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Trailers Ruin Movies

post #1 of 26
7/14/11 at 11:59am
Thread Starter 
I've had it with trailers. I've completely stopped watching any trailer for any movie that I know I'll see, like Thor, Transfomers, Green Lantern, you know the big movies that we all go see regardless of reviews.

I'm not even kidding. I straight-up close my eyes, cover my ears and start humming when they begin the previews at the theater. People might think I'm weird, but oh well, maybe they like being spoiled and ultimately disappointed with their theatrical experiences. Sucks for them, I tell myself. I've had much better experiences at the movies this year simply by not watching any trailers. I had no expectations for Green Lantern, so ultimately I enjoyed it more than most even though I can agree to it's shortcomings.

The problem is that they show you the whole movie on 2 minutes, and basically spoil any exciting revelation or money shot before you actually see the movie and can understand the context surrounding the clip they show you. So much anticipation leads to incredibly high expectations, which most movies fail to fulfill.

Here are some examples...

Terminator: Salvation.
The trailer told us the big secret with Marcus. So where's the suspense? Where's the mystery? The whole scene with the magnetic land mines was made pointless because we already knew what was happening.

2012
All the money shots were in the trailer, leaving virtually nothing new to see when you actually watched the movie. What a waste of a ticket.

Any comedy
They show you all the funniest jokes, so that when you see the joke during the movie it's already old.

Clash Of The Titans
The Kraken was in the movie for just a few seconds longer (it felt) than his appearance in the trailer. All that money spent on creating that awesome creature and pimping it out in the trailers for what? 60 seconds on screen? Major Kraken blue balls.

Just think if they showed us The Architect in the Matrix Reloaded trailer! How ruined that movie would have been. That scene took everything we knew and threw it out the window, and made that movie experience the best I've had.

Why oh why can't studios leave anything for us to discover anymore? They're hurting us, and in return, themselves.

p.s. Ok, I'll watch trailers for the Smurfs. I'll never watch that garbage, so there's an instance where a trailer won't hurt ME.

p.p.s. Ok, maybe I'll watch the trailer for Zookeeper too. Lord knows I'll never pay to waste my time with a movie like that.
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post #2 of 26
7/14/11 at 12:37pm
I stopped watching trailers online and TV commercials a few years ago and it was a great decision. Now I'm actually surprised when things happen in movies rather than sitting there thinking "Oh, they still have to that scene that was in the trailer". I see alot of movies in the theater so I still see a good number of trailers (and those trailers help put things on my radar) but if it's something that I'm already interested in, I try to tune it out so I can go into that movie as non-spoilered as possible. Clearly, Hollywood needs to market movies but, for me, dropping trailers and commercials as much as possible has really boosted my enjoyment of what I see.
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post #3 of 26
7/15/11 at 12:29am

Especially rom-coms / chick flicks. Most bad trailers give you an idea of where the story will go, chick flick trailers give every bit of it away. Even my wife has started commenting "Well, we don't have to go see that now."

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post #4 of 26
7/15/11 at 1:35am
I barely watch any movies at all, but I'll typically catch a trailer or two of the ones I do want to see and just not commit them to memory. I didn't remember much about Thor going in, and while I have seen the Captain America trailers enough to have some images in my mind, I haven't watched them in a while now so I'm alright. The stuff I know is pretty much Captain America 101 anyway. For someone who knows nothing about the character, it would be pretty cool to go in not even knowing any little thing about where Steve Rogers came from.
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post #5 of 26
7/15/11 at 11:27am

I don't know about you, but the trailer for 2012 pretty much told me not to waste my money on this film.

 

In this day and age where everything gets discussed to the nth degree, it is hard to avoid spoilers for basic plot elements.  That being said, if the movie is good, it doesn't really matter.  I may miss something in my first reaction to a film if I know somethng that I shouldn't have, but that only happens once.  Enjoyment of a film is longer-term than that.

 

I do dislike when a trailer spoils a major plot point, but in my eyes, it doesn't happen all that often.

 

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post #6 of 26
7/17/11 at 1:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Dobbs View Post


I'm not even kidding. I straight-up close my eyes, cover my ears and start humming when they begin the previews at the theater. People might think I'm weird, but oh well, maybe they like being spoiled and ultimately disappointed with their theatrical experiences. Sucks for them, I tell myself. I've had much better experiences at the movies this year simply by not watching any trailers. I had no expectations for Green Lantern, so ultimately I enjoyed it more than most even though I can agree to it's shortcomings.
 

