Why Trailers (usually) Suck

I hate watching trailers because they are boring, predictable and filled with spoilers... You get all the best lines and all the best scenes in 120 seconds so why should you "waste" 120 minutes on the movie?



A perfect example of what I've just said. Once you've watched the trailer it's almost as if you've already seen the film.



Another example of a trailer that gives too many things away. I also remember another version of the trailer that spoiled the very last scene of the movie (which is pretty bad considering that last scene is simply hilarious).

It doesn't mean that some trailers can't get (almost) everything right but they are incredibly rare!



Now that's what I call a great trailer. The first half is just very clever considering how well it presents the theme of the movie and the second part of the trailer shows off some of the action sequences (something that is common for trailers) but it doesn't showcase all the best lines. You do get enough to whet your appetite but you don't get everything from the trailer.

Yeah, trailers suck. Quarantine's trailer features the very last seconds of the movie. :/ But you also have to realize the culprit isn't the movie itself, rather the marketing team that works for the studios. Their jobs is to promote the movie, so they don't care about story or atmosphere. They just want to have people in the cinemas.

I remember an interview with Brian Singer, looking back on The Usual Suspects, which he directed. He had to fight the studio (and their marketing team) to change the trailer, as the trailer depicted the movie as a sort of funky comedy, which isn't what the movie is about AT ALL.

Here's proof that you can make a trailer say anything. Someone made a trailer of The Shining, recut it as though it were a romantic comedy...

Oh that is just brilliant.

  

Here's a couple more funny fake trailers :

Stephen Kings' IT as a family film




Mrs. Doubtfire as a horror movie




Or Fill Metal Jacket as a feel good movie

Yes, marketing is evil. I've watched the trailer for the Queen of the Damned and it was really bad. It had that ludicrous "trailer voice" (you know the type of narration) and made all the campy/goth stuff look even worse by putting all of it in sequence. Ghastly.

Some trailers can confirm (misleading) first impressions:



You may not believe me but Zardoz is actually one of the best science fiction movies I've ever seen. You just have to be able to look past Sean Connery's outfit.

What is really great is when we get some fake trailers that turn out to be just awesome!



With all the biopics that have been made lately, this one doesn't look farfetched at all.



Better than Scarface!

And last but certainly not least:



Kirk Lazarus is definitely the greatest character actor.   

The one with Mrs. Doubtfire is just incredible.

Oh come on, there are some good trailers. Look at this one.

I love the Mrs Doubtfire one too.  

How about this trailer......



Oh, and this one.....

@ Cara  John Boorman is a highly underrated director.

@ Ryu - is that from the 70s?  It reminds me of some of the trailers I saw in that period.  Love the sound effects  

I loved all those trailers, they're more fun than the films   

@Ryu: Godfrey Ho made so many movies that are just incredible.

@Sue: I couldn't get through Hunger Games. I actually gave up after 30 minutes. I liked Lawrence in Winter's Bone, First Class and Silver Linings Playbook but not in that one.

I've watched some crappy movies in my time but there are some movies that make me feel life is way to short to be wasting time on them and Hunger Games was definitely one of those (and I hated Space Cowboys in the very same way, couldn't even finish watching it). To be frank I didn't care that much for Battle Royale but at least it was worth watching.

Considering trailers being better than the actual movie, I believe this is another example:

Carabas wrote:

Considering trailers being better than the actual movie, I believe this is another example

I hated Prometheus. I loved Alien and Aliens, but Prometheus was just a badly written shock fest.

Hunger Games is an atrocious pile of garbage.

There is a lot of violence propaganda, a lot of social degenerative programming, there is feminism based bullshit and it is boring as shit. Any way you look at this movie it is absolutely terrible and disgusting to watch. I'm disgusted with the ideas of this movie, I'm disgusted with the rating of the movie PG-13 (are they completely out of their minds?), I'm just simply digusted.... screw Hunger Games    


Godfry Ho is one of a kind

If you deconstruct a blockbuster or a bestseller it's possible to end up with some pretty disturbing analysis. Reading the first Harry Potter book left a bad taste in my mouth because of all that talk of a superior race of magic users opposed to the muggles. I understand the rest of the series clarifies that point but I didn't care enough to read more of that.

Talking about funnier stuff here is my favourite scene from Godfrey Ho's Ninja Terminator:

That is because Harry Potter is full of a certain social programming. I think it is a misconception - that if analysis of some pretty common stuff like say Harry Potter is diturbing, than it must be you are who is overanalysing. No, it is because media is a lot more than just entertainment. Certain programs are pushed into the mainstream to create certain behavior or thinking process, especially in teenagers who didn't fully develop their model of reality.

I think you should watch a fan series called Ninja: The mission force, they truly are the best parody on Godfry Ho


The fight at the end of the episode is hilarious.

If you know Ninja Terminators you will understand the humor in those series :)If you know why all the bad ninjas have NIN-JA on their bandanas you sure did watch a lot of Godfri Ho movies