*I'm not sure why this is all wonky-sized but I'm not good with the HTML so wonky it stays. You can watch it on regular YouTube if you want.
So, the trailer's finally here. And you know what? I HATE IT. I'm using the word hate to describe my feelings for a movie trailer. Let's start with the music...I'm sorry, is that T-PAIN? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? This is the JAZZ AGE. It comes with its VERY OWN MUSIC. MUSIC THAT IS GOOD AND YES I AM YELLING NOW.
And ok, it's Baz Luhrmann. So I was expecting a little Moulin Rouge- but Moulin Rouge still managed to be elegant. This does not look elegant. This looks like a frat party with better haircuts. Now, Carey Mulligan looks like she does an excellent job and I'm sure Leo's Very Brooding Gatsby will be interesting but I can't STAND this cinematography. It's taken one of the most subtly heartbreaking books and turned it into a LOOK AT ALL THIS JAZZ AND PARTIES AND BOB HAIRCUTS AND SPARKLY THINGS AND DON'T YOU LOVE THIS MOVIE PLEASE LOVE THIS MOVIE!
I get that it's just the trailer. I'll probably still go see it? But this is my favorite book of all time all time all time and I went from cautiously excited when the poster came out to very, very irritated now.
What do you guys think of the trailer? Did Baz ruinz it?
ETA: Twitter has informed me that the awful opening music is Kanye, not T-Pain.
You are so right! What's with the music the sounds like it belongs in The Fast and the Furious? The first thirty seconds are ridiculous, as if the movie is the new Step Up or something. It's often the case that the trailer doesn't really have a lot to do with the movie though, so you never know...
ReplyDeleteYES IT IS STEP UP DEAR LORD.
DeleteI'm okay with the music and the glitz and the blahblah oi vey for only one reason: it's what teenagers want to see in movies. Or it's what will mindfuck them into that theater.
ReplyDeleteI'll be just as frustrated as you if it turns out the music continues through the whole movie, but I'm clinging to the hope that when the actual movie's on, they'll use period music & more normal movie shots (meaning ones that don't give me motion sickness).
But I do think they do this to get a wider audience (ie teenagers w/ $$$) into theaters, and it's teenagers who really need to see this movie. Because 1) EVERYONE should see this b/c Gatsby is the greatest novel ever and 2) because (warning: massive generalizations) teenagers tend to be like Daisy. Obsessed with Things.
My spiel, it's over.
I talked about that with my husband and while I'm ALL FOR tricking young people into seeing the movie so they'll read the book, I'm scared that they'll get to the book and be all THIS IS NOT SHINY LIKE THE MOVIE I HATE THIS.
DeleteOh, oh, oh, that doesn't bode well. I'm late to the Gatsby game anyway--I didn't read it until January of this year--so I'm not really feeling proprietary about it, but if I felt the way you do about the book, I'd feel pretty awful about that trailer.
ReplyDeleteI think I'd be happier with that trailer if they'd actually taken Gatsby out of its time period and put it into today's. Not unlike Leo & Claire Danes in that Romeo & Juliet adaptation, which was at least a very interesting piece.
But really, what can trump the Jazz Age in terms of movie perfection? And now they're messing with perfection and we all know that never ends well.
Of course I'll still go see it, though.
Oooo, I never thought of that. A modern Gatsby? That could be cool. Although the jazz and the champagne are half the fun ;)
DeleteYes, but jazz & champagne are now cool & retro, so they could actually go quite well with contempo-Gatsby. Sadly, we'll probably never get the chance to find out
DeleteIt just looks...bad. The fact that it LOOKS Baz Luhrmanny, IMO, doesn't bode well in the first place, because his style + Great Gatsby do not go together. Especially since he IS so "Sparkles! Quirky things! Look look look!!!"
ReplyDeleteI'm not even a huge Gatsby fan, but I'd see this if it didn't look terrible.
It looks terrible and I'm still going to see it. I predict my opinion will be: Carey=awesome, Leo=meh, Tobey= GO AWAY and everything else=stupid.
Deletei can't watch it because what i just read pains me too much.
ReplyDeleteDOO IT THERE IS AUTO-TUNE.
DeleteI don't like the music, I hate all the flashiness and gratuitous sex scenes, and it looks way too dramatic/action-packed for my taste. It's like it's a trailer for an action movie, not The Great Gatsby.
ReplyDeleteTHAT SAID, I think Carey Mulligan makes a great Daisy and Leo will probably be a fine Gatsby. I'm very worried about Tobey Maguire playing Nick. Nick is such an interesting and charismatic character, and I don't think Maguire can pull it off. He's so damn vanilla.
