Movie Trailers

[beastieben21]

Here's what I hate about movie trailers. Yeah, compared to the trailers of the 70's and 80's, current trailers do a much better job of getting you pumped to see a movie. Take the current King Kong trailer. It gets your blood boiling and ready for some rampage...

HOWEVER.

If you're even a semi-compotent person, after seeing a trailer 3-4 times, you'll remember most of the imagery and scenes. This often leads to me, sitting in the theater, approximating how much time is left in a movie because I've seen bits and pieces and can put the film together as it's playing. I know that they have to end up "here", and then have to go "there" and I'm gonna guess that "this" will lead to "that." It's insanely frustrating. Even though a trailer may only be 2:30 minutes, I imagine that you see 90 % of the scenes in a film. I really should take a look at some films, break them down scene by scene, and see what percent are show, even if it's only a flash, in the finished film. I imagine the percentage is astonishing.

Now, I'm wondering if there are risks in simply showing a single, unedited 2 and half minute clip from a film. Or, if not that extreme, maybe 3 or 4 30 second scenes. Do you think this would impact the excitement people have about a film, or does it simply boil down to studios wanting people in seats regardless of how much of the film is spoiled as long as they get the money?

Imagine how cool that would be if all you had seen of a film like King Kong was what leads up to the Kong and T-Rex fight, and everything else was a mystery. I don't know, it's just really starting to piss me off that you see practically every damn scene in the whole movie, save for maybe the last 5 minutes.

[ChemicalRomance]

Haha after watching the 2nd version of the King Kong trailer at Jarhead last night I really can put the whole entire movie together from beginning to end. Pretty sad.

[someguy]

Yeah man, it's no wonder you can piece together the Kong movie. Sure, it's a remake of a movie over 70 or 80 years old that almost everyone has seen but you still couldn't piece it together until that trailer came out!

Actually I do agree with you on this. A movie can pretty much be figured out by looking at the trailer today. I always thought that they should just use deleted scenes in the trailer or have scenes specifically made for it. I liked how in the trailer for Anchorman a lot of the footage wasn't used in the actual version.

[OrskeeZio]

15 min. long trailers for shitty movies that are on rentals of other shitty movies. For some twisted reason, my dad either wouldn't or was completely incapable of fastforwrding through these torturous "mini-movies". Sadly, I've inhereted this trait. *sigh*

[Badbird]

There was about a ten year window when cutting trailers was a real artform, but that's all but gone now. Most trailers are litterally two minute versions of the films they promote. They pull scenes from every inch of the movie from beginning to end, many times throwing in a huge spoiler - though sometimes you don't know what it is until after you see the movie, then you go "Wow, they showed so and so's big death scene" etc.

SPOILERS FOR Daredevil and Red Eye:



They show Bullseye falling to his "death" right in the trailer.
And they obviously make it off the plane in Red Eye, as shown in the trailer.

Back to thread:

I'm pretty much to the point where I don't enjoy trailers anymore, as they all look the same. It's like there's one guy cutting trailers and he has this program which uses the same formula to cut every trailer, complete with rock music montage and last minute "gag" that doesn't match the rest of the trailer.

[Tuukka]

It's a no-win situation for studios. Whenever they release a trailer which DOESN'T give away all the big moneyshots, people around the net, including this board, complain that the trailer didn't show enough.

For example Spielberg is well known for generally NOT showing his big money shots in his trailers. Minority Report is the only exception to this rule. When the 1st trailer for WOTW (Not the teaser, and not the final trailer) arrived last spring, do you remember what every second member of JoBlo said?

"I dunno... It just doesn't look that great. I expected to see giant robot action in this trailer. That's really underwhelming because you don't get to see the big action money shots".

...I'm not kidding. That's what people said. And when the final trailer came out, people were still bitching about not getting bigger money shots.

I do agree on the rant, thought. Usually I prefer teasers over trailers. But I don't blame studios, I blame the movie audiences who want to see the entire fucking film in the trailers, and complain when they don't see it.

[BorderEevilIII]

I do rely on movie trailers to determine if I wanna see the movie or...
WAIT FOR DVD! :D

But yes movie studios do give away waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to much.
Movies like "Sky High" & "Madagascar" slides into the meh to egh categories after I saw it.
Should I say these 2 movies was disappointing? Ummmm yeah kinda....
Now with the upcoming "HP & Goblet of Fire" I am psyched up to see what the movie has to offer. :D
Oh yeah and "The Chronicles of Narnia":cool:

[RustyRazor]

You're preaching to the choir.
I've been at my podium in downtown Manhattan regailing people to the evils of these trailers that give away the whole f**king movie.

It's like they think if they show a "jaw dropping" (sorry) shot of one of the movie's stars, people will be hooked.

BUT

If it's a major plot point of the movie that they show (aka someone dying, getting shot, thrown off of a building) SOMEONE'S GOING TO PIECE IT TOGETHER FOR F**K'S SAKE.

Hollywood obviously doesn't see it that way.

SHH! The previews are starting.

