Boy, it’s been a busy week for trailers. But since we know you’re all busy out there, we’ve gone ahead and ranked 19 of the major trailer releases so you know which movies to watch, which to skip, and which to just wait for a home release.
Written by George Heftler
1. Halloween
Release Date: October 19
Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Virginia Gardner
Directed by: David Gordon Green
Rating: Laurie’s back, Michael’s back, and Halloween is back, baby. This looks so good. Gets a lot of the vibe of the original while still still bringing the franchise forward. This is how you do it, Rob Zombie. 10/10
Check out Ann Hale’s thoughts on the new Halloween here.
2. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Release Date: December 14
Starring: Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Liev Schreiber, Hailee Steinfeld
Directed by: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman
Rating: Truly, we are in a Spider-ennaisance kicked off by Spider-Man: Homecoming. This trailer is absolutely stunning, even more so than the teaser that had this movie on my radar already. I know Jake Johnson as Peter doesn’t do it for everyone, but I like it. The other voices are good as well, but the real star here is the animation style. This looks like a comic brought to life. Also, hell yeah Spider-Gwen. 10/10
3. What Will People Say
Release Date: N/A
Starring: Maria Mozhdah, Adil Hussain, Ekavali Khanna
Directed by: Iram Haq
Rating: Deeply intriguing trailer about a young woman caught between cultures. Definitely not your run-of-the-mill coming of age story. Can’t wait to see this. 10/10
4. Suspiria
Release Date: November 2
Starring: Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton
Directed by: Luca Guadagnino
Rating: Another big yes from me. The original is awesome, with an interesting but not fully realized plot carried by the incredible score and fantastic use of color. This movie then split into two spiritual remakes. The tone, awesome score and color palette were reborn as The Neon Demon by Nicholas Winding Refn and this seems to be the plot brought to its fullest potential, but without the color. I’m eagerly awaiting this. 10/10
5. Bad Times at the El Royale
Release Date: October 5
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm
Directed by: Drew Goddard
Rating: Wow this looks fun. The abrupt tonal shift of the trailer gives me slight pause about how the movie itself will handle it, but what. A. Cast. This is a movie to keep your eyes on. 9/10
6. The Old Man with a Gun
Release Date: October 5
Starring: Robert Redford, Sissy Spacek, Casey Affleck, Tom Waits
Directed by: David Lowery
Rating: Robert Redford is charming as hell, and Tom Waits is in it. What else do you need? This trailer does a great job communicating tone, and I am all in. 9/10
7. Operation Finale
Release Date: September 14
Starring: Oscar Isaac, Nick Kroll, Ben Kingsley
Directed by: Chris Weitz
Rating: Oh hell yeah. Neat to see Nick Kroll being serious, even neater to see him and Oscar Isaac hunting Ben Kingsley as a Nazi. I am excited for this one. 9/10
8. The Appearance
Release Date: N/A
Starring: Jake Stormoen, Kristian Nairn, Adam Johnson
Directed by: Kurt Knight
Rating: This movie looks dope, except for the one scene in the trailer that makes it seem like jump scare malarkey as opposed to actual horror. But I digress. A possible witch, crazy monks, Hodor actually speaking…this definitely gets a watch from me. 9/10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0GBYzg3vP4
9. White Boy Rick
Release Date: September 14
Starring: Richie Merritt, Matthew McConaughey, Bel Powley
Directed by: Yann Demange
Rating: Every time I think Matt McConaughey is done-ski, he draws me back in. This movie looks fun as hell and the trailer is great with a solid track over it (I have a soft spot for Donna Summer). Is this the crime movie of the year? Could very well be. 8/10
10. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
Release Date: March 1, 2019
Starring: Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, Cate Blanchett
Directed by: Dean DeBlois
Rating: Not only does this look good enough to make me want to see it, it makes me want to go watch how to train your dragon 2 to make sure I know whats going on. The animation looks fine, the colors are spectacular, and I like Jay Baruchel. 8/10
11. The Girl in the Spider’s Web
Release Date: November 9
Starring: Claire Foy, Sverrir Gudnason
Directed by: Fede Alvarez
Rating: I’m a little bummed they switched the main actor, and the tone seems way more “action movie” than the first one, but it looks pretty decent. 7/10
12. Friday’s Child
Release Date: N/A
Starring: Tye Sheridan, Imogen Poots, Caleb Landry Jones
Directed by: A. J. Edwards
Looks like a great cast but I didn’t get much else out of it. Still, an interesting enough teaser that this movie will stay on my radar. 7/10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r56OkUHO73U
13. Billionaire Boys Club
Release Date: August 3
Starring: Taron Edgerton, Ansel Elgort, Kevin Spacey
Directed by: James Cox
Really interesting cast, even discounting Kevin Spacey as persona non-grata. I wasn’t thrilled by the story though — I’m not sure I need a story about rich jerks acting like jerks and then getting revenge on another rich jerk. Probably a watch-at-home for me. 6.5/10
14. The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
Release Date: February 8, 2019
Starring: Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks
Directed by: Mike Mitchell, Trisha Gum
Not hard to sell me on another Lego movie (I even saw the Ninjago one), but I still found myself a little disappointed by this trailer. It seems to be banking on the goodwill of the original drawing people in and didn’t really make a particularly interesting trailer. 6/10
15. A Star is Born
Release Date: October 5
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga
Directed by: Bradley Cooper
Rating: Doesn’t appeal to me, but I can see this movie being a real draw for romantic dramedy/country music fans. Bradley Cooper is always at least decent, and Lady Gaga is supposed to be good in American Horror Story, so who knows? Maybe it’ll be a good movie. Nothing convinced me to the contrary. 6/10
16. Serenity
Release Date: November 21
Starring: Anne Hathaway,
Directed by: Steven Knight, Matthew McConaughey.
Rating: And after I was so impressed by Matthew McConaughey’s other trailer. This seems like a “pay the bills” movie from all involved. I’m willing to be proven wrong, but this trailer is not doing it. 3/10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ8HjH9zaXc
17. Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2
Release Date: November 21
Starring: John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman
Directed by: Phil Johnston, Rich Moore
Rating: Emoji Movie vibe with better animation + Ready Player One’s “I recognize that thing”. Barf indeed, Vanellope. +1 point for Daft Punk track. 2/10
18. Mortal Engines
Release Date: December 14
Starring: Hera Hilmar, Robert Sheehan, Hugo Weaving
Directed by: Christian Rivers
Rating: This trailer makes this movie feel like a YA novel, so I googled it, and it actually is indeed a series of YA books. Every line is a cliché. The animation looks bad. The idea seems dumb. My prediction is this is the next Jupiter Ascending– a terrible movie that nobody watches and promptly fades back into obscurity. 1/10
19. Bumblebee
Release Date: 12/21
Starring: Hailee Steinfeld
Directed by: Travis Knight
Rating: God this looks bad. And yet, all over, people are like, “is this the redemption of Transformers?” No. It’s not. It’s still produced by Michael Bay, the other production company is the one behind Ouija and Jem and the Holograms, and the writer has written 1 movie I’ve never heard of and the terrible 2016 movie Shut In. Do not see this movie. If you see this movie, we are going to get another decade of awful Transformers movies. I’m begging you. Let this series fail. 0/10
