It's got rhythm

Good trailers have rhythm.

I really enjoyed Zatoichi. It's violent, but in a very stylised, absurd way. (I don't like being frightened). The timing is good, and that feels like musicality. I like opera too, much more than I like most movies.



My enjoyment of this well-crafted trailer is probably enhanced by not understanding Japanese. There are versions with subtitles, but they hardly seem necessary. I can't help feeling that too much dialogue is often a mistake in trailers in almost the same way that talking while dancing is a mistake. If there are words, they should be delivered with full and skilful attention to their rhythm, and properly part of the music, as they seem to be above.

This next film was remarkable for its sound, especially some of the music, but also the sounds of wood and water and living things. But the trailer doesn't quite work for me. It feels both lengthy and hurried, doesn't use any of the good music, and draws attention to Russell Crowe's slightly dodgy accent, which seemed fine in the film.



It was actually a rather good Patrick O'Brian pastiche if you watched it in a cinema with a really good sound system. And, like the books, it wasn't mainly about any of the things that the trailer tells you it is about; specifically not about fighting the enemy. Although that does happen. It was really much better than you'd think from watching this. But that was the clever part; that was what got them the action-flick budget to spend on a thinly-disguised art movie.