[War Movie Mania]

I totally agree. I just saw the trailer for 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Trying movie and I have to say they pretty muched showed every major plot point in the movie.



(Semi spoilers for those who don't know about 50 Cent)


In the trailer it shows 50 cent getting shot, and surviving... Now I realize that people who know about 50 cent already know this, but that's pretty much the most pivotal plot point in the damned movie!!!

[KyleG]

Originally posted by ChemicalRomance
Haha after watching the 2nd version of the King Kong trailer at Jarhead last night I really can put the whole entire movie together from beginning to end. Pretty sad.

of course you can, i could put the whole movie together before i even saw any footage, its a remake.

[Mr-Blonde]

I completely agree with this rant. Trailers give far too much away these days. I also hate it when a trailer gives away all the best parts of a film. This is especially true with most of the comedies released lately. All of the best gags are usually revealed in the trailer. In many cases the trailer contains all of the funny parts and then when you go to watch the film you find out that the rest is padding. This most recently happened to me with The Longest Yard but I could name a number of films that this is applicable to.

[BubbaStrangelove]

Trailers for Wes Anderson movies are an exception for me --- They don't give away much of the movie, but always really capture the spirit of it.

I really like trailers that show nothing from the movie and maybe have an actor talking to the camera, or something.

No doubt, though - many current trailers are just cop-outs.

[LordSimen]

I agree with the rant about showing too mcuh in trailers these days. However, what's more annoying is how everytime a trailer shows to much everyone complains, and then if a trailer does what it's supposed to do... Tease and give you a small taste, people complain they didn't see enough. *Sigh.*

No matter what you do everyone has something to complain about.

[Joey Blue]

Ever watch the trailer after you saw the movie? It feels like they're giving away most of the movie expecially when you've already seen it, and maybe it's a movie that has a mystery or something.

[bigred760]

Originally posted by ChemicalRomance
Haha after watching the 2nd version of the King Kong trailer at Jarhead last night I really can put the whole entire movie together from beginning to end. Pretty sad.


Well, if you've seen the original movie, than it shouldn't be too hard anyway.

Yes, sometimes the trailers do reveal too much for my taste, but it still doesn't ruin the movie for me. Hell King Kong's trailer is only 2.5 minutes - the movie is 3 hours long - you do the math. I don't think it's giving away that much.

[adamjohnson]

Hey



How bout that LAdy in the Water trailer huh?



HUH?????!!!!!

[beastieben21]

Originally posted by bigred760
Well, if you've seen the original movie, than it shouldn't be too hard anyway.

Yes, sometimes the trailers do reveal too much for my taste, but it still doesn't ruin the movie for me. Hell King Kong's trailer is only 2.5 minutes - the movie is 3 hours long - you do the math. I don't think it's giving away that much.

King Kong is just an example. Obviously, nobodys saying "duh, I didn't wanna know what happened."Everyone knows what happens in King Kong. But I still don't want everything revealed in the trailer.

Plus, we're not arguing the runtime versus the trailer time. Sure, the trailers only 2 and a half minutes, but in that time I'm willing to bet you we see set pieces or snippets from probably 80 percent of the film. Everybody know Kong goes to New York, but I still didn't want to see it. I don't think you should show ANY part of the last hour of your film in a trailer, even if it's only quick clips. It used to be that people could only see a trailer in theaters, but now people can take them apart, frame by frame, and examine them. Studios and filmmakers need to show some restraint.

[ParileseMonster]

I hate trailers now, I love old trailers one of my favorite things to do is pop in my Something Weird Video trailer DVD and chill.
Anyway, my problem is that most of them are,

"Jump, jump, jump, loud music, shaky camera shot, shaky, shaky, jump, jump, LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR, boom, boom, shaky, jump, jump."

Dramamine should be for rollercoasters and not movie trailers!
Also I hate trailers that feature cut scenes cause it is misleading in a way. King Kong does not excite me, three hours of his fat ass and the deletion of Howard Shore's score is enough to keep me home. Trailers do give away too much, give me a trailer that keeps you guessing until you actually see the flick, yeah that would be a trailer I could appreciate.

[APzombie]

I'm the type who almost always thinks that the teaser trailers are much more effective than full bloated two minutes of clips in a theatrical trailer, and thats because when teasers are made they dont have a whole lot of clips, many times they have none at all. So what is left to the imagination leaves us more interested.

And the absolute best trailers are the ones that were shot specifically as a trailer and simply not clips from the actual film put together,
like the WAR OF THE WORLDS teaser, the TERMINATOR 2 teaser, the MAGNOLIA trailer, and the MYSTIC RIVER teaser.

[adamjohnson]

Originally posted by APzombie
[B]I'm the type who almost always thinks that the teaser trailers are much more effective than full bloated two minutes of clips in a theatrical trailer, and thats because when teasers are made they dont have a whole lot of clips, many times they have none at all. So what is left to the imagination leaves us more interested.

/B]

coughcough UNBREAKABLE, LADYINTHEWATERcoughcough