Movie Trailer: The Adjustment Bureau

We've been waiting to see footage of George Nolfi's The Adjustment Bureau, which stars Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in a loose adaptation of a Philip K Dick short story, Adjustment Team.

Now there's a trailer, and it is hard to tell what the movie is, exactly. There are moments which will remind you of Dark City and The Matrix, while the underpinning of PKD paranoia and lack of control is certainly there. Check it out after the break.

Yahoo has the trailer in HD, and it generally looks good, if a bit quiet and restrained. I like the suits, ties and hats style that we see, though I wonder if it'll all look a bit put-on in the full cut, given that the story seems to take place in the present day. (Given that John Slattery appears early in the trailer, Mad Men comparisons are inevitable, I suppose, as are some cries of 'hey, Mr. Stark!')

I want to give George Nolfi the benefit of the doubt, solely based on his work on Ocean's Twelve, which is by and large a brilliantly crazed and ballsy piece of fun. Based only on this trailer, however, The Adjustment Bureau looks muted and possibly too much in line with sci-fi tales that are very well known to audiences. I hate to pit films against one another, but when you're going up against Inception for the hearts and minds of certain audiences, there's a rough battle ahead.

That might have something to do with why the film was pushed from a July 30 release to September 17, which certainly seems like a more accommodating time slot.

But then, perhaps the trailer doesn't show as much as it seems to, and there are some surprised waiting.