I can’t decide if this is inspired or blasphemous.
I know I’m not on the bleeding edge of timeliness with this, as I just saw it for the first time today even though folks in my Facebook news feed were linking to it. Basically, the gang at Film School Rejects have taken the original trailer for Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and given it the modern-day marketing makeover. Now a jump-cut/quick-fade/epileptic seizure-inducing montage of sound and fury, this new version presents Kubrick’s seminal SF masterpiece (that’s right; I said it) as a summer blockbuster which makes any of the Transformers movies seem like Eat, Pray, Love.
(Okay, it’s not that wild, but it’s definitely “different.”)
Check it out:
Interestingly, and as others have pointed out, the trailer actually makes a pretty good case for the film. Given how much of the story is driven visually and with minimal dialogue, the trailer is free to showcase several key pieces of the movie’s striking imagery to remarkable effect. If anything, this exercise succeeds (for the most part) in demonstrating just how much of the film has held up in the 40-plus years since its release.
(Of course, if they actually used a trailer like this to pimp a theatrical re-release of the film? Fanboy reactions might well go a long way toward redefining the term “epic.”)
Anyway, take the ultimate trip, yo.
Links:
io9: What a Trailer for 2001: A Space Odyssey Would Look Like Today
Film School Rejects: Trailer Recut: How 2001: A Space Odyssey Would Be Advertised in 2012
I really enjoyed the movie back in the day, the book also. It’s a shame that reality doesn’t take its marching orders from our SF time frames.
We’re too busy being dicks to each other.
I vote “inspired,” because thankfully, this new trailer doesn’t detract from the majesty of the original film.
Truth.