Trailer Wednesday: “The A-Team” and “The Karate Kid”

These trailers aren’t piping hot off the press, but Wednesday has always been the hardest day of the week for me to post something new, so I’m devoting it to recent trailers. It also seems a lot of trailers generally come out this day of the week (like when we had Iron Man 2 and Robin Hood both come out) so maybe i’ll get lucky in the future. Of course if an awesome trailer hits, I’ll probably put it up ASAP, like whenever we get new Iron Man 2 trailers. For now, here are some of the recent buzz-makers, The A-Team and The Karate Kid.

The newest of these is The A-Team, which gathered a lot of hype around the end of last summer when it was casting. For those still confused, this is the film reboot of the 1980s television show of the same name starring most notably Mr. T. Former UFC fighter Quinton “Rampage” Jackson takes over as Mr. T’s B.A. Baracus in a film that also includes the likes of Liam Neeson and Bradley Cooper.

I found the trailer underwhelming, but you tell me what you think. The narration informs most of us who have no clue who The A-Team is yet are the target audience anyway about the premise:  Four Iraq War vets are now soldiers-for-hire doing good but on the run from the law because of a crime they didn’t commit. Yet the images give us no sense of said narrative (perhaps insisting on “teaser” would’ve been wise) other than showing wild and not all that spectacular action shots. There’s also little sense of character. I spent most of the trailer waiting for District 9 star Sharlto Copley to show up so I could see him as something other than Wickus Van Der Merwe. There’s also no Jessica Biel, which 20th Century Fox should have insisted on because, well, that’s a quick way to reach the 18-29 audience.

Anyway, my excitement for this primely placed June 11 action flick from reasonably talented Smokin’ Aces director Joe Carnahan has been tempered. I want to see more, but I’m not quite ready to give my support to the mohawk just yet. (Watch The A-Team trailer at imdb)

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Also in that big June 11 spot is a film I’m even less excited about, a next-generation version of The Karate Kid starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan. In this story, the interestingly named Dre (Smith) moves with his mother to China for work. The Chinese children bully him for no good reason, hopefully not because he’s the only black kid … anyway, the trailer shows Mr. Han (Chan) save Dre from some bullies because he just happened to be hanging around the school at the time (raised eyebrows, anyone?) and then he agrees to teach Dre some karate, at first for self-defense and secondly so he can enter a competition and make the film more exciting (and like the original). Sorry for the sarcasm, but this wasn’t the best of ideas if you ask me.

There will definitely end up being some family appeal for this movie. As for the non-family ones of us, Harald Zwart directs (Agent Cody Banks, The Pink Panther 2) and those credentials speak volumes. If this film will succeed at all, it will have to be as a sports drama. (Pick your Apple The Karate Kid trailer here)