You
could be forgiven for having forgotten about Universal’s Middle East action-thriller
The
Kingdom. After a small trailer that created little to no buzz,
Universal moved the release date from April 20th all the way back to
September 28th, and nary a peep was heard since. Probably a good
idea given that this past April was a crowded wasteland with a gazillion movies
released each weekend only to be repeatedly flattened by Disturbia. At its new
release date home, The Kingdom only has to contend with the troubled Beatles-based
musical Across the Universe, Simon Pegg’s Run, Fat Boy, Run, and
George Clooney’s legal thriller Michael Clayton. Only the latter
poses any significant threat, and the emphasis on explosive action in the new
trailer should help set The Kingdom apart from the courtroom
fireworks of its competition.
Still,
this new trailer strikes me as something of a regression. In the first one, the
characters were emphasized to the point where they captioned character names
and professions when Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, and Chris Cooper first
appeared onscreen. It was fairly dialogue-heavy and focused on getting across
the investigative aspects of the film. Now, all that’s been thrown out the
window to boil the picture down to the basics: We’re good guys. Bad guys
kidnap one of us. We go in without support and get our man back. So much for
any substantive look at Middle East/American politics. You want that, then go
rent Syriana,
liberal whackos. This here movie’s got stuff blowing up!
Anyway,
don’t take my word for it. Check it out in your choice of crystal-clear HD
formats right here.