Movie Feature: Are Trailers Ruining Movies?

Published November 23, 2016

Are Trailers Ruining Movies?

Trailers have become their own phenomenon. Trailer launch dates and event screenings have made the 2 minute flash reels hot property. We have even reached the point where trailers get trailers. (teasers)

For comic book movies trailers seem to reach out to the non fan base audience making them familiar with the character, case in point Dr Strange or Guardians of the Galaxy. These movies would not have commercial success without some killer trailers. The general public simply isn’t aware of the more obscure characters.

But too much of good thing can be bad

The Amazing Spiderman 2 proved that showing too much too soon or even at all can have a negative impact on the audience. The cash grabbing studios tend to forget one simple fact, we want to be awed, we want to suspend our disbelief, or simply be shocked and for this we will gladly part with our hard earned cash. All those things mean more than big budget effects. That is why the original Star Wars still holds up to this day.

Terminator Genysis (because Skynet doesn’t have autocorrect ) is the best example, a good movie marketed to death. The biggest flip on character since Arnie turn good in T2 and like the local town bicycle, gave it up for free in the trailer. They didn’t just ruin they movie but possibly a full trilogy in 5 seconds.

These are just two, of many movies that would have been successful had the audience not seen most of the movie in multiple trailers.

Lately I have been avoiding trailers as best I can, in world saturated in social media that is no easy task. But it has made my movie experience so much more rewarding. Seeing that amazing set piece scene come alive on the big screen for the first time is finally enthralling (the way it was meant to be seen) or that joke that most have grown tired of because they have heard it so many times in the trailer or worse it has become a temporary running joke. But for me Strange was a mere test and I know that avoiding trailers isn’t viable long term.

However

Movies do need trailers, but why does it have to be tons of actual content? Take Deadpool. One of the best marketing strategies seen in a long time.The best ones were never actual footage from the movie but rather fresh footage utilising the titular character. While it’s true this cannot be done for other movies, other clever ideas can come to mind.

Of the bat (see what I did there), Batman V Superman should never have shown any footage of the duel, but rather news reports speaking of Batman with a few found footage of sightings of the Bat with the character barely visible. Superman should follow the same but with more clear videos with his heroic activities and maybe an interview. This would have alluded to their dark vs light concept. This would have created the need to see the movie more than any of the later trailer did. The first one did however hit the spot. Simple, just two of the greatest heroes ever in the ultimate stare down.

Hollywood’s greatest flaw is it oversight of simplicity. Transformers is a clear indicator, while the movie may bring in bigger truck loads of cash than Optimus Prime himself, it has become a convoluted mess. (hello Mr Fox and Mr Singer, we see you behind Bumblebee ) The trailers promise more than the movie can deliver. This is Hollywood, this is business and in business you always under promise and over deliver. Always.

But I digress, while I won’t say trailers ruin movies, I will however amend my opening question to; do trailers of late take away the magic of the movie before it has been actually seen.

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Entertainment / Gaming Author at Geek Node

The possible result of lab experiment gone horribly wrong, a real life Anti-Hero with all of the sarcasm/attitude and non-of-the superpowers. Still tears up each time he sees Arnie lowered into the molten metal. Thinks he is super funny… others beg to differ. Was going to live his life ¼ mile at a time until he converted it to the metric system… and would choose the red pill every time. Driven by Dreams and Fuelled by Passion.