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Svevan wrote:I'm all for artistic autonomy, but the leaked video was not fantastic. I think people are quick to champion Spike Jonze on principle (as am I) without considering that his "vision" may be total and utter shit.

I just wanted to bring this back to comment because this line of thought means a lot to me, not just for this movie but for all of filmdom. In this case, I have not seen the test footage. I have no real connection to the source material.

That said, I will take the director's vision over the alternative version in almost any case. I would much rather see the total and utter shit version than the studio version. In general, Hollywood studios make good movies. The problem is that they're interchangeable.

Given the subjectivity of the form, I'd rather take my chances on a movie that 75% of the audience hates, but 25% loves than another solid, safe, predictable studio film that has 75% on RottenTomatoes. I'd always rather see the personal vision. It's something to discuss afterwards. If I want to see a "good" movie, I could probably pick a random studio dvd off the shelf at my local rental store. I'd rather see a visionary film, even if most consider it a disaster (*winks at Synecdoche, New York*).

A strong number of my favorite films from the past few years have had divided critical acclaim rather than unanimous praise. The Fall, Assassination of Jesse James, Marie Antoinette, etc. These movies are considered boring or shitty by some, but there's an author to the material. To me, that makes them all the more worthwhile for viewing and discussion rather than some forgettable movie like... well, I forgot.

Spike Jonze found a skateboard company (who knew) and with your allowance money, you can now grind the local mall with some images of the monsters on your deck. Whoa!

It's too bad they couldn't use the actual score in this mega-trailer, but instead are resorting to pandering to indie kids (who I doubt are going to be flocking to Monsters vs. Aliens anyway). There are going to be a lot of disoriented five-year-olds wearing 3D glasses.

Anyone else having a problem seeing the trailer? I'm getting javascript errors.

Teaser trailer looks good - the costume route seems to be a very wise choice. Nice to see after all this time, that's for sure.

That trailer was so very moving... I hope the film surpasses it, of course.

Despite the unbelievable tackiness/corniness of scoring the trailer to the Arcade Fire, it looks great. Also, was it just me, or was there a little nod to Paddle To The Sea in there?

A beautiful trailer, especially the 4 shot-montage of him running away from the camera near the end. Though, I hope it retains the tone of the original test footage. I remember there was some issue around the time the test footage came up: some restrictions or reshooting of material was required(?). Does anyone know the exact details?

I haven't heard that song in like 4 years. Still great.

jon wrote:A beautiful trailer, especially the 4 shot-montage of him running away from the camera near the end. Though, I hope it retains the tone of the original test footage. I remember there was some issue around the time the test footage came up: some restrictions or reshooting of material was required(?). Does anyone know the exact details?

The reshoots had to do with how the special effects were shaping up. Spike Jonze originally didn't want to use any CGI at all but apparently the end result wasn't turning out that great, so that's why they went back to the drawing board. If you search earlier in the thread, you'll find some articles about it.

Antoine Doinel wrote:The reshoots had to do with how the special effects were shaping up. Spike Jonze originally didn't want to use any CGI at all but apparently the end result wasn't turning out that great, so that's why they went back to the drawing board. If you search earlier in the thread, you'll find some articles about it.

I believe that's a lot of rubbish that the studio was trying to sell. The article in question was taking the studio's side and suggesting Jonze had not made a good film (of course, it was The Los Angeles Times) and the studio told them that Spike would be reshooting all the footage of the Wild Things, only now with CGI instead of suits. That's probably what they were pressuring him to do, since according to all reports they hated the look of the puppets, but he we are now and the film is still using a suit and CG hybrid as originally planned.

The bottom line is Jonze got final cut, and as we can tell from the trailer, the final results look great. Whatever the disagreements were on the special effects, it appears that for Jonze, it wasn't a dealbreaker.

Antoine Doinel wrote:Despite the unbelievable tackiness/corniness of scoring the trailer to the Arcade Fire, it looks great. Also, was it just me, or was there a little nod to Paddle To The Sea in there?

I disagree. Their music drives the emotion in that trailer, and quite wonderfully for me. And they're amazing in concert, too.

I have nothing against AF or the song, I just think it has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer in the trailer.

I'm unable to view the trailer at the moment. I'm curious, though, which song is it?

(I suspect Wake Up.)

I think I'm one of the few who thought this trailer was underwhelming. The use of Arcade Fire didn't help.

cdnchris wrote:(I suspect Wake Up.)

Correct.

As someone who was really skeptical of what Jonze was going to do with this (I'm no fan of Adaptation) I have to say I'm kind of amazed how well he seems to have captured the spirit of Sendak's book. I am a Luddite, so I have no idea what effects he ended up utilizing - but whatever they are, they look fucking great.

Looking good for Criterion Spine # 500-something

If Warner Bros. want to release a DVD (on Criterion, no less) while their film is playing in cinemas, then sure.

Antoine Doinel wrote:I have nothing against AF or the song, I just think it has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer in the trailer.

To me it forces the film to live up to something really great. (if that can make any sense) Spike Jonze has an especially great directorial style with music, especially "indie" music, so I find the AF usage extremely exciting as well as emotionally trangressive for a children's fantasy. Arcade Fire (generalizing here, there are my favorite contemporary band, and theyre the best ever in concert) often sings about getting old and becoming jaded and how things should go back to being like when we were children, and I think the parallels work great, particularly with this song... Amazing trailer imo, hope the scripts not rubbish.

Antoine Doinel wrote:It's too bad they couldn't use the actual score in this mega-trailer, but instead are resorting to pandering to indie kids (who I doubt are going to be flocking to Monsters vs. Aliens anyway). There are going to be a lot of disoriented five-year-olds wearing 3D glasses.

Agreed. Young folks who overuse the word "amazing" are going to think this movie is... Well... Amazing.

Personally speaking, I think the trailer would have been a heck of a lot more effective had it featured a simple section of the film's score. Even an instrumental version of "Wake Up" might've worked a bit better. I just think that tying an Arcade Fire to the film may end up pigeonholing it in the end.

That being said, it does look pretty neat. I'm interested to see how Jonze/Eggers have adapted a twenty-or-so page children's book into a feature film.