Colorful noir emerges in “The Big Bang” trailer

The general consensus amongst film scholars is that film noir begins with The Maltese Falcon and ends with Touch of Evil, with the latter marking a transition into the so-called neo-noir stage. Since then the visual iconography, motifs, and archetypes of noir have been propelled into the future and re-appropriated into “new” scenarios. Such a scenario appears in a trailer for The Big Bang, which also incorporates an unexpectedly vibrant color scheme.

Here is the trailer:

Cinema Blend posted a synopsis which says:

Late one night, Los Angeles private investigator, Ned Cruz (Antonio Banderas) gets a visit from a recently paroled Russian boxer with an intriguing job offer: find Lexie, his missing girlfriend—and the 30-million dollar stash of diamonds she’s hiding. As Detective Cruz sets out to find her, the clues send him into the city’s seediest corners, from a Hollywood action star with a dirty little secret (James Van Der Beek), to an enterprising porn producer who takes a personal interest in his own work (Snoop Dogg), and a kinky waitress with an unusual fetish for particle physics (Autumn Reeser). Lexie proves to be as elusive as she is beautiful and Cruz becomes obsessed with finding her. With time running out, Cruz discovers the trail leads to reclusive billionaire (Sam Elliott), and his physicist (Jimmi Simpson), intent on recreating The Big Bang underneath the New Mexico desert. Tailed by a trio of cops also looking to find the missing diamonds, and with the body count piling up, Cruz soon realizes that what appeared to be a standard missing person’s case is anything but, and could quite possibly bring about the end of the world as we know it.

There are the obvious noir elements in the trailer (the private eye, the client, etc.). The film seems to use a Sin City-esque imagery, but doesn’t seem to offer anything new to hold the audience’s interest past the opening scenes. Director Tony Krantz is also a producer, who has previously worked on such TV dramas as 24 and Felicity. The Big Bang will have a limited release in May. Did you feel intrigued by the trailer or put off? Leave us your thoughts below.

— Aaron Faulkner