This week we Trailer Talk about Wes Anderson’s Resident Evil: Retribution, a documentary about criminal injustice.

MOONRISE KINGDOM

Nobody makes movies like Wes Anderson. They may not be for you but for the love of all that is good and holy, stop bitching that Wes Anderson makes Wes Anderson movies. He is just one man, making movies that are true to his voice, something different to most of the homogenous dreck that floods the market. You may not like any of his movies but there is more than enough room for one Wes Anderson in the world, so can all the naysayers just shut the hell up already.

There. Rant over. Moonrise Kingdom is Wes Anderson’s return to live action film-making after the suitably named Fantastic Mr. Fox. The level of control afforded him by stop motion animation seemed a perfect fit for Anderson but it is a joy to see him working with flesh and blood actors again, and what a cast! Bill Murray with Anderson is always reliable, Frances McDormand never puts in a poor performance (even in goddamn Transformers 3) and it’s great to see Bruce Willis and Ed Norton seemingly not phoning it in or starring in something that looks tedious.

WEST OF MEMPHIS

Peter Jackson contributed substantial money to aid the West Memphis Three, and so there are few filmmakers better qualified to produce a documentary about this absolute travesty of a course. HBO Films have produced an epic trilogy on the case, so it was hard to imagine there being anything new West of Memphis can contribute to the story.

Not having seen Paradise Lost 3 it is hard to know just what that film covers, as it was completed before Damien Echol, Jessie Misskelley Jr. and Jason Baldwin were set free. Is there anything left for West of Memphis to cover that Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s documentary trilogy missed?

Amy Berg (director of the haunting, remarkable Deliver Us from Evil) has certainly shot a better looking film than the Paradise Lost series and has at her disposal a selection of compelling interviews. from those involved in the case and a selection of celebrities who have championed the innocence of the West Memphis Three. The trailer promises a focus on new evidence which look set to reveal further truths about the case and the shady methods of the prosecutors.

It’s a long and storied case, so it is entirely possible for another film to reveal new facets that the acclaimed trilogy missed. I have been following this case through gritted teeth since the late ’90s and even though the story found resolution last year, I am still eager to learn more and one more comprehensive documentary on the subject is definitely welcome.

RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION

Let’s just skip talking about the movie, I have watched this trailer ten times and I still have no idea what I am watching. I wisely avoided the last movie, Resident Evil: Armpit or whatever it was called, and clearly I am missing huge chunks of important and complex back story because this mostly looks like visual gibberish to me. I won’t even spend too much time talking about using the score to Tron: Legacy here. If you’re going to try to repurpose music from a film, try to make it a cooler film than the one you took it from. This is Tron: Legacy, it shouldn’t be too hard to upstage that.

No, what I want to really talk about is the first thirty seconds. I sat in slack-jawed amazement at this commercial. Sorry, I mean trailer. This is a movie trailer, right? It spends thirty seconds of a one minute twenty-second trailer shilling Sony products. There is literally no purpose behind this, it has no connection to the rest of the trailer at all. Try to justify why we are given a Sony commercial before a movie about sexy killing monsters. Try. You can’t do it, can you?

If it were some imagined technology brand, perhaps related to Umbrella – the hilariously titled evil corporation of the franchise – then I could appreciate the supposed fake-out of moving from a pristine and pretty TV commercial to a post-apocalyptic war zone. Although I’m pretty sure I have seen (or possibly imagined when drunk at half three in the morning) a Terminator trailer that started as an advertisement for Cyberdyne Systems… It’s an old gimmick but it works.

This, however, does not. This is an advertisement for Sony phones, tablets and handheld consoles stapled onto a trailer for a Sony produced tent pole. It’s so shameless that I am almost awed by it, I have never seen a movie trailer show such active contempt for its audience before. Product placement has moved beyond subliminal into the superliminal.

Resident Evil: Retribution 3D. Coming Soon. Always buy Sony, scum.