Kick-Ass trailer, bitches:
But that doesn’t even hold a goddamn candle to the red band, Hit-Girl centered trailer, which you can’t embed apparently. But it is here. Go forth, and be moved. This is going to be the best thing in the world. I know I have already said that about a lot of things. But this is real.
So a few months ago I saw this trailer (sorry, this embed seems incompatible w/ WordPress) when it first surfaced at /Film, and my friend Spoon and I compared notes. We were still able to be skeptical at that point; he even qualified the idea that Where The Wild Things Are would be mandatory viewing for everyone with something like, “even if it’s horrible, I feel like I need to see it.”
And then I saw this same trailer on the big screen before Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince, and I can honestly say it was more enjoyable than the actual movie (this is saying something; I really liked the movie). There is a second trailer out there, and I think we can definitely say this movie is not going to be horrible.
In fact, I am going to be disappointed if this is not the greatest movie I have ever seen. I’m pretty confident it will be, though. Here’s why there’s no real reason to worry:
I have no real attachment to the book other than a visual one. Adam Carolla quite decisively ruled on his podcast that the writing in the book isn’t even very good. Does anyone even remember the plot? Everyone remembers the illustrations. Spike Jonze has the wisdom to not destroy our collective memories with CG effects—at the very least, the Wild Things might be a hybrid—I suspect a little digital activity in the facial region like Benjamin Button or The Hills Have Eyes. That’s okay. The point is our visual senses will not be offended by this film, and that’s really the only thing he could have screwed up!
This is in contrast to, say, The Polar Express, a slightly more milquetoast affair. Gabe at Videogum put it better than I could: “Where the Wild Things Are is all about the inescapable nature of life as it’s presented to you, not only by the laws of reality, but within. All of us must face up to the world as it is given to us, for worse but also for better.” And Polar Express is about…Santa. It’s also a book I remember for seasonal reasons, not because it looked very striking. Without an absolute illustrative vision, who could blame Robert Zemeckis for coming up with that terrifying, 30 Tom Hankses having a conversation with himself trainwreck? Okay, I can blame him. Fuck Robert Zemeckis, fuck Jim Carrey, and fuck A Christmas Carol. But don’t fuck Tom Hanks; the man made Band of Brothers! Tom Hanks is O.K. in my book.
I feel like after I see Where The Wild Things Are, I’m not going to be able to watch other movies again for a long time; the cinematic equivalent of listening to Veckatimest. I better go see The Hurt Locker soon.
Okay, there is one thing that can be screwed up: Dave Eggers is writing this thing. If the Wild Things and Max find fulfillment by opening a school for young writers in Africa or something I’m going to strangle Dave Eggers with my bare hands. I seriously doubt this will happen, though.