I HATE trailers! (1 Viewer)

[Scot_G]

Why do the trailers for movies lately have to give away so much? I can't stand how they give away plot twists, and sometimes, they pretty much tell the whole story in the fricken trailer. This seem to be especially bad for comedies. Some of the jokes may actually be funny when i watch the movie, had i not already seen the joke 500 times on the TV preview.

Has anyone else notice/been annoyed by this?

I have been making efforts to avoid all trailers for some time now...at least with the movies I know I want to see. It's been tough, but I've managed to avoid all trailers for the next Matrix movie, since the trailer for "Reloaded" basically gave away every cool scene in the movie.

Just thought I'd rant a little.

-Scot

 

[Paul_Sjordal]

"Recently"?

I'll only agree with that sentiment if "recently" covers a lot of years. This has been going on since what? The 80s?

 

[Kevin Porter]

I was about to start a thread like this but couldn't think of an appropriate title. I see that Scot has taken care of that . I myself completely avoided the 2nd trailer for Kill Bill and it was so rewarding.

I'm doing the same for Return of the King. We were at an Alamo Drafthouse the other night to see Kill Bill for a 2nd time (Yes it's that freakin good) and they played the ROTK trailer and a friend of mine and I ducked are heads under the table (Only at the Drafthouse) and covered our ears. It'll be more hard once the TV spots come out but it will pay off big time. I'm doing the same for Kill Bill: V2.

I urge anyone who wants a full moviegoing experience to avoid promotional materials for movies you want to be masterpieces for you.

 

[Scot_G]

I know this practice has been going on for decades, but it has only started to really irritate me in the last year or so. using "Reloaded" as my example... Thanks to trailers, whn I saw the movie in the theater, I was not surprised to see Neo flying through the city, 100 Smith's, a freeway car chase, ghost-like characters, etc.

I really wish they would stick to the teaser trailers...usually they dont show anything more than the title, and maybe a sound byte.

 

[Vickie_M]

I'll only agree with that sentiment if "recently" covers a lot of years. This has been going on since what? The 80s?

No, it's been going on since they first started making trailers. I can't think of any off the top of my head, but trailers of the 30's, 40's and 50's were TERRIBLE about giving away spoilers and letting you know EXACTLY what you were going to be seeing. I think Alfred Hitchcock was the first major director to put his foot down and take control of his trailer to Psycho and limit what it showed.

I do agree with the rant though. It's just that it's not a recent thing. It's always been that way, and even worse.

 

[Adam_S]

it's called high concept marketing--selling the entire point and purpose of the movie so that people know what to expect going in. Believe it or not, this process brings in much more dollars than other marketing processes. It was developed for blockbusters (Jaws, Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Star Wars) but has unfortunately been applied to every single other type of film, regardless of whether or not it accurately reflects the movie or gives away the entire point of the movie. I have serious doubts that "the house of sand and fog" is an exciting thriller, and am actually really annoyed I've seen the trailer, but I'll still see the film.

And High concept marketing can and has been good. Case in point "The Sixth Sense" and other abovementioned films. And while filmfans will cry out that sixth sense was ruined for them by going in knowing 'I see dead people', the film would probably have never made the money it did without that marketing. Too many people would have walked out on it because it 'was slow and pointless and dumb', giving bad word of mouth and telling people "I didn't get it". Instead the "I see dead people" kept butts in seats until they were hooked in then wowed by the big ending. The film probably would have been a moderate success along the lines of Usual Suspects, but not the second highest grossing film of the year.

Adam

 

[Scott Weinberg]

I'm torn, in that I'd LOVE to have seen The Matrix Reloaded without expecting certain action scenes. That would have been great, going in totally cold.

BUT I'm such a pathetic celluloid junkie that if I know there's a new trailer up for The Alamo I just gotta see what it's gonna look like. (Damn good trailer btw.)

And I've been to the Alamo Drafthouse! I saw Cabin Fever and The Eye (and an still-unreleased flick directed by Pauly Shore) there during the festival! DAMN do I wish Philadelphia had one of those theaters! to the Drafthouse! (Picture long slender tables that run in front of every row of the movie theater. Now picture crouching waitresses that drop off cheese fries and beer just as the movie is starting. That's the Alamo Drafthouse. )

But yeah: trailers are bad. So is crack. Try breaking that habit.

 

[Michael Martin]

it's called high concept marketing--selling the entire point and purpose of the movie so that people know what to expect going in.

Entertainment Weekly had a story on this a few years ago. One of the most egregious violators of the spoiler-filled trailer in the last decade was the movie Ransom. EW interviewed Brian Grazer, one of the film's producers, for the story, and he was blunt about only caring pulling people and dollars. He had no interest in the artistic integrity of the film or the trailer.

This just supports what Adam wrote. The content of the trailers, 99% of the time or more, are not decided by the directors, but by the suits. Only rarely does a director - such as M Night Shyamalan -- have ANY veto power.

