It is The Georgetown Voice’s 50th anniversary week. To celebrate, the Halftime Leisure team got together to review our favorite Halftime posts. For our Wednesday Trailer Takes, we have some of our favorite, hottest Takes.
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Anna: “Avengers: Endgame, Kim Possible, and Breakthrough” by Katherine Randolph, Dajour Evans, and Beth Cunniff
For the last three months or so, every Friday afternoon (real talk: by Friday afternoon, I mean Sunday morning), I assign three trailers to three Voice writers and ask for their takes. Usually I get one person who hates all the trailers, one person who thinks they would watch the trailers on their computer but not the film in theatres, and one person who loves all the trailers. This week, like every other week, I scoured the Youtube-sphere for three new trailers. However, unlike any previous takes, all three writers this week had the same exact take on Breakthrough (2019). All three writers (who grew up identifying strongly with religion and faith) said this movie did religion dirty. They all hated how the film almost seemed to extort faith and religion. It’s not every day that writers can agree on a take, so the fact that all three writers for this week’s Trailer Takes hated this movie was very unique. Update: Leisure offered a pre-screening of this movie in this week’s Leisure meeting to which Dajour and Beth both laughed at.
John: “Trailer Takes: Spider-Man Far From Home, Highlife, and John Wick 3” by Zain Sandhu, Jorge DeNeve, and Juliana Vaccaro de Souza
What a great selection of trailers, and what an excellent selection of takes to go alongside them. While I myself am quite invested in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at this point, and as such I am very excited to see Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) upon its release, I can appreciate Zain’s tempered takes and nostalgia for the iconic Tobey Maguire. Really though, I’m with Juliana on this one; the theorycrafting potential from this trailer cannot be overstated. As for High Life (2019), I’m with the rest of the crew in that I don’t know what to make of it. It’s certainly scary, it’s relentlessly thrilling, and it’s undoubtedly interesting. Given that it’s coming out in only a few days, I might just take the article as inspiration and give in to my curiosity by watching. Finally, but certainly not least, the third entry in the John Wick series. Though I’m not the most familiar myself, I share much of the authors’ enthusiasm for the film. The beautiful cinematography and color of the trailer here is matched only by Keanu Reeves’s action sequences. Nothing will surpass the legendary mid-trailer gun throw.
Sky: “Trailer Takes: Incredibles 2, The Meg, and Hot Summer Nights” by Juliana Vaccaro de Souza, Sam Charaf, Dajour Evans, and Claire Goldberg
Yes, you read that right: There are three (3) whole leisure queens writing on this one (1) trailer take. We must thank whatever outpouring of enthusiasm or communication error (with Halftime, you never truly know) that created the dynamic for this piece because the takes are gold. The expected (but not unappreciated!) collective nostalgia for The Incredibles (2004) gives way to different expressions of fear and cautious optimism for the sequel—with some writers focusing on the nature of the Screenslaver and others analyzing Elastigirl’s changing role. Takes on The MEG (2018) lightly roast and toast the combination of its action-thriller genre with the casting of Rainn Wilson and the tagline “pleased to eat you.” Lastly, we have the takes on Hot Summer Nights (2018)—in which Sam teaches us about the word “Chalamania,” and Claire defines it by expressing her desire to be maimed by Timothée Chalamet. Overall, these Takes are insightful, nuanced, and Halftime perfection.
Juliana: “Trailer Takes: The Lion King, Once Upon A Deadpool, And The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part” by Katie Randolph, Dajour Evans, and Juliana Vaccaro de Souza
Okay, full disclosure: I did write part of this Trailer Take. However, I will admit that I’m not even remotely close to the amazingness that is Katie and Dajour arguing about The Lion King remake. In fact, my takes are pretty much like frozen food when compared to Katie’s hot, controversial opinions. I love how she is truly unapologetic about not liking the original Lion King (1994) or about leaving Once Upon a Deadpool to its true PG-13 audience. There is just so much life in her writing, and it really brightened up my midterm-crowded, stress-inducing week. And Dajour coming at her and defending The Lion King? Truly the icing on an already great cake. In other words, these takes are pretty great, and I’d like to start a petition for Katie’s workload to be more manageable so we can have more of these.
