Cost of a Soul Directed by: Sean Kirkpatrick Starring: Chris Kerson, Will Blagrove, Mark Borkowski Rating: R Release Date: May 20, 2011
TRAILER SCORE: 5/10
Thoughts by TSR: Unfortunately, the trailer starts off strong. The music and the brutal imagery work together to create a surprisingly visceral portrayal of the war. It's definitely an attention grabber, which is always good for business, but sadly, it feels as if they didn't put forth the same effort and painstaking dedication to the rest of the trailer.
As soon as Cost of a Soul turns to color, it devolves into an over saturated exercise in sensory overload. The main issue with the trailer seems to be that I have no idea what it's selling except excitement. There's no sincerity to what I'm seeing or hearing. Rather, it felt like they searched the movie's running time for all instances of someone yelling or contorting their face to express anger, then strung them all together.
Sadly, that isn't even close to the trailer's worst offense. The music is used poorly throughout the trailer. When it's not leading the emotion, it's drowning out the voices of the actors and actresses themselves. All in all, Cost of a Soul remains more overwhelming than anything else, but I'm not sure if that's a good thing. Still, as much as it pains me to say it, a small part of me is interested in finding a way to make sense of everything that seems to be happening onscreen. This was probably their intention to begin with, but my curiosity isn't enough to force me to sit through this movie in the theaters. If I see it at all, this one is definitely at the bottom of my Netflix queue.