Blue Sky Studios, best known for their creation of the 600 Ice Age movies that have hit our screens over the years, has just dropped a trailer for their latest film Spies in Disguise. The flick stars everybody’s favourite Prince of Bel-Air, Will Smith, in his first voice acting role since Shark Tale 14 years ago. Smith is accompanied by Tom Holland, Karen Gillan, DJ Khaled and Rashida Jones. I didn’t know what to think when I saw the cast list; I was just confused more than anything. The cast seems like a real mismatch of random famous people—it’s almost like the casting agents just went to their contacts and called whoever would answer until a few people finally said yes.
The trailer begins with Will Smith’s spy character mid montage doing awesome spy things. At this point during my first viewing, I was thinking ‘I’m into this. Animated spy adventure with Will Smith in the lead, sign me up!’ and then the halfway point hits…initiating a twist M. Night Shyamalan would be proud of. Tom Holland’s character (who evidently is playing Will Smiths version of Q) turns him into a pigeon… yes, that’s correct… a pigeon. At this point, I had pretty much zoned out of the trailer because I was just so confused why the movie went from looking really cool to looking like a flaming garbage pile. I know it’s a kid’s film, and I’m sure kids will enjoy it and think it’s funny, the film just completely lost me as an adult at this point. Despite its strange, idiotic plotline, I have to admit that this is a well-constructed first teaser trailer that ends with an interesting twist. Does revealing the twist ruin the actual movie? I don’t think so. Really, the twist is just revealing the premise of the film, and it is clear that the event probably happens so quickly in the film that it’s not even really a twist. It was an inspired move to turn the premise itself into a twist to create hype and interest—damn those trailer guys are geniuses!
I have never been all in for a movie just to be left so bemused. Now, this isn’t to say that the trailer is bad, instead, it is quite the contrary. For what it is trying to do, it succeeds— setting you up well and giving you a genuine twist that just happens out of nowhere. The trailer is so successful in this regard, we are getting clickbait articles about how it is ‘Shocking people!’ It’s achieving every trailer’s number one goal: to get as much publicity as possible, and what better way is there than with click-bait articles that the studio doesn’t even have to pay for? All in all, the trailer achieves its goal and is well made, I just think the premise looks dumb, so I’ll be giving Spies in Disguise a miss.
Leave a Reply