Trailer Analysis: Death Sentence

Posted on July 13, 2007 by E
Filed Under Trailer Watch |

So now it’s Kevin Bacon’s turn to play avenging angel when his oldest son is killed by gang members in what appears to be either a stick-up or some sort of gang initiation. The movie is called Death Sentence and it is the latest directorial effort of James Wan, one half of the creative duo responsible for originating the Saw franchise and helping squeamish critics develop the term ‘torture porn’.

Click here to watch the trailer, then come back to get my assessment of the trailer and what it says about the movie. Don’t read the rest of this post if you want to be surprised or just want to view the first promo for the movie with untainted eyes.

You have been warned.
The rest of this post critiques the promo and presupposes what the movie will be about.

To begin with, the ‘video footage’ at the beginning of the trailer looks exactly like the rest of the film, only in a square format to hint at its ‘videoness’ which is straight away a strange choice for the guy who did such a good job of delivering stylish visuals on a very limited budget in the first Saw movie.

The choice of shots in the prelude to the son’s entering the store as well as the images chosen to depict the actual murder leave something to be desired. Like I wondered earlier in this post, was it a stick-up with benefits, an initiation, or something more akin to the killing that brought Mark Wahlberg and his brothers together in Four Brothers?

The DA who delivers the line, “I’ve got one eye-witness, you…” was he kidding? That’s how they set up all that is to follow? And that line delivery is only rivaled by the ineptitude of the dude who lets the gang leader know that his brother is dead. Also, unless Aisha Tyler’s police detective is in on it all in some way there is no reason why she should be smirking while informing the leading man that he started a war.

Apart from the sequence where Bacon’s car splits the van in two and the other shot where he scrambles to get off the car that’s falling backwards off the parking lot’s roof…this film doesn’t look good enough to watch for visual inventiveness, let alone any sort of story arc.

The film is rated R for strong violence and language which really means that it’s a soft R. Nothing anywhere near as hardcore as Mr. Wan’s directorial debut. I won’t even be waiting for this one of DVD. Not when I’m getting all that off the trailer.

So is this an example of a one-trick pony or an auteur unable to realize his own vision because someone is afraid he will fail? What do you think?

   

Comments

2 Responses to “Trailer Analysis: Death Sentence”

  1. Blue Bonnet on November 28th, 2007 5:04 am

    Yeah, this is an interesting topic and I would recommend you watch other new movie trailers and rate them as well. I realize this may be an old post sorry for getting to it so late…

  2. Roy Digs Movie Trailers on December 26th, 2007 4:14 pm

    I never really saw this movie, and it won’t exactly be on my top 10 dvd list to get, maybe this will do for one of those night’s when there is just nothing else to watch. The thing over the car was cool though. Thanks for the input.

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