A couple of weeks ago, we ran a story about how theater owners were pushing to get the length of movie trailers shortened to two minutes or less. While I found the prospect rather intriguing – despite the ways in which it would probably be ruined – after having just watched the 3:12 first full trailer for Morgan Spurlock’s upcoming boy band documentary One Direction: This is Us - courtesy of the band’s Vevo page, I feel the need to go out into the world and just start cutting trailers down myself. Strangely, this feeling isn’t purely inspired by my lack of interest in One Direction as musicians.
One Direction, for those blissfully unaware, is an English/Irish pop group who were catapulted into the global spotlight after getting their start on The X-Factor. Two platinum albums later, and Harry Styles and the boys are finally ready for their own pop doc, taking fans into their lives beyond the stage, all while mixing in the same damned songs the radio has overplayed for the past two years. Anyone hoping for something post-modern or kitschy that other huge British bands have given the world, like Spice World or A Hard Day’s Night, will be disappointed, but anyone who wants to take a tour of the bakery Styles used to work in should get their party boots on.
As someone with no desire to see this film, I feel the trailer needs to work that much harder to sway likeminded people to actually want to put forth money to watch what looks to be a concert film with an overwhelming lack of concert footage. Is it really necessary to go back to that bakery where Styles worked? I mean, it isn’t as if he’s in his mid-40s and the bakery was the source of the inspiration that caused him to write the Greatest Novel of a Generation. It was just a day job that he took a couple of years ago when he wasn’t of legal age. High drama, this is not.
The film is being promoted as a 3D movie, which is one of the most obvious money-hungry ploys in recent memory, given how limited the 3D’s inclusion will be. Already, watching a musical performance doesn’t require added depth to be enjoyable, and I’m assuming Zayn buying his mother a house will be featured in a singular dimension. I bet the opening credits look amazing though.
While the film’s first teaser trailer did a decent job of mixing in generic brotherly love with a sense of how far the young men have come in a short time, this trailer just makes it plainly obvious this will be a fans-only flick. Where can Morgan Spurlock possibly go from here?
