What's your thoughts on movie trailers?

NachoBusiness

I try to avoid as much as possible as I find the ruin my enjoyment of a film. Especially comedies, as quite often most of the best jokes are in the trailer. Sometimes if someone tells me a trailer is good and doesn't reveal much at all, I'll watch it, but such trailers are as rare as hen's teeth.

What has me starting this thread is that last night I went to see a film (15 mins after start time, as that tends to be when the trailers are finished at this cinema) and walked right in just before the last one and it was for Southpaw.

Now, I've been looking forward to this film for ages but thought shag it, I'll watch it, might not give away much. Well, it did, a lot. So many plot points are revealed. Why do this. So damn annoying. Surely they could edited together something that wouldn't reveal so much and which would entice just as many people to go see it.

Here is that trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knZK6wd6qHU

So few questions on this..

Do you watch trailers or do you try and avoid them?

Do you feel they ad to your viewing pleasure of a movie or detract from it?

And can you think of any good examples of trailers that DID reveal too much?

MarkY91

NachoBusiness wrote: »

I try to avoid as much as possible as I find the ruin my enjoyment of a film. Especially comedies, as quite often most of the best jokes are in the trailer. Sometimes if someone tells me a trailer is good and doesn't reveal much at all, I'll watch it, but such trailers are as rare as hen's teeth.

What has me starting this thread is that last night I went to see a film (15 mins after start time, as that tends to be when the trailers are finished at this cinema) and walked right in just before the last one and it was for Southpaw.

Now, I've been looking forward to this film for ages but thought shag it, I'll watch it, might not give away much. Well, it did, a lot. So many plot points are revealed. Why do this. So damn annoying. Surely they could edited together something that wouldn't reveal so much and which would entice just as many people to go see it.

Here is that trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knZK6wd6qHU

So few questions on this..

Do you watch trailers or do you try and avoid them?

Do you feel they ad to your viewing pleasure of a movie or detract from it?

And can you think of any good examples of trailers that DID reveal too much?

I seen the trailer for southpaw. Seems a typical boxing movie like rocky but more gritty. I can't wait to see it in Friday though with my large popcorn

NachoBusiness

MarkY91 wrote: »

I seen the trailer for southpaw. Seems a typical boxing movie like rocky but more gritty. I can't wait to see it in Friday though with my large popcorn

Ah yeah, don't get me wrong, still well looking forward to it..

Just wish I didn't know what I now know (just a personal thing, always preferred knowing as little as possible). Usually I would just stick my earphones in during the trailers and check emails or something until the film comes on, but phone was out of charge.

I think it stems back to my teens in video shops when most of the time all the info you would to make your selections were a box cover, few lines of the back and line a of blurb on the front. Love watching a film knowing as little as possible.

Seen the Brian Wilson biopic last week like that and loved it.

AMKC

I quite enjoy watching trailers. Especiely in the cinema as you never know what the trailers will be. It also gets you worked up for the film. I enjoy watching a film much better when I have seen a trailer or two compared to when I have not seen any. If there is a film I am really mad about do I will wait till I have seen the film before looking at the trailers.
Some cinema have trailers on for 15mins and some for 20mins.

don ramo

i think it a mixed bad, some can be good, and do just enough to whet your appetite, and then some take the complete piss and give away more or less the entire film, most recently id say the last trailer for terminator genesis gave away way to many plot point, and one pretty big twist that probably would have been a much bigger deal if it wasnt given away in the trailer,

sure they have full lenght trailers for batman vs superman and suicide squad which arent out till next march and august, Quentin Tarantinos hateful 8 is out in january and all we have is a cover photo, i mean WTF, what goes through these people heads, we know its coming, you dont need an 18 month build up campaign, i mean jurassic world has made 1.5 billion dollars at the box office and only released its first proper trailer in fubruary,

its simply all over the place, theres no consistency, one thing i try my best to stick with is to avoid any trailers released within 2 months of a films release, its rare that a lot of the film is given away in earlier trailers, but anything you see in that window is more than likely gonna hand feed you the main story, and sure once you know that you could probably edit the film yourself, whats the point,

i think all trailers should be limited to 90 seconds, and thats it, if you cant justify your 2 hour film in 90 seconds then you dont deserve my money,

EoghanIRL

There are different types of trailers in my opinion.
Some of the ones I find annoying include:


Selectively edited trailers - making bad movies look good.

