Film Preview: Bullet Train (2022)

Film Poster

Page Revisions:

(March 6, 2022) Original
(June 12, 2022) New Trailer (#3) — New Posters (#2-#4)
(July 10, 2022) New Trailer (#4) — New Posters (#5-#14) — New Release Date (changed from 7/15/22)
(July 31, 2022) New Posters (#17-#20)

Release Date:

August 5, 2022

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “Five assassins aboard a fast moving bullet train find out their missions have something in common.”

Poster Rating: C / C- / C+ / C+ / B+ / C+ (11) / C+ / C+ / C+ / B+

SEE ALL POSTERS BELOW
Review: (#1) It’s meant to be more like an ad for a luxurious bullet train, but that makes the construct dull. Throwing in blood in spots doesn’t give it any worthwhile embellishment.

(#2) There isn’t much to see here. It does feature Brad Pitt, which at least sells the film a little better than the prior design, but it does so with mediocre effort. (#3) Lots of characters here and a lot of details, but the white background is distracting and everything feels cheaply arrayed. (#4) This has some action elements and a cheesy pun with the “bullet” train, but it’s otherwise unimpressive.

(#5) Well balanced, plenty of background details and enough information to make a modestly accurate decision on seeing the film. (#6-#14) An uninspired series of character posters. While each has unique background and foreground details, they never feel interesting.

(#15) There’s nothing additionally interesting about this design, which looks a lot like many other the other designs. (#16) A change in style is not always a welcome one with this excessively tilted effort that feels cheaply static. (#17) It’s a nice attempt at something different and the colors are interesting, but it’s hard to make out sufficient details to link the film. (#18) I’ve always appreciated a creative design that uses environmental features to create other images and this does a lot of that, but is overall a bit more interesting than the other designs and might well be one of the best IMAX designs ever made.

Trailer Rating: C / B- / B+ / C+

SEE ALL TRAILERS BELOW
Review: (#1) This teaser trailer promises that a new luxury transportation experience arrives on March 2. Were that the film’s actual release date, it might have been a terrific teaser. July’s release makes it seemingly pointless. (#2) The actual full trailer has plenty of action elements and semi-unforced humor that might well entice a lot of potential viewers. Unfortunately, the plot looks incredibly thin and that might turn many interested people off as it seems to be trying too hard to be the next John Wick.

(#3) We finally get a great deal of action for our time and attention and the end result has some very humorous moments, plenty of hard-hitting conflict, and a dollop of storyline. It’s all brought together to appeal to an audience looking for something unique.

(#4) While there’s a nice amount of action, the humor is tepid and the end result looks like a cheap attempt to connect to fans of Asian martial arts actioners. The trailer also seems to veer too close to revealing the film’s conclusion, which is unadvisable.