Trailer Tracker: Cowboys & Aliens, Source Code and more

Our featured clip this week is the high concept sci-fi western Cowboys & Aliens starring Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde in John Favreau’s follow-up to the first two “Iron Man” films. Will this outlandish but tantalizing premise deliver all the explosive thrills the trailer promises? Only time will tell.

New Trailers this week:

Cowboys & Aliens

Following Robert Downey Jr.’s departure from Cowboys & Aliens, the latest James Bond, Daniel Craig, filled the role due to financial issues over at MGM freeing up his schedule. Craig is joined by Harrison Ford as the gruff Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde, Olivia Wilde as the sultry Ella and Sam Rockwell as “Doc.” Cowboys & Aliens is based on a graphic novel by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg and finds clashing gangs of a western town united when threatened with extraterrestrial attack.

From what relatively little is shown in the trailer, every second is used to wow us; the special effects for this high concept clash of low-tech and futuristic is incredible, but we should expect no less from John Favreau as he proved himself capable of photorealistic CGI in the “Iron Man” films. This adaptation has been in some stage of production all the way back to 1997 where a bidding war between Disney, Fox and Universal, which eventually fell apart and has been in limbo until recently. It would have been interesting to compare the products of a 1997 versus 2011 era blockbuster.

Currently slated for a July 29 release next year, if subsequent marketing material is even a portion as enticing, this effort looks to be a huge tentpole summer release and should cement Favreau as one of the biggest blockbuster directors working today. It will, however, have to fight against lots of other July blockbusters already out by then: Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Captain America: The First Avenger and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2

Source Code

For defining the term “high concept” you need only look to Cowboys & Aliens, but it looks like Source Code, the thriller from Duncan Jones and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Vera Farmiga and Michelle Monaghan, might have even that beat. This bendy action offering finds Gyllenhaal’s Colter Stevens awakening in the body of another man, eight minutes before he is to die in a train bombing. Stevens has been tasked with identifying the bomber before another attack takes place. As he relives the ordeal he begins to believe he can avert the bombing, but how can you stop an event that has already happened? Tony Scott’s Déjà Vu already flirted with this idea of changing the past through technology but after Jones' Moon, I am hopeful he can bring an enticing spin to the premise.

Mars Needs Moms

Robert Zemeckis must not like reality very much; he’s gone back and forth to the future and recently he’s worked pretty much exclusively in his motion capture animation format. He serves only as producer here in Mars Needs Moms, the adaptation of the children’s book of the same name. This style of animation still seems creepy to me; a blend of photo-realism and odd distortion. Format aside the trailer doesn’t seem to promise much aside from wacky characters and slapstick (and more 3D) so let’s hope they are simply playing up the more immature features or this looks like a potential flop in the making.

The Lincoln Lawyer

Matthew McConaughey is no stranger to crime thrillers as his resume is peppered with similarly themed films such as A Time to Kill, Two for the Money and Frailty. The Lincoln Lawyer finds McConaughey’s Mickey Haller doing shady legal business from the back of his Lincoln Towncar until he encounters a case that makes him not only rethink his clients guilt, but also past cases he may have misrepresented. The story seems ripe for cinematic adaptation but the trailer is utterly limp. I’m sure future promo material will give some more insight into the film's potential.

Prom

Ahhh prom, either a time ripe with the feeling of inflated accomplishment, terror of the unknown or perhaps a mix of both. Either too raunchy, to schmaltzy or too mainstream, the trials and tribulations of relationships, sex and growing up are something to which we can all relate. Yet Hollywood has always struggled with finding a truthful tone with efforts such as this and sadly the first look at Prom does not find me optimistic.