In a week where the biggest Hollywood new release is a thoroughly unnecessary sequel to an equally pointless remake, I recommend turning your attention elsewhere. Sort of. Okay, not at all, really, since these are all Hollywood product, too, but, you know, it keeps money out of Rob Zombie's pocket.

This past week has been an absolute trailer bonanza, the first footage from three massive films all turning up within two days of each other.  And it's been interesting to watch fan reactions to all three since - in a move that must make more than a few Hollywood suits a little nervous - reactions have been essentially inversely-proportionate to the amount of advance hype given to each film: the more each film had been talked about in advance, basically, the less people liked the trailer.  Marketing dollars well spent! Here we go!

First out of the gate was the trailer for James Cameron's Avatar. The importance of this one should be common knowledge by now: enormous budget, visionary director, new technology, blah, blah blah. Basically Hollywood is banking on Avatar to change the game and be the film that firmly establishes 3D technology as a permanent change and feature of most - if not all - theatrical exhibition moving forward. I wrote an article about it here. But here's the problem: Cameron apparently failed to notice the Jar Jar Binks debacle and built his film around a group of big, blue, cartoony aliens. Sure, they're really detailed in high definition but... really? This is it? The loud 'thunk' of falling fan hopes was audible around the globe. Sure, it looks a lot better in 3D - as anyone who attended the Avatar-day screenings of a 16 minute reel of footage from the film will tell you - but I'm sorry... in this case that just convinces me that the naysayers who claim 3D is being used as a gimmick to mask shoddy story telling are right. The sea-change may be coming but this ain't likely to be the film that drives it and Fox should be bracing now to lose countless millions of dollars when it releases in December. Ouch.

Up next - dropping without warning later the same day as Avatar - was the trailer for Joe Johnston's The Wolfman. Expectations were initially huge for this one based on star Benicio Del Toro - an inspired choice - and the presence of the same effects crew responsible for An American Werewolf In London but then it all went off the rails. Badly. Original director Mark Romanek - the driving force behind the film - walked off the project just weeks before it was due to start shooting -- never a good sign. The studio for their part, refused to shut things down - or even delay significantly - and brought in career second string director Joe Johnston to take over, the man's filmography - his biggest film is Jumanji - to take over. Rumors of rushed re-writes quickly began swirling and then the film's release date got pushed back. Several times. With every bit of bad news it seemed fans just sighed and rolled their eyes a little more, bracing themselves for a shoddy take on a classic creature, but then the trailer arrived. Verdict? Damn! If the goal was to make a film inspired directly by the original Universal Horror classics then Johnston is proving to be an inspired choice because the look fo this thing is absolutely spot on and how can you possibly argue with a werewolf film that includes not only Del Toro but also Anthony Hopkins, Hugo Weaving and Emily Blunt in the cast? 

And, finally, the very next day brought the first sightings of the first teasers for Christopher Nolan's upcoming science fiction film Inception. In contrast to the other two titles here, which have played the PR game to the hilt, this latest from the director of The Dark Knight has been developed in virtual silence. Despite a massive cast - Leonardo DiCaprio anchors it - we know virtually nothing about the story and only really know of it at all because Nolan spilled the title while being grilled on when he would make the next Batman film. Having now seen the trailer I still know virtually nothing about the film but damn do I want to! This is the polar opposite of the Avatar debacle... where Cameron's film inflated expectations to impossible levels before killing them dead with actual footage, Nolan's trailer teases his audience and stokes the fires up. Much smarter. And much cheaper. Well done.