I know I've complained about this in the past, but two recent examples have fueled my anger and I decided to give this topic a post of its own. I'm, of course, talking about trailers that reveal too much.When I've referred to this topic in the past, I've usually brought up the trailers for What Lies Beneath and Stardust as trailers that show you pretty much the whole movie, rendering actually going to see the flick they advertise an exercise in futility. What for, if you already know everything? Some more recent examples include The Heartbreak Kid and, as trailers keep being released, the upcoming Wanted. The point of a trailer is to make you interested in seeing a movie, not spoiling it for you. For that, we already have the Internet, thank you very much. As a good example of showing you a little, of giving you a taste of the movie without revealing anything, I will point out the trailer for Eagle Eye, Shia LaBeouf's movie opening in September. The teaser for Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno is also good, because it doesn't even feature any footage from the movie, but, at the same time, it gives you an idea of what the movie is about and who the main characters are. As examples of bad trailers (the three that actually triggered this rant) we have Wall·e, Get Smart, and Lakeview Terrace.
The teaser for Wall·e was excellent, giving you a glimpse of what to expect, but nothing else. The new trailer, though, feels as long as the movie is going to be, and even though I'm sure the Pixar people aren't showing us everything, it gives away so many things that I am actually less interested in going to see this movie now than I was when I first saw the teaser.
Something similar happened with Get Smart. The teaser was short and sweet, but the new trailer seems to give away not only the plot, but the major jokes and comedic moments. This is actually something I've come to realize happens with many comedies: they show you the funny bits in the preview to make you think the movie is going to be funny, and then it turns out the jokes in the trailer were the only funny ones, and you've seen them already.
The most galling case out of the three is probably Lakeview Terrace. This is Samuel L. Jackson's new thriller, and, within the first few seconds, the trailer got all my attention. This movie looks good, I thought. But then the trailer kept going on and on and on, revealing plot twists and unexpected surprises. But did I say unexpected? Well, not anymore.
When will studios understand that, in nine out of ten cases, less is more? If you want me to go see your movie, don't show it to me for free months before it opens. Please, oh please.
2 comments:
Amen, brother. Preach it!
(side note: I misspelled "brother" as "bother" above and had to fix it.)
I have noticed this before, too, although probably not nearly as many times as you have (since I've only been to the movies maybe 5 times in the past year... heed my warning, movie fans: having a baby will seriously interfere with your spare time). And, as you say, it seems to be a particularly annoying problem with comedies. I don't remember which one it was (probably some dumb Adam Sandler movie), but a couple of years ago I saw the trailer and thought, "Those are probably the best jokes in the movie, and they're not even funny."
You always have the notion, though, that maybe the trailer didn't ruin it. I held out on Titanic for a long time, after all, because "I already know what happened - the ship sank." When I finally saw it, I liked it, even though I knew somebody was going to die. (I must admit, I was glad when it was Leonardo.)
Anyway, to sum up: "Hear, hear!" I'm with you on the too-revealing trailer complaint.
It's great too hear from you, Huitzy! And I'm not surprised you agree with me. After all, you're an eminently reasonable person ;)
Post a Comment