Trailers that give away nearly the entire plot.

Trailers that reveal too little and you decide not to go to the cinema to see it..
Watch it after it is released from the cinema and it's brilliant.

PetiteandSweet

I go to the cinema a lot (I have a membership card for a certain chain that makes it worth it to see almost everything) and I feel like I've seen Southpaw already. I'll only be going to find out who wins the fight at the end because I pretty much know the whole story inbetween!

This drives me insane. The massive plot twist in Terminator Genysis was in the trailer most recently which really ruined it and the current Mission Impossible trailer shows the aftermath of a life-or-death bit that would be really suspense filled otherwise. Hard to avoid trailer spoilers without being one of those people who turn up when its already dark and can't find their seats.

Dirty Dingus McGee

The trailers they play in the cinema are way too long and give away far too much information.

I really don't like knowing anything about a film , I like to go in fresh.

If you read the back for a book it ruins a fair proportion of it as well.

Skill Magill

You're right OP, they give far too much away, can't abide them. I also only look at the last paragraph of a review if I intend watching the film, at this stage the reviewer is generally telling you whether its worth a watch or not. I'd also go by star ratings, which can be a bit hit or miss tbh.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Skill Magill wrote: »

You're right OP, they give far too much away, can't abide them. I also only look at the last paragraph of a review if I intend watching the film, at this stage the reviewer is generally telling you whether its worth a watch or not. I'd also go by star ratings, which can be a bit hit or miss tbh.

As much as I like reading reviews of films after I've seen them I've never really understood the purpose of them before you have seen a film as it is impossibel to properly review a film withut giving away a alarge amount of the plot.No key twists etc might be given away but anything other than giving a brief description of the film (i.e its a thriller) can act as a spoiler for me.

All I do now before thinking of going to the cinema is check Rotten Tomatoes and the rating the film has and I used to check Roger Ebert's website (before he passed away).

.ak

Used to be my favourite thing to browse Apple Trailers and watch the latest trailers, but now I tend to avoid them. Too much reveal. The art of teasing and building hype is lost on many.

Fysh

The job of a trailer is to try and make you watch the film, so obviously it's going to focus on the good stuff (even if that's misrepresenting the quality of the film). They're hardly going to release a trailer saying "actually, this is a turd so you may as well skip it".

My issue is that these days I prefer teaser trailers - I want something that pitches the film to me, without actually telling me everything that's going to happen. Apparently there are significant numbers of people who decide to see a film based on the 2-minute condensed version of it they see as a trailer; if this wasn't the case, it wouldn't be the most common format for trailers.

Personally I happily watch teaser trailers, or trailers for films I know I'm not particularly pushed about seeing. I avoid trailers for films I know I want to watch because I prefer going in fresh first time around.

McLoughlin

One trailers that cause allot of hassle was Sweeney Todd from what i can remember the trailer had no music in it at all which led to quite a few complaints in my local cinema on the first weekend it was shown.

NachoBusiness

Fysh wrote: »

The job of a trailer is to try and make you watch the film, so obviously it's going to focus on the good stuff (even if that's misrepresenting the quality of the film). They're hardly going to release a trailer saying "actually, this is a turd so you may as well skip it".

SouthTippBass

Recent examples of bad trailers are Terminator Genisis, pretty much giving away the ENTIRE plot, and The Martian trailer really annoyed me as well

if I can't figure out how to make contact with NASA, none of this matters anyway.....contacts NASA 3 seconds later. wtf?

So yes, I have given up watching trailers. I didn't watch the trailer for Ant-man which I saw this week, and it was a more enjoyable film for it.

Exclamation Marc

The most ridiculous trailer of all time in terms of spoiling was The Fast and Furious 6. It shows every single set piece and key plot point of the film including the big set piece ending AND the aftermath of the ending, its bonkers! I'm also fairly sure that it was in chronological order as well.

Another top shout for awful spoiling was Unknown with Liam Neeson where I was able to call more or less 95% of the film on the trailer itself as it gave away everything again.

I try to not watch trailers too much anymore as like others have said, the marketing departments of the studios are absolutely ruining films. I listened to a podcast recently where it highlighted how trailers are now compiled exclusively by marketing departments who care only for bums on seats and directors becoming infuriated about trailers as key plot twists are revealed just to get people in the door.

