The 10 Best Summer Movie Previews of 2008
by Brian Tallerico

Although the Super Bowl was an amazing game, the previews for the summer movies were a little disappointing. In previous years, the big game allowed us to catch our first glimpses of the many movies that would dominate the film world for months to follow. In the YouTube/DVR era, it's looking like trailers and TV spots don't have the same power that they once did. This year the Super Bowl commercials didn't really show us anything new in the movie world (except that clever Woody & Buzz Wall-E clip). Nowadays, instead of waiting with friends during the 78th TV timeout to catch a glimpse of Angelina Jolie in Wanted, you can just go online and take a look. It certainly didn't help that the two best movie previews for Summer 2008 were already available and neither studio offered up anything new for the big game.

So, the "ehh" feeling we got from movie commercials during the Super Bowl sent us back to the web to check out all of the available teasers for the Summer 2008 season. We're anxiously awaiting a preview for Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull and we'd love to see a few previews for the The Incredible Hulk and the new adventures of Mulder and Scully, but that doesn't seem likely any time soon. So, for now, here are the eleven previews for summer 2008 movies that we've been playing the most and sending to our friends. Now you can do the same.

10. The Midnight Meat Train
"He butchers them like cattle. They never find the remains because he unloads the meat somewhere."
The preview is way too long and reveals way too much of the movie, but there are a few names on this clip that make us curious. The fact that it opens in that pre-Memorial Day slot that has seen splatter junk like See No Evil in recent years makes us very nervous, but here's why it gets a slot on our preview list: Clive Barker and Ryuhei Kitamura. Barker is one of the most creative voices in horror and Kitamura rocked our worlds with his cult classic Versus. Barker's twisted visions plus Kitamura's completely unique style could make for some horror movie magic if Lions Gate doesn't turn it into another Saw movie. Will it live up to its pedigree or be another torture porn flick to toss on the pyre with Captivity and Turistas? We have a suspicion it's the latter but given a few cool shades similar to the former, you never know.

9. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
"You may find Narnia a more savage place than you remember."
Given the pace and religious subtext underneath the story, we felt just a little burned by the first Narnia. Although the movie was clearly aimed at a younger audience, Narnia made other studios stand up, take notice, and race to create a series of fantasy knock-off adaptations like Eragon, The Seeker, and The Golden Compass, all of which had that same effect-over-character feeling that left us cold and half asleep. And that's why the preview for Prince Caspian is kind of startling. Could this be the Empire Strikes Back of the Narnia series? It's clearly a darker, more adult-driven film and that alone makes us curious. Add to that, the effects look even more accomplished. It's as if everything about the film has evolved from the childhood of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe into adolescence in Prince Caspian.

8. Wanted
"If no one ever told you that bullets fly straight, what would you do?"
Sure Wanted looks a lot like "The Matrix meets Hitman", looks over-the-top ridiculous, with a bit of the cheese factor thrown into the mix, but it's exactly what we'll be in the mood for around the 4th of July. The critical faculties fall away as the seasons change and we fire up our barbecue grills and Wanted looks like it will be the guilty pleasure of Summer 2008. We're certainly hoping it won't be Swordfish 2, but Wanted is one of those odd combination movies that immediately piques our curiosity. Who would have guessed that a cast of Oscar-winners and the director of the Russian blockbusters Night Watch and Day Watch would work together to adapt a graphic novel? On paper, it's instantly more unique than a lot of the seasonal fare. Off paper, when we see the tattooed naked back of Angelina Jolie and watch Morgan Freeman shoot a bullet around a hanging slab of meat, our guilty pleasure radar goes off. If the whole project is as fun as the trailer, we'll even forgive Morgan for The Bucket List. Maybe.

7. Son of Rambow
"You want to be the SON of Rambo?"
With new Rambo and Indiana Jones movies on the 2008 schedule, everything feels so '80s again. It's perfect timing for a nostalgic little movie about childhood, imagination, and the power that action movies have on the minds of young adolescent males. This Sundance hit looks like it could be the indie hit of the season, the perfect antidote to the bloated budgets and endless hype produced by most summer flicks. The concept behind Son of Rambow - a bunch of sheltered kids trying to make their own action movie - taps into that kid in all of us - the one who plays fort, cowboys and indians, and whatever kids play nowadays. In a time when kid's play is getting more and more crowded by handheld video games, gadgets, and TV shows, it's great to see a preview that taps into something that is true in every generation - kids are imaginative, hyperactive little beings that make for great actions stars, even if they can barely hold up a gun.

6. Iron Man
"They say the best weapon is the one you never have to fire. I prefer the weapon you only have to fire ONCE."
Will it be this year's Spider-Man or this year's Daredevil? We won't know for a few months but that first Iron Man preview kicks-ass and has us more fire-up about a Marvel movie than we've been for a while. Let's be honest, the Marvel-verse has gone a little dry lately. It's been a few years since the first X-Men and Spider-Man movies kicked the dust off the superhero genre to show audiences that masked men in tights could kick ass on the big screen. Wouldn't it be great if Iron Man could usher in the next Marvel movie renaissance? Call us cock-eyed optimists, but we have faith that if anyone can do that, it's Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau. It's often the strangest combinations that make for the coolest superhero movies and Downey and Favreau certainly wouldn't be the first two people we thought of to save the day. Oh yeah, and the effects look awesome.

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