When the trailer is actually better than the movie...

It happens more often than you’d think... just look at the last example—Haywire... such an incredible trailer, totally high-energy, featuring a stellar cast, yet the actual movie turned out to be this confusing mess that was honestly tough to follow... and don't even get me started on all that wasted acting potential...

But anyway... I've got a different question on my mind... if we don't actually open the box, how are we supposed to know if the cat is alive or dead? 😕

Most trailers are basically just engineered to bait people in. But then you get those absolutely hideous trailers that make you want to vomit before you even see the movie—even when the actual film turns out to be a masterpiece.

It all comes down to marketing...

silentcanyon58 said:Anyway... I've got a different question on my mind... if we don't actually open the box, how are we supposed to determine whether the cat is alive or dead? 😕

Telepathically.
🤣

dustycrane5 said:It’s all just clever marketing.

Exactly! ☕

Jamie Davis9 said:It’s like telepathy. 🤣

Sorry if I'm drifting a bit off-topic here... 🤣

It’s fine, honestly; it would look good on you. It fits the style and the color is nice enough.. 🤷 though what it actually reveals about you is: I'm clever, my jokes are brilliant, I'm clever, my jokes are brilliant, I'm clever... if you were a movie, I might have actually sat through it. 🤣

p.s. this isn't off-topic, since the word 'movie' was used.

Drive is the champion of that

dustycrane5 said:Trailers are basically engineered to hook an audience. On the flip side, you get those absolutely hideous trailers that make you want to gag before you even see the movie—even when the actual film turns out to be phenomenal.

It’s all just marketing.

There are definitely a few cases where a bad trailer ruined a great movie for me. Some were so bad I passed on them entirely, only to watch them later and feel like a total idiot.

What really gets under my skin is how modern trailers basically spoil the entire movie🙄
I always seem to fall for it. I’ll be hooked by a trailer for the first sixty seconds, and then by the second minute, they’ve already laid out the whole plot. Trailers need to be shorter, or at the very least, actually mysterious

Adam Newman12 said:Drive is the king of that type

Honestly, Drive was the exact opposite—the trailer was total garbage, but the movie itself was actually pretty solid.

dustycrane5 said:Trailers are mostly designed just to hook an audience...
It's all about the marketing.

Sure, a trailer aims to grab people, but the movie itself doesn't necessarily aim to keep them—not that it matters once we've already shelled out for the ticket.

Ads have turned into an art form (look at the Creative Arts Awards), while movies have basically become extended commercials (thanks, product placement).
The real issue arises when the advertisement becomes more valuable than the actual product.

In today's world of information overload and zero free time, committing two whole hours to a movie is a massive ask, especially if the entire plot could have been summarized in a few minutes.

Television has completely outpaced the film industry in that regard.

Aside from >, the last two films by > immediately come to mind. Especially >—it had an incredible >, even if the movie itself didn't quite hit the mark for me.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Captain America. Honestly, who even needs to see the movie when you have the damn trailer?
But here's the thing—trailers these days are actually good, almost without exception. It doesn't matter if they're just a massive montage of clips or if they focus on one tiny, specific moment.

Compare that to trailers from before the 90s, and man, they were a total disaster. The further back you go, the worse they get. They’d literally just show two or three full scenes from the movie while some monotone narrator droned on about the cast and talked absolute nonsense.
Then again, back then, the movies themselves were actually great. Nowadays, everything feels flipped. 😬

I honestly never watch trailers—and life has been pretty great so far!

I’ve gotta say, the Bridesmaids trailer actually pissed me off a little bit.
Basically, the trailer was way funnier than the actual movie. How does that even happen? It feels like they leaned heavily on improvisation for most of those bits, but half the stuff you see in the trailer isn't even in the final cut. To me, the jokes in the trailer were much sharper than what actually made it onto the screen.🙂

I’ve never been much of a fan when it comes to trailers. I didn't really feel the need back in the day since I wasn't exactly dying to see every new release, but now? Now I know they're basically just overblown propaganda designed to trick people into buying a ticket. They’re all just loud, mindless explosions and deafening sound design meant to mask a lack of substance... plus that obnoxious, twenty-year-old trope where the narrator keeps shouting "Academy Award Winner..." or "Academy Award Nominee..." at you. It's exhausting. Just get lost.

And honestly, like someone already mentioned, these idiots usually end up spoiling half the plot anyway!

Here's another case where the trailers actually outshine the movies themselves—think of those low-budget Spoof comedies like Scary .../ Not another.../ Epic .../ Meet the.../ Pirate.../ Vampire... flicks.

Honestly, these things shouldn't even be called "movies"... they're basically just extended trailers.

Check out this one example of a successful trailer acting as its own short film: American Jedi

It's essentially a parody of American Pie and The Phantom Menace.

Joseph Hayes3 said:Honestly, my experience with the Google Drive upload was the exact opposite—it was a total disaster of a trailer, but the movie itself turned out to be pretty great!

I am totally with you on that! It’s one of those rare cases where the trailer completely misleads you and sends you down the wrong path, only for you to sit down and realize the actual film is something else entirely... and in this instance, I personally thought the movie was way better than what the trailer led me to expect.