[imdb 12 rounds]If I had epilepsy, this trailer would trigger a seizure.  There is some pretty heavy plot elements happening in these two and half minutes, so I tried hard to concentrate on what the story was about, but the clips were so choppy, I got nauseous.    Not only are the clips truncated, but each one ends in a whole fade to black.  It’s very sloppy.  It’s as though the trailer author recently found the fade to black button and wanted to use it…a lot.  I love the effect, don’t get me wrong, but only when it is used sparingly, with a point.  It is very good as a transition.  Many trailer’s use it to emphasize a reveal or a plot twist.  Fast & Furious used it very nicely at the end of their first trailer,  punctuating the overlayed music.  This trailer uses the effect to give me a headache.

I feel like the author is teasing me.  The short tidbits of scenes do not give me time to focus on the actors or action.  I get almost a peripheral view of who the actors are, enough to think, “Oh, that might be so-and-so.”  From this trailer, I get the feeling that I could simply rent Die Hard 3, or 88 Minutes, or Ransom, which have the same sort of forced time limit, puzzle game atmosphere.  I get nothing from this trailer to make me think there is anything novel or innovative in this film.  The main actor is a wrestler, but I could go see a Dwayne “The” Johnson movie for that.  The villian sounds suspiciously like a bad John Malkovich impersontor, but I could watch Con-Air for that.  If I want cool actions stunts, I’d rather watch Die Hard 4, or any other action film that puts all its energy into awesome action scenes.

This trailer refused to answer my biggest question I have when I watch previews:

Why should I bother?

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