The new trailer for Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story debuted yesterday on CNN.com, but obviously the world (including me) was too busy crapping on the Avatar trailer to notice. Even the Wolfman spot received more notice. For awhile last night I thought maybe people, even those on the left, were tired of Moore completely. But no, there has finally been some discussion of the thing today.

And the consensus appears to be that Moore isn’t making films any fresher or more groundbreaking than James Cameron is. In fact, Moore’s latest seems surprisingly dated. This is something we’ve expected, of course, given the ongoing story of the economic meltdown, but it is interesting to see so much Bush as well as a complete lack of footage that appears to have been shot since Obama was elected.

Worst of all, everyone agrees, is the use of M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” on the soundtrack. Even if that song hadn’t been used to death by Pineapple Express and Slumdog Millionaire ads, I would think I was watching a trailer from 2008. How about, given the current events, Moore just rereleases Sicko instead?

Check out what the rest of the film blogs are saying about the film/trailer after the jump:

• Seth Abramovitch at Movieline thinks this film looks too vague, gimmicky and outdated:
  

  And unlike his past topics (guns, healthcare, the Bush regime), which still felt worthy of having some light shed upon them, there’s nothing here that suggests Moore is covering new ground on a topic that has earned wall-to-wall coverage for well over a year. Has any stone yet been unturned with respect to this particular subject? There’s Bush, and there’s Bush again, and there’s Bush again pressing flesh with Henry Paulson. Moore has made a movie about the crash, but has he made an interesting movie?

• Ryan Adams at Awards Daily disagrees, believing this will be better than the wall-to-wall coverage of the past year:
  

  No matter what your personal feelings might be toward Michael Moore himself, it’s a safe bet that we’ll get a sharper explanation of the meltdown panic from his latest movie than we’ve learned from watching the toadying financial correspondents on cable for the past 8 months. Will it be an accurate explanation? Who knows. But at least it won’t pretend to be authoritative news coverage. It’ll be more useful than most media analysis (by being smarter), and more enjoyable (by being meaner).

• Lane Brown at Vulture addresses the “Paper Planes” use by pleading with M.I.A. to record a new song to feature in trailers and such:
  

  Isn’t it time to give this track a gold watch? We know M.I.A.’s a new mom, but couldn’t she hire a babysitter for a couple of hours, sneak down to the studio, and record a new song about taking people’s money, now that she’s completely desensitized us all to the sound of gunfire?

• Alex Billington at First Showing is okay with the topic and the M.I.A., but he does have a slight issue with one old-looking aspect:
  

  Being a Moore fan, I’ve got to say this looks as awesome, hilarious, and controversial as any of his previous films. This time, Moore tackles Wall Street and our economy. I’m not so sure I like his use of all the cheerful 50’s style footage, but I do love his not-so-subtle use of MIA’s “Paper Planes.”

• Jeff Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere thinks the film looks too familiar:
  

  …my first reaction to this trailer was “haven’t we seen Moore dealing with security guys while trying to confront corporate bigwigs a few times before?” It feels a little tired, is all. A little rote.

• Alex Riviello at CHUD.com sees this as being too much like the antiquated, pre-Sicko Michael Moore style:
  

  I’m genuinely curious about the film but am a little worried from the trailer that Moore has become too big of a presence once again. Part of the reason I think Sicko is his best work is that he mostly let the subject speak for itself rather than cheapening things with silly stunts that are good for laugh and not much else.

• Dustin Rowles at Pajiba is glad to see Moore back to his old style and weight, but agrees the movie is too late:
  

  Unfortunately, the bailout debacle seems a little dated. Sicko might have been more appropriate now, while Congress is debating a health-care bill (read: Getting pushed over by a few screechy nutters). We’re slowly coming out of the recession (fingers crossed), and the last thing we need is a reminder of what got us here. We know what got us here: Deregulation and subprime mortgages. I’m not sure I’m that interested in rehashing it. And it’s not like Michael Moore has ever offered solutions.

• John Cook at Defamer also thinks Sicko should have come out this year instead of this film:
  

  Sicko is an exception in a way, but only because it came out too soon. His collection of health care nightmares showed how “death panels” already exist in America (they’re called “insurance claims adjusters”) wcame out during the Bush years and not when, you know, health care reform might be on the top of the political agenda.

• Mark at I Watch Stuff points out that Moore has become useless since Sicko didn’t seem to influence public opinion on the health care situation:
  

  His next documentary should be about why the U.S. should switch to the metric system. That should make for similarly well-intentioned but ultimately futile entertainment.

• Sean at Film Junk is apparently for once not interested in a Moore film:
  

  have to say though, even as a fan of Moore’s films, this is looking a bit weak to me. Maybe they just wanted to get across the basic premise in the trailer and deliver a few punchlines without getting overly complicated, but it really looks like there is absolutely nothing to this movie. I might even say I feel dumber having watched it.

• Neil Miller at Film School Rejects believes he’ll enjoy the film, but he dislikes the way it’s being marketed:
  

  I strongly dislike trailers for Michael Moore’s movies. As you can see in the trailer for Capitalism below, much of the substance is stripped away and the trailer becomes a clip reel of Moore’s shock-gags. I have no doubt that his movie will address the issues at hand, but at this point it appears that he’s just trying to perform a citizen’s arrest on the heads of AIG.

• Gabe at Videogum thinks the marketing of the film is improving, and he notes that it feels even older than 2008:
  

  Well, at the very least, this trailer is much better than the last trailer, right? For one thing, the movie has a name now, which is really useful when advertising a movie, and also (BONUS!) makes you seem like less of a self-involved narcissistic nightmare who is selling a movie on his involvement alone in some kind of distracting cult-of-personality which definitely undermines any serious political point you might have been trying to make. It is also just in general a much less coy trailer. And of course Paper Planes! 2007!

• Josh Tyler at Cinema Blend believes the  movie will fail regardless of how fresh or dated it is:
  

  Maybe I’m just cynical, ok I’m definitely cynical, but somehow I think Michael Moore’s new movie is going to fall on deaf ears. Not just because it’s Michael Moore and there’s a large portion of the population that always tunes out when his name is mentioned, but also because America has never been stupider. People are no longer interested in information or facts, they’re mostly interested in whatever they happen to believe, which may or may not be based on reality.

Here’s the trailer, courtesy of CNN: