Trailers on Trial - Five Nights at Teddy's?

Welcome back to Trailers on Trial (we settled on a name of sorts). Last time we discussed Fant4stic and this time we’ll be talking about Ted 2. Oh, boy. (And something else too). 

What makes both these trailers unique to me is I never saw the earlier Fantastic Four films nor did I see the first Ted movie. Never had interest in them. The only thing that has me remotely interested going forward for the Fant4stic is if Dr. Doom isn’t garbage. But Ted? Well, fact is I never found Seth McFarlane (man behind Family Guy) all that compelling or irresistibly funny. Sure, he’ll have a joke or two that works and I’ll like it. But for every one or two good jokes, I have to sit uncomfortably through another five to ten that just don’t work. This is mainly why I never had the interest in seeing Ted.

But ignoring that, does the trailer for Ted 2 compel me to want to see Ted 2? I guess this will be a short installment if I just flat out say no, but that’s kind of it for me. It reminds me of the big flaw with most comedy sequels. In short, blow the plot up to bigger levels and keep the humor at about the same level. Most comedy sequels don’t work because it really does feel like just more of what we already saw. Having not seeing the plot from the first film, it seems like the bear, Ted, found a human girl to marry and this is the follow up to that. They want to have a kid (for some reason) but it won’t work because Ted needs to prove he’s a human so they can legally be married and have a kid.

In short, it’s a commentary on the gay-marriage debate taking place in Washington right now. In a few years when gay-marriage is legal everywhere, the joke of this film will then immediately be lost on future generations who didn’t have to put up with this nonsense. It looks to be a very in-the-moment film here and now. That isn’t bad, but it does mean this film will likely age very quickly unlike the first film which was more about the characters and the maturity of the human lead and his own story arc. A character piece over a political commentary, and that will hold up much longer than this sequel if my prediction is correct.

Sorry if I come off as jaded in regards to the humor of the trailer itself. The gags are funny, I suppose. But it’s nothing that I haven’t really seen anywhere else before so it doesn’t grab me in that kind of way. Plus you have to worry if this is another incident of the trailer showing all the funny bits and leaving few for the movie. It’s a short trailer and only the first one, so not likely, but we’ll see.

Verdict here is that this hasn’t yet convinced me to watch either Ted film or I don’t see myself doing so in the foreseeable future. It’s the Hangover all over again. Successful comedy-film gets a sequel it never needed and probably shouldn’t have gotten, or at least it appears that way. We’re still kind of short, so let’s discuss another trailer that came out recently. How about a game trailer for Five Nights at Freddy’s 3?

At this point, I feel like the Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF) series is following the trend of old-school horror films. Namely, cash out as quickly as you can by making sequel after sequel until the audience is completely tired of whatever series you’re doing. Then you throw your monsters into space or do crossovers with other monsters. See Freddy Vs. Jason or that one movie when Jason goes to space. The FNAF series has had a similar thing going on with the second game presumably being a sequel, but it is chronologically a prequel that hinted at events taking place before it chronologically as well. So will FNAF3 be another se-prequel? Or will it be a legitimate sequel? Who knows, since the trailer didn’t seem to share that information?

What we do know is that the animations have been turned up even more so the animatronics move a lot more during your death sequences. But we also know nothing in regards to gameplay. You see, the first game differs greatly from the second game. In the first game, you had two doors and limited energy usage between them to keep you safe from attack. In the second game, you had no doors and only a mask to disguise yourself from the attackers. Will the third game be something else entirely or will it build off what’s already been done?

This was very much a tonal-trailer. It sets the mood and shows off the new visuals, but nothing else. In a game like Mario or Madden, fair enough. They rarely change up the gameplay enough where you need a trailer to tell you that your Mario game will be taking you on more jumps over puts or Madden will be more roster changes. But with the gameplay changes between titles, a trailer should showcase a bit more to let us know how different this game will be, if at all. Judging by the visuals alone, it appears to be set in a similar setting to the first game, in which the doors have returned. But whether or not the function is the same can’t be tested until the release of the game.

Verdict? I think the creators would be wise to slow down in their creation of sequels, but I guess while it’s still a hot item, sure, milk it for all it’s worth if your dignity is worth it. All we’ll likely get is more YouTube white noise with all the “popular” Let’s Players screaming into their mics and distorting their face cameras for our “entertainment”. But if the gameplay changes are radical enough to throw things for a loop, maybe it could be good. Ergo, I’m not really interested until I see how gameplay is… which is what a trailer for a game should always have.

That’s all for this installment of Trailers on Trial. Tune in again for more digging into previews of things to come. If you enjoyed today’s post, please be sure to like, share, comment, and subscribe. Did we miss something in these trailers worth discussion? Let us know in the comments below!