That's been my personal policy for about 15 years, for those certain movies that I know I want to see and seem to require going in cold. District 9 is the last such movie where avoiding everything except for the teaser was crucial. Super 8, I avoided reviews and most trailers, but was less concerned about. But for most films, including Harry Potter, I don't worry about it. And for certain movies, like The Dark Knight, the trailers are so well crafted they're part of the entire experience and "must" be seen.

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post #7 of 26
7/17/11 at 10:14pm
The trailers on BDs and DVDs are the worst. It is amazing how the people who construct those trailers assume that everyone has seen the movie that is being advertised. For example, the trailer for the Kung Fu Panda 2 BD seems to show almost every major piece of business. There is a scene involving a tower that, to me, should have been something you see during the course of the film, not telegraphed in a trailer.
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post #8 of 26
7/18/11 at 12:34am
I had to double-check the date of the first post to make sure this wasn't some zombie thread from 1992. smile.gif You just realized this now? A current example is Cowboys & Aliens. The first teaser was a great teaser, but they've given away what seems to be the entire plot with the most recent trailers.

The rationale I have heard is that many of my fellow Americans are morons that "want to know what they're getting" -- the same reason McDonald's is so popular. So the numb-nuts that make the trailers do exactly that. Remember, they just want you to pay for the ticket. After they tear that stub, they don't care if any surprises are ruined, or if you enjoy the movie.
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post #9 of 26
7/18/11 at 11:21am
I've been mostly avoiding trailers for years now for the same reasons as you guys, but I've also recently realized something -- I enjoy watching trailers for movies that I've already seen. It's like reliving the whole experience in two minutes. There are too many movies I haven't seen yet to spend time re-watching anything but my absolute favorites, so refreshing my memory this way is kind of useful. smile.gif
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post #10 of 26
7/18/11 at 11:58am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aaron Silverman View Post

I've been mostly avoiding trailers for years now for the same reasons as you guys, but I've also recently realized something -- I enjoy watching trailers for movies that I've already seen. It's like reliving the whole experience in two minutes. There are too many movies I haven't seen yet to spend time re-watching anything but my absolute favorites, so refreshing my memory this way is kind of useful. smile.gif

Yeah, I'll watch trailers to movies that I just watched in theaters, just to confirm my suspicions about the spoilerific nature of the trailer I refused to watch.
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post #11 of 26
7/18/11 at 3:23pm
Trailers are fun though....there are some that still give me goose bumps. The very first teaser to Pearl Harbor was surreal. Movie sucked. Saving Private Ryan's trailer was for the ages as was The Matrix Reloaded's first teaser.

Even the teaser for Transformers 3 actually was very very cool. I think that some directors/producers like Michael Bay are at their best doing a 2 minute movie. And I agree with Cowboys & Aliens. What was once a very promising teaser now has turned into looking all too familiar. The more I see of it the more I say no thanks. Some of theses trailers actually do their box office a disservice. Less is always more on that.
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post #12 of 26
7/18/11 at 4:22pm
I don't quite understand all the disdain for the movie trailers. So the teaser for Cowboys and Aliens made it look good but now that a more full trailer is out giving you the overall plot, which is pretty mundane now makes the movie bad? It was bad or good regardless of the trailer so you would rather have a trailer that makes a bad movie look like it will be good by being unlike the actual movie or an accurate trailer of the actual movie? I do agree that many times there are way too many money shots in the trailer but that is usually an indication of a bad movie.

There are two extremes for movie types, ones that are great to watch over and over even though you already know everything that is going to happen because the journey is more important than the destination. The other are those that depend on the viewer not knowing what is coming but once the reveal is done, there is no point in watching the movie again. Romantic comedies and action movies tend to be the first type and conspiracy and heist movies tend to be the latter. The latter movies absolutely need to avoid giving away the big reveal as that is the main feature that makes watching it enjoyable but a few are so well crafted that the journey is every bit as enjoyable as the reveal.
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post #13 of 26
7/19/11 at 2:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Chan View Post

I had to double-check the date of the first post to make sure this wasn't some zombie thread from 1992. smile.gif You just realized this now? A current example is Cowboys & Aliens. The first teaser was a great teaser, but they've given away what seems to be the entire plot with the most recent trailers.
 

 

Like it was going to be a really complex plot.  What I get from both the teaser and the trailer is basically the same thing: cowboys fighting off an invasion of aliens.  The only real addition of information is about one character who didn't appear much in the teaser who seems to have some knowledge.  In any case, it hasn't ruined much of anything for me.