I wish all trailers could be put out by the guys who did the trailer for Inside/Out. It's a fantastic trailer; really funny and simply a long scene that shows so much, sets up the general device of the film but that reveals nothing to do with the story itself.

Bacchus

Trailers often give away too much and I think there is a slight correlation between how concerned a studio is about a movie performing at the Box Office and how much they give away. Case in point, the recent Terminator movie gives away the big twist of the movie in the trailer!

There was a trailer for FF before Ant-Man last night. I've seen 2 trailers for it already, the first gave away little and looked great. The second laid out of a lot of the plot beats and pretty much turned me off the movie. After the trailer last night, I feel like I got a 2 for 1 deal at the cinema so much of FF was shown.

e_e

FireballPitcher wrote: »

The most ridiculous trailer of all time in terms of spoiling was The Fast and Furious 6. It shows every single set piece and key plot point of the film including the big set piece ending AND the aftermath of the ending, its bonkers! I'm also fairly sure that it was in chronological order as well.

The year F&F 6 came out I was at JDIFF at the surprise film, they played a few trailers beforehand (a way of saying this isn't what it will be) and the audience broke into applause at the end of that one. We all felt like we'd seen the whole movie and loved it.

User45701

ye i don't watch trailers for films i want to see anymore and havent for years now.

which is really annoying as i use google news/ yahoo news ect and news stories containing spoilers about characters showing up, the one i see the most is "shocking departure/death of X"

ill quite often watch the first 20-30 seconds of a trailer for a comedy but then cover the ears and close the eyes because they spoil everything funny

i never watch trailers online for new movies, i do sometimes for a TV show but only season 1 / new shows. never for returning series.

Ive have left the cinema if a trailer for a film i really want to see comes on

dreamers75

I watch trailers for movies I have no interest in (then decide if i watch it or not), but avoid the ones for movies I am interested.

So they do what they are supposed to for me (or not).

NachoBusiness

Oh and meant to say also, I don't read threads here or elsewhere on movies until I've seen them also.

I know people spoiler stuff, but on big films I'm really looking forward to.. I just rather not take the risk.

Drumpot

Southpaw trailer was a joke. Maybe it works for the masses but it was one of the reasons I am not bothering to go and see it in the cinema

I suppose, as a sub thread, can you imagine they applied the same kind of trailers to all movies:

trailer taglines


Empire strikes back: "

Imagine a villain who is your father and severs parts of your body

"
E.T.: "

Its about a boy who befriends and protects an alien until it can get home

".
The Usual Suspects : "

Imagine a villain who could pretend he was a cripple

!"

Then they just get really lazy:

Titanic: "

"If you thought Leonardo Di Caprio wouldn't die in a movie . . Think again! "

"

Armageddon: "

"If you thought Bruce Willis wouldn't die in a movie . . Think again! "

"

Skyfall: "

"If you thought Judy Dench wouldn't die in a movie . . Think again! "

"

Mizu_Ger

McLoughlin wrote: »

One trailers that cause allot of hassle was Sweeney Todd from what i can remember the trailer had no music in it at all which led to quite a few complaints in my local cinema on the first weekend it was shown.

This is like how a lot of American trailers for foreign language films have a voice over and never show anyone speaking. As if they are trying to trick people into believing its in English language.

TerrorFirmer

Bacchus wrote: »

Trailers often give away too much and I think there is a slight correlation between how concerned a studio is about a movie performing at the Box Office and how much they give away. Case in point, the recent Terminator movie gives away the big twist of the movie in the trailer!

There was a trailer for FF before Ant-Man last night. I've seen 2 trailers for it already, the first gave away little and looked great. The second laid out of a lot of the plot beats and pretty much turned me off the movie. After the trailer last night, I feel like I got a 2 for 1 deal at the cinema so much of FF was shown.

I feel the very same about FF, I really liked the initial trailer, but the new trailer gave so much away I'm thinking I won't bother going to see it.

The biggest joke of a trailer in recent times was the one for Terminator: Genisys - it was like a movie summary for those who weren't bothered watching it.

chanelfreak

I'm in the minority here so. I love film trailers but then again, I'm the type of person who actively seeks out spoilers and often reads the last page in a book when I'm only a chapter or so in - I don't really like surprises!