for a role’ trope.
It premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in August, and Kidman’s performance has been praised
Also, Kidman is another star that’s on a roll: she’s going to appear in DC’s Aquaman, and stars in Boy Erased, which will be released next month.
4. Narcos: Mexico (2018)
What is this show about?
It’s the fourth season of the Netflix series Narcos, and they’re going to Mexico! Instead of continuing on from the 90s-set third season, they’re going back in time to the 80s, and changing it up to include all-new characters.
Expect the season to chart the rise of the Guadalajara Cartel and its leader, Félix Gallardo (played by Diego Luna). Representing the DEA this time around is Michael Peña as agent Kiki Camarena, who gets drawn in…with historically-terrible consequences.
What’s the trailer saying, if I can’t be bothered to watch it?
It showcases the premise of this season, with the Guadalajara Cartel taking over Marijuana, then Cocaine in the 80s.
Diego Luna gets plenty of screen time in this trailer, most of it focusing on his no-holds-barred, violent character. Just as previous seasons focused on Pablo Escobar, the ‘villain’ at the heart of the Columbian drug trade, this season of Narcos will follow the same formula, with Félix Gallardo as large a character as the protagonist.
Of course, there’s some set-up of said protagonist, with Peña’s introduction to the Mexican drug trade and DEA office, and interactions with his family.
Why the hell should you care about this?
If you love Diego Luna as much as I do, you won’t ask me this, but for the uninitiated…the first three seasons of Narcos were well-received, and there’s no reason to assume the fourth season won’t be. At the very least, there is bound to be a lot of attention lavished on this show.
Tackling Mexico’s drug trade in an American show, in this political climate, is also…tricky and dangerous, to say the least.
5. Escape Room (2019)
What is this movie about?
This is the horror movie trailer I was talking about; it feels reminiscent of Cabin in the Woods, to be honest, but it’s directed by Adam Robitel (from Insidious: The Last Key) instead.
The film is about six strangers who are sent invites to take part in an Escape Room (hence the title), where they have to solve clues to get the key to leave the room. However, it’s not as easy as a regular Escape Room, since the organisers seem intent on creating life-or-death situations for them…
What’s the trailer saying, if I can’t be bothered to watch it?
It’s telling us to expect fewer jump-scares and more psychological horror.
The trailer builds up the tension, first showing us that there are people who somehow go to random Escape Rooms without friends (who does this?), because the first person who escapes will get 1 million dollars. While they sit in a meeting room to read the rules, they find out that this is the first ‘test’, as they become trapped.
The first room becomes an oven, and the protagonists escape its sweltering heat only to end up in a Narnia-esque snow landscape, with an icy lake that (of course) can’t hold all their weights…
It then moves to the ‘interesting’ part: these six strangers weren’t chosen at random! These rooms were crafted for them! There are people watching their every move! WHAT’S GOING ON?!
Why the hell should you care about this?
Escape rooms are all the rage nowadays, and I can’t believe this is the first horror movie set in one. It’ll be interesting to see if the popularity lasts after this film comes out.
Also, Daredevil’s Deborah Ann Woll and Lost in Space’s Taylor Russell are two of the six leads!
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