Must Watch: 3 New Trailers

While Faith & Geekery isn’t typically the sort of site that attempts to provide everything you need to know about upcoming movies, there are occasionally announcements of enough import that arrive with such close proximity to each other that they can’t be ignored.

The last month or so has seen the arrival of preview trailers for some much-awaited geeky movies, and while some of them have been on the web longer than others, we’d still be remiss if we didn’t call your attention to them.  You know, just in case you haven’t already run across them.

For starters, we have the first real trailer for Tim Burton’s upcoming take on Alice in Wonderland.  Starring some of his usual favorites (Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter) as well as some other well-known actors (Anne Hathaway, Christopher Lee, Alan Rickman, and many more), this film is not just an adaptation, but apparently a sequel of sorts, as it’s about Alice’s return to Wonderland.

As is also par for the course with Tim Burton, this movie is clearly full of dazzling, imaginative, and slightly twisted imagery that should make it a real treat.  It arrives from Disney next March.  (HD trailer at the official site.)

Next is the final trailer for James Cameron’s much-hyped Avatar.  This is the first feature film he’s directed since Titanic, and he’s certainly looking to make a splash with it.  As he has done with other films like Titanic and the Terminator and Alien movies, Cameron has worked long and hard to develop new technology and techniques to help him tell this story.

The story goes that Cameron’s had the idea for this film in his head ever since making Titanic, but only after he saw Gollum in Lord of the Rings did he believe that technology had advanced enough to make it possible.  The movie is allegedly comprised of a full 60% photo-realistic CGI characters and elements, so I suppose that only time will tell if he was right and if Avatar is everything it’s cracked up to be.

With a December 18th release date, we don’t have long to wait to find out if Avatar fully lives up to its hype.  If this trailer is to be believed, though, one way or another it will be an epic sci-fi fantasy.  (HD trailer at the official site.)

Finally, we have another offering from Disney.  With Pirates of the Caribbean 4 simmering in a slow-but-certain development cycle, The House of Mouse needed another quasi-supernatural adventure to put audiences in theater chairs for a little while.  Having successfully adapted a theme park ride into a blockbuster movie series, they (with returning Pirates producer Jerry Bruckheimer) have now turned their attention to a medium that has seen very few (if any) successful quality film adaptations: video games.

Think about the last time you saw a movie based on a game that was actually any good.  Kudos to you if you can come up with one, because I’m at a loss.  Thus it’s with guardedly optimistic feelings that I watch this debut trailer for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (HD trailer here).

I’m a fan of all of the recent Prince of Persia games; while they may float in the shallow end of the plot pool, they’re full of fast-paced, fun platform-style gameplay, witty dialogue, memorable characters, and gorgeous locations.  Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time has a great cast, with Jake Gyllenhaal as the titular prince, Sir Ben Kingsley as the villain, and both Alfred Molina and Gemma Arterton playing key roles.

If Bruckheimer and company can successfully turn a 40-year-old boat ride populated with jerky animatronic swashbucklers into a successful film franchise, I see no reason why they can’t be the first to put together a quality video game adaptation.

Here’s hoping!