On Aug. 9, the first theatrical trailer for the remake of “Red Dawn,” starring Chris Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson, was released online.
This “Red Dawn” updates the 1984 movie mostly in the details, notably changing the identity of the big-bad villain. This time, it’s North Korea instead of the Soviet Union.
But the movie still revolves around a group of young adults who wake up to realize their town, and the rest of the U.S., has been invaded. While most citizens are prisoners, these resistance fighters take to the woods. Calling themselves the Wolverines after their high-school mascot – now, that’s school spirit on adrenaline – they take it upon themselves to take on their oppressors, free the town, and fight for freedom.
Video: ‘Red Dawn’ Theatrical Trailer (2012)
The “Red Dawn” trailer, which debuted at Yahoo! Movies, doesn’t shy away from reminding audiences who are old enough of its debt to the original movie, which was fun in a kind of B-movie, zeitgeist way.
The trailer certainly attempts to recreate a “young guns” swagger. The Wolverines are depicted as an earnest group of guerrilla fighters. Led in the original by Patrick Swayze and C. Thomas Howell, in the remake the duties fall to Hemsworth and Hutcherson.
“We inherited our freedom. Now it’s up to all of us to fight for it,” says Jed Eckert (Hemsworth in Swayze’s role) in the trailer.
The trailer also suggests the fights have been intensified, with the remake focused on stopping the North Koreans in what appears to be full-on action mode. That’s another change from the original, which concentrated on the more pragmatic, Cold War concerns of surviving a Soviet invasion.
This focus on action, by the way, might reflect director Dan Bradley’s background. Bradley’s work has primarily been as a stunt coordinator for movies such as “The Bourne Legacy.”
“Red Dawn” also seems intent on developing the key characters as more traditional heroes. Perhaps that reflects the star power of Hemsworth and Hutcherson – playing on their roles in “Thor” and “The Hunger Games,” respectively – even though this “Red Dawn” was finished also three years ago. (Its delayed release is due to MGM’s bankruptcy.)
Still, the trailer and presumably movie provides welcome screen time for Peck, who plays Hemsworth’s brother Matt; Adrianne Palicki, the female lead originally played by Lea Thompson; and several other young Hollywood actors worth watching.
Whether “Red Dawn” is the vehicle to help these actors’ visibility, however, depends on an audience’s interest in remakes of 1980s flicks.
The movie will be released to U.S. theaters Nov. 21, just in time for a warm-and-fuzzy Thanksgiving family holiday outing.
