Trailer review: Marshawn Lynch stars in ‘Family First’

Taken from Thursday’s edition of Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross

KIRO Radio film critic Tom Tangney says…

The trailer for “Family First: The Marshawn Lynch Story” is four minutes long – twice as long as your average Hollywood movie trailer.

TMZ reported Wednesday that Marshawn Lynch was unhappy with the quality of the promotional video and wanted it taken down. By Thursday morning, it was. Specifically, a source close to Marshawn said he thought ultimately the sound, lighting and editing weren’t very good.

My hunch is that the video was released as a an attempt to find more funding. Here’s what the filmmakers have, here’s what they don’t have, yet.

I have to agree. While you can’t judge a book by its cover, you can’t judge a movie by its trailer, either. But we do anyway.

So how does the movie look given four minutes of the trailer?

First off, we have the chance to see three versions of Marshawn. There’s the little kid version of Marshawn, an unknown, unrelated to Marshawn. Then in high school, his younger brother plays him. Marshawn plays himself in college and as a pro.

The movie appears message-heavy. The point of each scene is explicitly spelled out. When you do that the dialogue is very stilted.

But when you get to the part of the trailer when Marshawn is finally Marshawn, it actually has his charm and smarts. He doesn’t say a lot, but when he does, it packs some punch.

The movie should focus on what makes Marshawn, instead of trying to tell his whole life story. If the story centers on an older Beast Mode, Marshawn could play himself as a California Golden Bear, and as a Seattle Seahawk.

The most dangerous territory in the movie may be him in his many scenes with the ladies. It seems there are as many scenes on the gridiron as there are with women.

It’s an interesting take for a guy that’s as private as Marshawn – to show so many scenes where, I don’t know if he’s romancing women, but they’re in intimate situations with him. They’re up-close, talking to each other. You can’t tell if they’re in bed or not. You can’t tell if it’s a date situation.

Marshawn is just so private, so I’m wondering if they’re going to show a side of him that we don’t see, that would actually be revelatory.

It might seem like a strange contradiction to what he preaches. He’s an athlete, and yet he’s endorsing an exposure of his entire life.

But I think he probably has a lot of control. That’s why he’s trademarked names and things he’s said.

If he wants to create, the myth and the legend of Marshawn Lynch – I think he can do it.

This trailer shows a low-budget and crude movie. We don’t know who is financing it, my guess is that he has his people figuring out if he can cash in on it.

If he wants to do a slick version – and I think he can – it would have to be about the guy who never speaks, who you don’t know anything about, and show him as a positive role model, as long as they don’t squelch the charm.

Taken from Thursday’s edition of Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross