The trailers that promised more than they could deliver

johnny_ultimate · 14-09-2010 4:58pm #1

Inspired by the recent Star Wars thread, thought this was an interesting subtopic that came up when discussing Episode I. For all who haven't seen it, here's the epic teaser trailer for the film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6hOlI9cg4o

Wow that looks great! Shame the film is a load of arse. The epic music cues, the fantastic CGI, the brief glances at Pod Racing and the mercifully brief glances at Jar Jar Binks etc... It built a hype that the film never delivered on. The final product was full of hokey dialogue, dull storytelling and Jar Jar Binks. Trailer is almost more exciting than the actual thing!

Saw the Watchmen trailer again in work yesterday, and there's another film that promised a hell of a lot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4blSrZvPhU

Again, very strong hints of what worked well in the final product. Loyalty to the comic, great character design, and Rorscach's epically delivered final line. However, and I know not everyone would agree with this, it also hints at the problems that would plaque Snyder's adaptation, mainly Snyder himself. Ozymandias' overly dramatic pauses and poses, for example, was to be fairly representative of the stylisation that would be overdone in the film itself, and the weird music choices didn't work so well in the film itself (bar The Times they Are A Changin': that scene would have made a great trailer too). Film divided audiences, but the trailer is pretty frickin' great.

And finally... Godzilla (1998).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjKeNVLRuWU

I'm a big fan of trailers that focus on one scene, as supposed to the ones that spoil every major plot point about the film. So this really works, establishing Godzilla's arrival and offering - appropriately - teasing glances at the (for the time) great effects. Film was a bit of a joke, ultimately, but this trailer gets the spectacle the film rarely produced down to a tee.

Any other trailers that ultimately led to disappointment? Try to keep the youtube links to two or three per post, otherwise we'll have one hell of an unwieldy thread!

Bartel · 14-09-2010 5:37pm

300. Great trailer, which showed all the best parts of the film. All you were left with was a load of beardy guys SHOUTING AT EACH OTHER!!! Huge disappointment.

storm2811 · 14-09-2010 6:14pm

Funny people, just can't get over how much of a disappointment that film was!

The trailer made me think it would be funny, so of course I watched it hoping for laughs but was met with something that was a mix between a half arsed sob story and a handful of laughs.

Handsome Bob · 14-09-2010 8:06pm

Even though I liked Terminator Salvation, I can accept it wasn't as good as I hoped it would be. The trailer was fantastic IMO, with a nice blend of action and drama. Apparently the a lot of stuff was cut out though so maybe that explains the lukewarm final product.

Mark Hamill · 14-09-2010 9:31pm

The trailers for the transformers movies were miles better than the films themselves. This one, my favourite, actually makes the film seem quite suspenseful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYitED2mmKw

Goldstein · 14-09-2010 10:03pm

LZ5by5 wrote: »

Even though I liked Terminator Salvation, I can accept it wasn't as good as I hoped it would be. The trailer was fantastic IMO, with a nice blend of action and drama. Apparently the a lot of stuff was cut out though so maybe that explains the lukewarm final product.

That's the first one that came to mind. Trailer 3 was exceptional, really well paced too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owrEMGg4x3M

Nine Inch Nails might be partially to blame for this one, as with "The Day the World Went Away" as your backing track, anything would look epic.

They synchronised the track and the trailer very well when Bale dropped the chain that was holding Marcus' head.

I've seen it and was fairly disappointed but that trailer has just fooled me again, that's how good it is.

PerrinV2 · 14-09-2010 11:07pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maPFhlFfJG8

Haven't time to list reasons now but the pure epicness of the trailer compared to the final product.

MisterAnarchy · 15-09-2010 11:58am

I'd say 80-90% of trailers promise more than they can deliver .

Necronomicon · 15-09-2010 7:07pm

AVP:Requiem springs immediately to mind. I was so giddy after the R-rated trailer was released, I must have watched it ten times that day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lQOvgG9P3M

15-09-2010 8:08pm

storm2811 wrote: »

Funny people, just can't get over how much of a disappointment that film was!

The trailer made me think it would be funny, so of course I watched it hoping for laughs but was met with something that was a mix between a half arsed sob story and a handful of laughs.

Supposedly it wasn't marketed as a comedy in the States, it was only here that it was.

Magic Eight Ball · 16-09-2010 8:47am

'Inglourious Basterds'
The trailer promised a 'men on a mission' movie akin to the Dirty Dozen.
We unfortunately got.. er.. something else. :rolleyes:

D-Generate · 16-09-2010 10:12am

Necronomicon wrote: »

AVP:Requiem springs immediately to mind. I was so giddy after the R-rated trailer was released, I must have watched it ten times that day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lQOvgG9P3M

This looks amazing! I have to watch it! I know I am going to be disappointed immensely but damnit that trailer if fantastic!

MetzgerMeister · 16-09-2010 11:24am

Perrier's Bounty

Trailer showed a lot of action scenes and made Bredan Gleeson look like a right thug! The film itself was pretty boring to sa
y the least!

Funny People

As above, trailer showed very funny bits including:

George: I liked you in that movie
Doctor: which one?
George: the one where you tried to kill Bruce Willis

This wasn't even included in the final film! With this said, I did enjoy this film for what it was.

Watchmen

Trailers promised it to be a good action film. IMHO, it was anything but! Very dragged out and I was bored after an hour.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

mike65 · 16-09-2010 11:38am

Trailers are designed to get you in, not represent the truth!

16-09-2010 7:53pm

I thoroughly enjoyed Funny People because I had not seen any trailers so didn't know anything about it before going in. There were some great comedy scenes, but it was also a very bittersweet movie.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow had a pretty cool trailer, but the movie itself was terrible.