Who would have ever guessed that Gears of War 2 and Little Miss Sunshine would ever have any kind of connection, no matter how small. Of course I'm referring to the theme song in the first trailer, "The Last Day".
I can see how some people wouldn't like the song choice for that trailer (anything connected with the game is usually overly-masculine like the game itself), but I think it works beautifully. It shows that "Hey, these guys have emotions too". Their whole world has been crashing down around them since the beginning of the last game, after all.
I think it works too. I thought that was the best trailer out of the new bunch and it does a good enough job of acomplishing what you said. I know the story was quite shallow in the first and that's not something I usually like. I felt it detracted from Gears but people have deadlines, I guess. I hope they delve in to the psyche of these guys a bit more. The first trailer had a lot of sitting, waiting and reflecting. It gave the ideas of the Gears of War universe a little more gravity.
I think Rendezvous is the best of the lot. I wasn't previously aware of Alan Seeger's poem nor do I know the specific film the spoken dialogue is taken from but it has the appropriate gravity considering the subject matter of the games. That and its cool.
I like the 2nd and 3rd trailers. The first one was somewhat lame.