I'm hoping that the music in the trailer is just for the trailer and that they use some reasonable Jazz Age music in the movie, because WTF would they not? As suzannemwallace said, I'm hoping that they used that music in the trailer to lure people in but that it doesn't continue into the actual movie.
This. I agree with all of this. Especially the actors bit. Maybe Carey can save it?
DeleteI was thinking about this but I'm actually kinda okay with Tobey because Nick doesn't really DO anything. He's basically just there to observe the interesting drama between Jay & Daisy and judge them a little because they're sillies.
DeleteSo...a bland set of eyes & ears? The role Tobey Maguire was BORN to play! Now if only I didn't have to hear his voice narrate those beautiful words... *twitch*
Suzanne, I'm in love with your comment and concur 100% with your assessment. Toby = bland-itude at its finest = perfect for playing Nick.
DeleteI'm going to be in the minority here: I like it. I think it's ridiculous and over the top and I like it. (Please let us still be friends, I like you so much more than I like the GATSBY trailer.)
ReplyDeleteI would be TOTES COOL with ridiculous and over the top if this were just Random Movie About The Roaring 20's. But Gatsby is so un-roaring and quiet and subtle that all this ridiculousness sort of violates the theme.
DeleteAnd yes, we're still friends! And in two weeks we can be friends with DRINKS because we'll be in New York and that's what friends do in New York!...?
Shudder, this is like 874 types of wrong, it feels like an action music-video idea of the '20's, more like a stylised Batman set than Gatsby.
ReplyDeleteCarey looks perfect, and the eyes of T.J. Mecklenberg look fantastic. Very worried that Mr Maguire is going to kill it stone dead though, and I'm split about Leo.
I shall probably go see it anyway, but I'm worried any subtlety will be steamrolled out of the movie.
Mr. Maguire....WHY, GOD, WHY?
DeleteI agree with most of the people here. Carey looks like a good Daisy and basically everything else scares the hell out of me. I'm a big DiCaprio fan but he's wrong for Gatsby... I liked Robert Redford. Tobey Maguire is probably the dumbest move here...
ReplyDelete...and all speedy tempo and music video atmosphere is just a shame, IMO. Very un-Gatsby like.
(I am happy that we both really like a book - Gatsby is third on my all-time list)
YAY! If we ever meet, when we part we can say something cheesy like "we'll always have Gatsby....*forlorn look*"
DeleteKanye...T-Pain...they're equally awful, and an absolutely horrible choice for a movie that takes place in the Roaring 20's. BLAH. I'm not so sure I want to see this movie now. I'm afraid I'll just be making snide comments through the whole thing.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, knowing the lyrics to "No Church in the Wild," I *kind of* get why they used it for the trailer...but I could still come up with a ton of songs that would have been better.
DeleteI'm 100 percent certain that I'll be making snide comments throughout the whole thing.
DeleteI suspect turning it into an "actiony" trailer is to try and get people in who are not necessarily fans of classic 20th century literature. However, it is Baz Luhrman, so who cal tell. He's generally a "love him or hate him" kind of guy. I felt like he got the soft tenderness right in Romeo+Juliet, even with the gangster fight scenes, so maybe the actual movie is more balanced than the trailer.
ReplyDeleteI hope so. I HOPE SO I HOPE SO.
Delete" It comes with it's VERY OWN MUSIC." it's= it is. its=possessive.
ReplyDeleteWhat would people like you do in a typo-free world? The thought must chill you.
DeleteWhy are you defensive? It was a simple error and I thought I'd point it out.
DeleteI refuse to watch it (movie or trailer) until I've actually read The Great Gatsby.
ReplyDeleteRead it! Read it now! I have tattoos (ok, one) from that book because it is PERFECT.
DeleteIt IS in 3D, which is certainly important for literary adaptations, right?
ReplyDeleteYou know it. Don't you want the EYES to pop out at you? EYES EYES EYES.
Delete1. It's a trailer. They're cut and scored to make a movie look more exciting. A great example of this is the flash edits for last year's superb adaptation of "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" (which autocorrect tried to make stinker and I almost typo-ed into soy: "Stinker Tailor Soldier Soy", a very different movie). (Also, please save any comments about blah blah blab Alec Guinness. Yeah, the miniseries was great but both are allowed to be good.) Tinker's trailer-as most trailers do-was cut to make it look like a period Bourne movie instead of the contemplative and slightly confusing film it is. This is to draw the crowd that likes Bourne but finds shows like "The Wire" confusing (when they're actually dope).
ReplyDelete2. I think it's cast well, especially Carey and Tobey. In almost always skeptical about Leo but he almost always surprises me.
