To begin, please check out the trailer at this link – Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows – then return for thoughts and commentary. And if you haven’t already, check out my review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1.
I just want to make sure I say that regardless of how off I get from my schedule of posting, I will get the Art of the Trailer up every Friday. This week just worked against me as far as my posting schedule goes, but again I say AotT will be up on Friday as scheduled each week.
Now with that out of the way, let’s get into the trailer. Thanks to my brother Travis for suggesting this one! What I like most about the trailer is its pacing. It has a fairly standard soundtrack over it, at least for a modern trailer, but it plays well with it. Particularly how it matches every note with a different shot. It was just refreshingly pointed – it matched beats like an elegant dance.
Let’s break it down a bit further. It starts off well with the line “Welcome”. Just a nice touch, it invites us into the trailer. From there it ramps up nicely, building passion and intensity as the music slows down. At 0:52 we get a great moment of reintroduction to Watson. Just great pacing and ramp to that point.
Only at 1 minute in does the story start. We get a glimpse of Holmes tracking a conspiracy and get just enough of a teaser of Moriarty to pique our interest without fully spoiling how the filmmakers have decided to portray him. Good stuff.
We also get a nice parallel structure from the musical slowd0wn at 0:52 and at 1:25. It creates a symmetry which connects the whole thing together. Plus Robert Downey Junior cross-dressing is funny any day 🙂
The entire last minute is completely Bad-A! Particularly when Holmes cocks the gun, punching the guy, then flips it over to Watson. Just great timing with the music (which I will say again was pretty standard). The beats are just phenomenal as we get to the end. The mortar fire at 2:02 fits so well and the editing at “Make it count” is fantastic. Fast-paced and action packed, it really gets the heart moving. But it’s not an entirely serious film, because we laugh at 2:17. Title sequence is good, ending on humor is good. Just all around a well produced trailer. The musical and visual beats match better than I have ever seen them do previously. It really is a sort of waltz that is really beautiful. Definitely looking forward to December now.
One final note: while they show us a lot of the film in this trailer, I don’t feel that they show too much. The cuts are very quick and we only get the faintest glimpses of what is going on. I was recently listening to an episode of Mugglecast in which they break down the HP7.2 trailer and I noticed that they went second by second analyzing what they saw, not how the trailer worked or flowed. If you pick it apart like that with the Sherlock Holmes trailer, I am sure you would see more than you wanted to have spoiled. But, if you view it as it was shown – fast and furious in the cinemas – you get a very well crafted, non-spoilery trailer that gets you excited for the film. Just a thought.
SPEAKING OF HOLMES!!!!!
I have just been watching the BBC show Masterpiece Mystery! Sherlock and it is flipping PHENOMENAL!!! It is a version of the Sherlock Holmes stories set in modern day London. The writing is amazing – it fits so well with the classic tales yet manages to still surprise me everytime. It is truly a wonderful show and I really recommend you check out Season 1 sometime if you get the chance. You won’t be disappointed!
SURPRISE BONUS TRAILER…THING……. 😀
Check out this awesome fake trailer – George Lucas Strikes Back. I won’t comment on this as a trailer (because it really is the movie itself) but it looks hilarious, lots of great jokes, and to be honest I think it is a true life story. Thanks to Ryan for suggesting this one!
There you go! Lots of Holmes this week and a bit of Lucas to go with it. Hope you enjoyed it, sorry for the delays and crazyness and check back next week when I will be reviewing the new Battleship trailer. Thanks!
The Art of the Trailer 