A few of the PanemPropaganda staff made it to a participating Best Buy location Friday to preview the final Mockingjay Part 2 trailer in the Samsung experience shops. For those of you who couldn't get there, were out of the country, or didn't have a participating store nearby, here's what we thought and experienced. We're going to try to make this free of spoilers BUT, if you really, really want absolutely zero spoilers, please stop reading now! We may inadvertently squeak something out that you don't want to know!
I headed out to my local BB first thing in the AM so that I could be the first one there. Yes, I'm totally dorky like that! The problem is; the very nice guy at the Samsung Experience shop had NO IDEA what the heck I was talking about when I asked to see the trailer, the VR and the Mockingjay app. I pointed at the large and prominent poster of Peeta, Katniss and Gale with all of the pertinent information on it and he looked back at me like I was nuts. Which I am. Nuts about The Hunger Games, buddy!
Anyhoo, I calmly explained what was supposed to be happening today in their Best Buy store. He shuffled about, looked at his computer and muttered under his breath about how his manager "Never tells me anything." I honestly thought, 'poor dude.' So I decided to take a different, more motherly tack and let him know that I had all the time in the world and that I thought we could sort this thing out together. But I wasn't leaving until I could see that trailer.
What ended up happening was that he showed me the Mockingjay app on a tablet. It's a pretty cool update to the OLTM app featuring a function that paints the rebel Mockingjay or Effie Trinket's make-up on your face. See Amber from PP checking that out below:
When I was done playing around with that, I looked through the tablet apps and, low and behold, in the videos on the app, was the final Mockingjay Part 2 trailer my BB employee knew nothing about. Just sitting there, ready to go.
I'll talk about the trailer and the VR experience in a second, but what was totally frustrating beyond belief about this entire thing was that, if I hadn't been completely tenacious about it, I would have walked out thinking they didn't have the Mockingjay trailer. The one employee working the shift that was kicking off the whole promotion had NO CLUE. None. I worked retail for a time in my life, so I have tons of empathy for the guy. It's NOT HIS FAULT. There is a massive disconnect between the company doing this big promotion - Samsung - and the Best Buy stores and Lionsgate, for that matter. I shouldn't have to train a Best Buy employee on his job to get to see the trailer. Or locate the trailer on the tablet myself. Or find the posters (more on that below). I wasted hours of my time, and, sadly, countless others have had the same experience. If it was a one-off, ok shit happens. But I've heard this repeatedly from people on all social media platforms, through email and DMs, everywhere. So many problems. Not at all convenient in the first place, and then to have it go so badly for so many people? Not acceptable.
I haven't even mentioned that fact that the VR experience wasn't working in my BB and the employee said they didn't have any posters in store for the promotion. My retail background kicked back in, and I suggested that we take a look in all of the cabinets and the stockroom. They were there, buried in a box in the depths of the stockroom. Again, these things are NOT OUR JOB, and a shyer, more introverted person would probably have left the store with no trailer, no Mockingjay app, and no posters. I asked for (and got) 4 for my trouble. They should have these two 20"x 13.5" posters for the promo:
On To The Trailer:
The upside of the thing was, I got to watch the trailer as many times as I wanted, and they even put it on the giant screen for me to watch. I just stood and watched it about 10 times. It's a slow build into intense action. A great final trailer. The runtime is 1:52, for the record.
People have asked me if I thought it was "the best" trailer we've gotten. I am a mom and picking out a favorite of the trailers is like asking me who is my favorite kid. (And my favorite kid is the first Catching Fire trailer, OKAY?!?!?). This one hits the emotional beats I was looking for and has some great action sequences. The visualization of the pods was a stand-out for me. There are quick peeks at almost every character in the film, including Johanna. I'm dying to hear it with headphones as listening to it in a noisy store wasn't ideal, so I can't properly comment on the music yet.
There wasn't much new footage but more expansions of scenes we've already seen. As I watched it, I was thinking "Wow, they really want us to be surprised in the theater." Stills have been few and far between, and we haven't seen much of Peeta. As Amber from PP says, "It's like they're purposely not putting him in a lot of the marketing. Just giving us tiny glimpses." Like dripping water into a dehydrated person's mouth drop by drop, I would say! But the same people that always complain that they show too much in the trailer will now inevitably complain that they didn't show enough. Whatever, complain away my little Grumplestilskins. You'll be the first ones at the theater to see the movie when it opens.
There is one line from Katniss that hasn't left me since I saw the trailer. She says it with such emotion in her voice, quaking with anger. I hear it in my head all day, seriously. It's so goose-bump worthy I don't want to tell you so you can hear it fresh the first time.
There were a few spoilers in the trailer, I thought. Maybe too subtle for non-book readers but I was surprised.
Bottom line, it makes me really excited for the movie to open and leaves me wanting to see more. Much more. Like, today. So, I would say it’s effective as a trailer.
The Hunger Games Gear VR:
Most of you have told us that the Gear VR in your stores were broken, along with mine. Amber from PP was lucky enough to find a store with a working VR! There are two different set-ups that you move through in The Hunger Games virtual world. You can see and hear the characters within them, moving up close to them. The experience is almost like a ride moving forward. You can move your head and look in any direction but you can’t control your speed or the direction you move, if that makes sense.
One set-up was where you are in The Capitol. You start at the far end of a room; Peeta is on the floor in his handcuffs (poor Peeta!), you can look down at him, and then you move forward forward, you see wanted posters of the rebels, then Finnick and Gale looking at the holo, then you move forward into the hologram.
In the next set-up, you are moving through the burned out rubble of District 8 with Katniss speaking as you’re moving towards her. Again, you can look at the sky, the rubble on the ground. You move forward until you are right in front of her. According to Amber, it was really cool!
You can see the final Mockingjay Part 2 trailer at participating Best Buy stores throughout the weekend. Our advice is to call ahead and ask for the Samsung Experience Shop and make sure they have the trailer, VR and posters.
Molly ;)
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