3. It's Baz Luhrmann. It will tone down from the trailer but I reckon he'll do a couple of things to tick off any Gatsby fan: make it louder, use contemporary music, and pull emotive performances from his cast. It is his style and I think you either like it or you really don't. I'm half and half, siding with Strictly Ballroom and Romeo but loathing Moulin Rouge and sitting out Australia altogether.
4. If anything I'll go see it for one reason. It's a perfectly reasonable excuse-as if one needs it, but still-to re-read a novel whose last line served as my senior quote and that I love and cherish. When I read it and go see it at one of the non-3D showings, I will try to do what I always do with an adaptation: approach it first as a film and narrative of its own and judge those merits and then decide on how well it adapts its material.
I was fine with Romeo and Juliet but it wasn't like he was remaking it traditionally- it was set in the modern times. If this Gatsby were modern, I think his tone would be more appropriate? WELL, the tone of the trailer, anyway.
DeleteAnd you haven't seen Australia?! Don't you need to see Hugh's abs? DON'T YOU?
Simply put, this trailer bummed me out. Yes, I will watch the movie, but I will never love it as I love the 1974 version. Gatsby isn't meant to be gangster.
ReplyDeleteWhile I don't consider this novel one of my favorites, I recognize how great it is. I can applaud Luhrmann for being unique and inventive, but it looks like he only went halfway here. I think he either needed to re-invent, or leave it as it was meant to be, not this mish mash. I can only hope that the full film outdoes the trailer.
I usually love Carey Mulligan, but she didn't do it for me in this trailer. Maybe it's the American accent. Also, I don't see a strong connection between her and Leo. I think the 11 year age difference is very apparent.
I love the book and gave it to my boyfriend to read and he loved it as well and I was quite excited about the movie coming out as well. I couldn't even finish watching trailer.
ReplyDeleteI cried a little. It looks so awful. I wanted something classy and with jazz music. Not something that looked like an acid fueled orgy.
To be fair to the anachronism of the soundtrack, period-correct music wouldn't necessarily be better suited to the tone of the book. Authentic 20s jazz is awesome, but "classy" or "un-roaring and quiet and subtle" it is not.
ReplyDeleteI had a hard time with the trailer too... but, I have to say I am still really interested in seeing it. The music threw me off from the get go, and the filter that it seems to be filmed with gives it a strange effect as well.... But, I know that Baz knocked it out of the park with Romeo and Juliet (at least to me), so I am hoping that it was just one of those songs that he chose to maybe get a younger generation interested in it too? I'm not sure. Also, I say younger generation, when I am 24 and have LOVED Gatsby since forever... but you know... maybe Kanye will bring in some 15 year olds or something. If anything he should have done like some electro-swing for the intro. Caravan Palace plays some really upbeat fun stuff that I think would go SMASHINGLY with the movie.
ReplyDeleteI can't lie - a huge part of what I loved about The Great Gatsby was the sumptuous surface and bravado of everything, and I think that's what Baz has (as per usual) really clicked into.
ReplyDeleteThough, seriously, where the hell is the jazz?! It better be in there.
I hate that music too, however, I still have hope for it. I think Leo and Carey are excellent, and I tend to like almost all of what Baz has done. I just don't know if I'll be able to stand Tobey though. His voice is the WORST, his mouth drives me crazy, but I think the main reason I can't stand him is because he reminds me of my crazy ex-boyfriend. So do with that what you will. I'm sure I'll see the movie.
ReplyDeleteAlong with many of the other people who have commented here, I agree with your hatred, though I'm reluctant to say that I hate it, too. GATSBY is one of my favorite books. It may be my favorite book, period. I read it a few times for my English class and grew more attached to it with every reading, as I knew I would. I have a very specific vision as to how the book looks and how the characters move and interact in their false, crumbling world. I'm looking forward to this movie, and I'm sure I'll like it quite a bit, but I fear it will compromise my vision. I have to separate them. Carey Mulligan can do no wrong, in my opinion. When I imagined Daisy in my reading, I had already seen the cast list for the movie, so I imagined her. And she fit.
ReplyDeleteI actually thought that the Kanye was an interesting choice for the opening of the trailer. Kanye's music and his persona are all about conspicuous consumption and pretending to be something more than yourself, which are pretty major motifs in the book. The song has a driving hook that matches the frenetic pace of Gatsby's parties. The music and the party shots are used to set the backdrop, and then the music cuts out seconds before we first see Gatsby on screen and start to see footage of the actual plot unfolding.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way about the new "On the Road" movie coming out. Staring the girl from Twilight? I met my wife because of On the Road (She was reading it and we struck up conversation). I used the book to propose to her. I can never trust a modern movie based on it.
ReplyDeleteSo if The Great Gatsby is your favorite novel, I'm sorry this movie looks awful!