 

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post #14 of 26
7/21/11 at 8:53pm
I think that the trailers for Christopher Nolan's recent movies do a nice job of whetting your appetite without giving much away. Rewatch the trailers for Inception and The Dark Knight. Sure, some big action scenes are spoiled. But despite seeing the trailers several times beforehand, I was pleasantly surprised to be... surprised while watching those movies.
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post #15 of 26
8/3/11 at 10:57am
Thread Starter 
My bottom line is that I hate having an expectation about what the movie will show me next, instead of just watching passively. For example, I don't want to keep thinking, "When are we going to get to that one part I saw in the trailer?"
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post #16 of 26
8/3/11 at 4:50pm

I love watching trailers, get's me hyped for the movies. They let me know if I'll like a movie or not. The thing I love about trailers is they let me know exactly what I'm going to expect. For instance, Cowboys and Aliens. I'm going to see cowboys in the wild west getting invaded by aliens and fighting them off, that's it. I don't expect great acting, dialog or story line...and the trailers show me exactly that. People expecting more are only fooling themselves. 

 

Of course, I don't waste my time or money seeing films in a commercial theater, there's absolutely no reason to, none. Having to deal with lines, crowds, people...etc, no thanks. I'll wait and buy the Blu-ray. If it's a stinker, I'll sell it. Either way, it's a win. I'd much rather buy the Blu-ray for less than what it would cost to see a film in a theater. But trailers let me know exactly what I will do. 

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post #17 of 26
8/4/11 at 12:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Dobbs View Post

My bottom line is that I hate having an expectation about what the movie will show me next, instead of just watching passively. For example, I don't want to keep thinking, "When are we going to get to that one part I saw in the trailer?"


This reminds me of when I saw Superman III in the theater. There was a scene in the trailer where Richard Pryor is falling off a building or something. When this scene appeared the woman sitting behind me sighed "Finally!"

 

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post #18 of 26
8/4/11 at 1:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Dobbs View Post

My bottom line is that I hate having an expectation about what the movie will show me next, instead of just watching passively. For example, I don't want to keep thinking, "When are we going to get to that one part I saw in the trailer?"



Course, there are a lot of times when scenes in the trailer end up on the cutting room floor.  That's happened a few times.  (Scott Pilgrim Vs The World is the most recent example of something like that.)

 

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post #19 of 26
9/9/11 at 2:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Chan View Post



The rationale I have heard is that many of my fellow Americans are morons that "want to know what they're getting" -- the same reason McDonald's is so popular.


 

Yes, this is what it's all about.

 

The average movie customer does not want to be surprised. They are more comfortable having a communal experience where everyone knows what is coming. Then they can all react together knowingly. It's lots easier than thinking.

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post #20 of 26
10/12/11 at 12:23am

From TIME :

Woman Sues Because 'Drive' Isn't Enough Like 'Fast and the Furious'

 

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post #21 of 26
10/12/11 at 5:21am
That seems like a reasonable use of the justice system. Please excuse me while I go see my lawyer about a lawsuit against trailers that make bad movies look good.
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post #22 of 26
10/17/11 at 7:35am
Best news story of the year.

On the earlier topic of this thread, if you think modern trailers are bad, try watching some Italian trailers from the '60s and '70s, many of them would give away huge chunks of the film - I watched a Spaghetti Western last week and later watched the trailer which included numerous shots from the climactic gunfight and then the very ending itself as the heros find the cache of gold, clearly showing which of the main characters are still alive.
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post #23 of 26
10/17/11 at 2:08pm
That's like my lawsuit against "The Never Ending Story." Talk about false advertisement.
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post #24 of 26
10/17/11 at 2:09pm
That's like my lawsuit against "The Never Ending Story." Talk about false advertisement.
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post #25 of 26
10/19/11 at 10:50am
Here's another one - Horror Movie: One of the main characters (usually female) is running from the monster, gets away long enough to slip around a corner and lean against a wall to catch her breath, all is quiet just long enough for you to being thinking maybe everything is going to be alright, then suddenly the monster crashes loudly into the scene from out of nowhere to grab her.

Slightly off-topic side observation/annoyance: Trailers that showcase songs that do not appear on the movie's soundtrack. I think the frontrunners for songs most often abused in this way are: Walking On Sunshine; She Drives Me Crazy; I Feel Good; and Hit the Road, Jack.
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post #26 of 26
12/12/11 at 8:48pm
I still like to watch trailers.

Although I just watched Linciln Lawyer recently and while watching it a swore that I had seen the movie before even though I never have.

I realized afterwards that it was the trailer that's had seen before. I thi kthat trailer had run at least a year before movie played in theaters so about two years ago now but that trailer was essentially the entire movie in three minutes and havi g seen it so many times caused me a strong sense of déjà vu while watching the movie
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