movie trailers

In spite of myself, I thought the following movie trailers looked interesting:

Why "in spite of myself"? With the James Bond movie, it's because Sam Mendes directed two previous Bond films: "Skyfall" and "Spectre," both of which I found dull and boring. As I've contended several times, I think Mendes is absolutely the wrong choice to direct action films. He killed the franchise for me. Mendes is excellent with long, cerebral, slow-burn plots; he's got a lot in common with Denis Villeneuve in that respect (cf. Mendes's excellent work in "Road to Perdition" starring Tom Hanks and Jude Law). But I think he's the ultimate buzzkill when it comes to James Bond, and both "Skyfall" and "Spectre" were glacially paced, unmemorable snoozefests. Why not bring back the excellent Martin Campbell, who directed Daniel Craig in "Casino Royale"? Well, this time around, "No Time to Die" is directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, the dude who directed the first (and most awesome) season of "True Detective" (reviewed here). And judging by the scenes in the preview above, Fukunaga has a much more kinetic sensibility that befits the Bond subgenre. So, yes: in spite of myself, hope for the franchise is rekindled, even if this is supposedly Daniel Craig's final outing as 007.

Why "in spite of myself" regarding Black Widow? Because I believe I've already declared myself shut of most subsequent Marvel movies. I honestly have no interest in Marvel's plans to take Phase IV into the cosmic realm; I really couldn't care less about planet-eating colossi like Galactus (did he get snapped in Thanos's Snapture?). I might want to follow the further adventures of Spider-Man and Dr. Strange, and I'll definitely want to watch the third "Guardians of the Galaxy," but Black Widow only barely registers in my consciousness, and I can't think of any other Marvel heroes whose adventures I'd like to continue to follow. Surely not Ant-Man who, despite being amiably played by Paul Rudd, inhabits a universe of entirely bullshit physics (true: all Marvel films feature Hollywood physics, but the Ant-Man films are particularly bad in that area). I agree with the critics who have griped for years that Black Widow should have gotten her own film a long time ago—certainly before grrrl-power superhero films like "Captain Marvel" and DC's "Wonder Woman." I expect this new film to be better than "Captain Marvel" because, let's face it, just about all the female-superhero films are better than "Captain Marvel."