Also, at the risk of sounding like an elitist snob, many moviegoers have to have things spelled out for them. The teaser trailer for Solaris was a great example - no clips, nothing but mood and anticipation building. Reactions to it from the public were overwhelmingly negative (which I thought was sad).

 

[Chris]

I have never, ever seen a trailer as bad as "In the Cut" which basically could be an entire plot synopsis, showing damn near every potential plot break within the film, and ending with what I assume is supposed to be a shocking revalation within the film.

It wasn'a film I wanted to see anyway, but much less so now. It's like getting Cliff notes in advance. BAH!

 

[RyanPC]

I agree with you guys, but I still kind of like trailers, especially the ones from the 70's and 80's. But if I do see Kill Bill, I'll be going in totally cold because I only saw one tv spot and even then I only caught a one second glimpse of it, so it didn't spoil anything.

 

[Michael Martin]

Don't get me wrong. I love trailers, especially well done ones. But too many trailers give away crucial plot points. It's probably not as bad for casual moviegoers, but for HTF and other film fans, when we can view trailers repeatedly online or on DVD, it can get shocking as to how much of a film is revealed in the trailer.

 

[TommyT]

The trailer I always disliked for giving away too much plot is Terminator 2. It would have been soooooo much cooler if we didn't know which terminator was the good guy. Still, the flick is cool!

 

[Michael Martin]

The trailer I always disliked for giving away too much plot is Terminator 2.

Agreed. You can tell the way the movie is filmed that Cameron wanted the audience wondering if either of the Terminators were "good."

Ranks up there with the Ransom trailer debacle, as well as the Two Towers trailers giving away Gandalf's returns. A lot of people have said it's dumb to worry about spoiling a 50 year old story, but tons of people are seeing the movies before reading the books, and it would have been much cooler to have surprised at least a few of them.

 

[Scott McAllister]

I totally agree on this.

It's such a disapointment to be a captive audience for things like this, especially when it's a movie you really want to see.

I think one of the worst offenders that I remember is "The Italian Job". The trailer literally gave away 90% of movie. The only thing left open to question is how Edward Norton dies. (Don't be so shocked, you know the bad guy has to die in a movie like that).

Another pet peeve of mine is trailers giving away "money shots", so to speak, from the movie they're plugging. Vertical Limit is a really great example of this. Sliding down a hill and catching yourself at the last second w/ an iceaxe would have been something I would like to have seen in the movie only.

Oh well, what can you do?

 

[MarkHastings]

I know Godzilla wasn't the best movie, but I liked the fact that they refused to show what he looked like in the trailers. I remember when the Ninja Turtle movie (Live Action) came out, the trailers kept showing what they looked like, but when you saw the movie (as most movies do), they kept trying to hide what they looked like at the beginning. This movie making concept works great (for the inital reveal) when you don't know what they look like, but knowing what they look like just reuins that mystique at the beginning. The same thing with Batman & The Nutty Professor, etc. They all build up to a "Reveal" which never gets the reaction they originally planned on because we've seen what the charaters look like already.

I beleive they did the same thing with the "Grinch"? (i.e. not showing what he looked like until the movie was released), but they didn't do it with "The Cat in the Hat". :frowning:

And not so much ruining the plot, but key scenes. I know the Titanic sank, but when you see the trailers, you see the scene where Rose and Jack are going down with the ship. This kind of ruins the point where Rose is on the life boat (that is being lowered into the water) because you know that she's going to jump back on the ship (how else would she be on the ship when it sank?).

 

[ThomasC]

For Attack of the Clones, they should've just made the "Breathing" teaser. Every teaser and trailer should be like that. Show very little stuff, no scenes with dialogue, with the appropriate music or whatnot.

 

[MarkHastings]

Has anyone else noticed how many deleted scenes there are in Trailers? I realize this is because the trailers are made before the film is completely edited, but SO many trailers contain scenes that never end up in the movie. This would always bug me because there would be parts of the trailer that I would remember (while watching the movie) and I'd keep anticipating it, but would never see it.

Example, in the Anger Management trailer, they show the scene with John McEnroe yelling at Jack Nicolson (which was edited out of the movie). When I watched the movie, I was anticipating this scene, but never saw it until I saw the deleted scenes on the DVD.

 

[RyanPC]

I saw a trailer for Death Becomes Her one time and it contained scenes not found in the movie-- Universal even had the gull to include a picture from one of those scenes on the back of the VHS.

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

Here's that article that Michael was talking about, or at least it is just like it as this one is from E! not EW but they mention the Ransom fiasco as well:
Trailer Trash
Great read.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

I think Alfred Hitchcock was the first major director to put his foot down and take control of his trailer to Psycho and limit what it showed.

You mena the six minute long trailer that has one second of movie footage? Brilliant trailer.