If there is one thing I hate, it is arriving to a movie late. My favorite part of the movie going experience is watching ten minutes of trailers. Trailers sell movies and create major “buzz.” There is something to be said for a good movie preview. Movie studios dangle them like bait and hope that come opening day we bite and bite hard. This usually happens with the big blockbusters. Nowadays studios release what they call “teasers.” Now teasers are interesting. Sometimes it is just a flash of a main character saying or doing something, followed by the release date. Other times it is a brief scene with no dialogue and music. I am not a fan of the “teaser.” It is too reminiscent of every date I was ever on in high school. Good trailers don’t give away too much of the film and build as they crash onto the screen with the big finale. Studios are smart these days because the show previews six months to a year before the actual release of the film. This lays the foundation for us to reach into our wallets and hand over our nine dollars. Now, I have been the victim of some classic trailers. These are movies I couldn’t wait to see because of the people who spliced together two minutes of goodness. In these cases, the trailers were far better than the actual film. I do want to say “kudos” to the manipulative nature of the “trailer making people” who baited me by using my impulsiveness against me. I deemed these five films to be great or even Oscar worthy because of a trailer without seeing the entire film.
5) Independence Day
This one aired during the Super Bowl. It showed the White House being blown to smithereens. I honestly had no idea what the movie was about, but hey, the White House was blown to bits and I was hooked. The summer came and I saw this movie and it was ridiculous. The President could read the minds of the aliens and “see” their overall plan to exterminate humans. You “tricky trailer making people” got me on this one.
4) Hulk
Talk about a teaser, Wow! Eric Bana looking in his mirror, face changing, house shaking, title and it was over. Holy crap I was excited. I couldn’t wait to see this one. It was going to be awesome watching the Hulk get angry and “Hulk smash” stuff. So naturally I shelled out some “bones” and saw this one only to get The Notebook for superheroes. I love being told how “cerebral” this movie is. It is “cerebral” because of its slow pace and bad acting.
3) Alexander
I was happy that a motion picture was going to be made about one of the greatest historical figures. The story of Alexander is fascinating. “Conquer your fear and I promise you will conquer death…” gave me tingles and made want to fight for Sparta. Then I saw the cast, Farrell, Jolie, Hopkins, and Oliver Stone as director. This was going to be epic on all scales. What it ended up being was a steaming turd laid in front of me for two and half hours. Great trailer though…thanks (sarcasm).
2) Van Helsing
A terrific idea for a movie. I couldn’t wait to see Van Helsing hunting down vampires. Hugh Jackman was coming off X-Men fame and perfectly cast. The trailer was put together nicely with morphing vampires and Van Helsing armed with cool gadgets. Jackman confessing that being a vampire hunter is his “curse” put me in line to see this. The only thing cursed was this abomination of a movie. This thing should be aborted from every video store shelf. If you have a copy in your house, get rid of it because it will steal an hour and half of your life.
1) Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace
This was it. This was the trailer we waited sixteen years to see. There was no way after seeing this trailer that Star Wars would not regain control of the movie industry. Every Generation has a legend… and you know the rest. The music cues and suddenly my pants are wet. This trailer might be part of the greatest hoax of all time. This was going to be THE Star Wars movie. It was going to bind generations together. Young kids were once again going to collect toys, wear t-shirts, fight outside with plastic lightsabers and utter quotes from Episode One. The only quotes uttered were “Wow, that sucked!” and “What the hell is a midichlorian (sp)?” You evil trailer making bastards made me feel good until May of 1999 and then I was hit with Jar Jar and the kid from Jingle All the Way whining about his pod racer. Thanks for the raping of my childhood, but hey, the trailer was GRRREAT! (Click the picture of Obi-Wan and Anakin to the right of this article to view trailer)
5) Independence Day
This one aired during the Super Bowl. It showed the White House being blown to smithereens. I honestly had no idea what the movie was about, but hey, the White House was blown to bits and I was hooked. The summer came and I saw this movie and it was ridiculous. The President could read the minds of the aliens and “see” their overall plan to exterminate humans. You “tricky trailer making people” got me on this one.
4) Hulk
Talk about a teaser, Wow! Eric Bana looking in his mirror, face changing, house shaking, title and it was over. Holy crap I was excited. I couldn’t wait to see this one. It was going to be awesome watching the Hulk get angry and “Hulk smash” stuff. So naturally I shelled out some “bones” and saw this one only to get The Notebook for superheroes. I love being told how “cerebral” this movie is. It is “cerebral” because of its slow pace and bad acting.
3) Alexander
I was happy that a motion picture was going to be made about one of the greatest historical figures. The story of Alexander is fascinating. “Conquer your fear and I promise you will conquer death…” gave me tingles and made want to fight for Sparta. Then I saw the cast, Farrell, Jolie, Hopkins, and Oliver Stone as director. This was going to be epic on all scales. What it ended up being was a steaming turd laid in front of me for two and half hours. Great trailer though…thanks (sarcasm).
2) Van Helsing
A terrific idea for a movie. I couldn’t wait to see Van Helsing hunting down vampires. Hugh Jackman was coming off X-Men fame and perfectly cast. The trailer was put together nicely with morphing vampires and Van Helsing armed with cool gadgets. Jackman confessing that being a vampire hunter is his “curse” put me in line to see this. The only thing cursed was this abomination of a movie. This thing should be aborted from every video store shelf. If you have a copy in your house, get rid of it because it will steal an hour and half of your life.
1) Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace
This was it. This was the trailer we waited sixteen years to see. There was no way after seeing this trailer that Star Wars would not regain control of the movie industry. Every Generation has a legend… and you know the rest. The music cues and suddenly my pants are wet. This trailer might be part of the greatest hoax of all time. This was going to be THE Star Wars movie. It was going to bind generations together. Young kids were once again going to collect toys, wear t-shirts, fight outside with plastic lightsabers and utter quotes from Episode One. The only quotes uttered were “Wow, that sucked!” and “What the hell is a midichlorian (sp)?” You evil trailer making bastards made me feel good until May of 1999 and then I was hit with Jar Jar and the kid from Jingle All the Way whining about his pod racer. Thanks for the raping of my childhood, but hey, the trailer was GRRREAT! (Click the picture of Obi-Wan and Anakin to the right of this article to view trailer)
4 comments:
I do like a good trailer. I'm like Pavlov's dog anytime I hear that bell from the music that starts all of the Rocky trailers, which were among the best trailers around. My eyes were glued to the screen and that music gets you going and next thing you know you are a punchline to an Eddie Murphy joke. But I always thought trailers for sequels seemed better, especially if you liked the first movie and that movie is legendary (I'm looking at you Star Wars). The directors and editors already know they own you, and they know they can trust you to do their adverstising for them, and the trailer is the push in the back you need.
I am so glad you addressed the movie trailer in your blog. There is a (seemingly) recent phenomenon in the movie business where the trailers are a synopsis of the movie. The trailer used to be a tool of the movie industry that showed you cool stuff and got you excited to see a movie.
I cannot tell you how many times I have been in a movie theater and watched a good trailer that got me "hooked" on the concept of a movie only to have it reveal every twist and turn. I have been left thinking that I no longer needed to see the actual movie.
It is now at the point where I will not watch movie trailers of movies I really want to see because I know it is going to tell me too much. A movie trailer should tell you no more about a movie than the inside cover of a book.
On the flip side, Medellín looks awesome!
You guys are absolutley right! Medellin does look incredible since the trailer leaked.
All those movies sucked bad. And the Medellin trailer was overrated. I can't wait to see the Simpson's movie though and it's trailer was weak.
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