Movie Trailers.... yay or nay?

[Frapalino]

It's not just the plot points or punch lines that are ruined by trailers. It spoils the whole feel of the film. The actors in it, the colors being used, the camera work. I just love to be absolutely surprised. The Pixar method is good but it still gives you a impression of what you think the movie should be before you ever see the thing.

Even with this amazing Psycho trailer. Although it does the job of a trailer perfectly to me it still gives away too much.

 

[Planet-man]

If it were up to you, I'd be watching a LOT less movies in a year.

Why? If you wanted to see a movie and there was no other way of telling, why would you choose to see nothing rather than the one that looked from those teasers?

You know, when it comes to trailers for things liks Star Trek and Watchmen, I don't think it would matter like at all

You've read Watchmen, you already know what to expect far more than any trailer might tell you.

Reading Watchmen isn't the same as having seen the movie. There are millions of ways they can do this film, its scenes, its effects, its atmosphere, that I want to be surprised by.

And the same thing goes for Star Trek

How? I know nothing about the plot of the Star Trek film.

I want to see the Starship Enterprise take off for the first time ever and think "WOW! That's one of the greatest things I've seen at the movies in AGES" and not "Man, that shot from the trailer looks a lot cooler on the big screen and in-context."

In general though, for bigger movies... Even Action/Superhero movies... I'd say it doesn't matter. For straight-drama's in particular, they can do great things with trailers.

Define 'great things'. As I said earlier, I fully agree that a trailer can be an awesome work of art on its own, but I don't want that at the cost of what it does to the movie.

You can do delicious things with a week-long pizza binge, but in the long run it's not worth the health problems.

It's not just the plot points or punch lines that are ruined by trailers. It spoils the whole feel of the film. The actors in it, the colors being used, the camera work. I just love to be absolutely surprised. The Pixar method is good but it still gives you a impression of what you think the movie should be before you ever see the thing.

Even with this amazing Psycho trailer. Although it does the job of a trailer perfectly to me it still gives away too much.

I still agree with this. The fairest comprimise I can hope for, industry wise, is the Pixar-type teaser, and I'd be happy enough with that, but IDEALLY for me, I'd still want to live in a world where I can go in just knowing the title. The Zemeckis story from my first post in the thread says it all.

 

[thee great one]

I don't mind movie trailers to a point. Comedies are the worst.


But I must of watched The Dark Knight trailer a hundred times.

 

[moonmaster]

I agree that trailers these days often ruin plot points or particularly effective moments that would be better seen in the actual film, but I still enjoy trailers.

For one thing, I love thinking about the quasi-artistic process that must go behind making them. Like, how do you convey the basic premise of a film and make people want to see it in the span of two minutes? Something like the Cloverfield trailer is an example of when the trailer reaches a level of being entertaining and exciting in and of itself. This didn't detract from the actual film more than just working too well and generating more buzz than the film could live up to.

The excitement is a big part of it too, at least for us nerds. I for one will wholeheartedly admit that I love the endless years of build-up before an event film, especially when the film pays off. Seeing The Dark Knight after all that anticipation and watching every bit of information released about the movie was like a ridiculous, long-delayed, nerd orgasm. And I can still remember spending hours trying to watch the Batman Begins trailer, my first glimpse of the movie, at frame-by-frame pace as my dial-up connection struggled to play it.

Most importantly and broadly, I just don't think you're looking at this logically, Planet-Man. The reason why people like Roger Ebert can hate trailers is because they're critics and they at least have to try to be objective in how they watch films. They can't buy into pre-film hype, or be influenced by it. Not to mention the fact that they already see most of what comes out, because that's their job.

Regular people have to actually choose what they want to see this weekend, and as romantic of a notion as it is, most people don't want to just walk into a theater and see a movie that they know nothing about in advance. People would base their film-watching decisions off of the people involved or the genre or whatever, and would actually become more limited in their taste. No one would have any reason to try out a movie that doesn't already fit their pre-designated ideas about what appeals to them. When I was 12 I saw the trailer for 28 Days Later in the theater and nearly had to leave. I didn't know who Danny Boyle was or what "Trainspotting" was or who any of the actors were and I hadn't even really begun to like zombie movies yet. I just knew that the movie looked like the scariest ****ing thing ever. Six years later and it's one of my favorite movies, the best horror film of the decade in my opinion.

The point is, trailers are advertisements for products, designed to appeal to audiences and encourage them to purchase the product being advertised. If you want to swear off trailers, that's cool. But you can't expect normal people to do the same when they don't have the time or money to spend on something they know nothing about.

Also: if you're looking for great trailers that don't spoil anything about the movie while generating sufficient interest, then this is perhaps the best -

[youtube]I6qDqdYY6-Y[/youtube]

Imagine what it must've been like to see that, how terrifying and mysterious the movie must've looked.

 

[Gemini]

I've gotta say

Cloverfield had the best trailer marketing I've ever seen

 

[Planet-man]

Moonmaster, you make tons of valid points, but most of them are just against the economic viability of going into all films completely blank-slated, which I've already admitted is all but a pipe-dream, for 'the masses' anyway.

Your experience with 28 Days Later... is valid, but was there really no way to make that look as utterly terrifying WIHTOUT showing the shocking empty-london footage or the ultra-creepy reverend attack? That's the kind of thing that when you see in a movie, should pull you into another world because you're so taken aback. The simple re-enforcing of expectations(because you saw it in the trailer) is inferior in comparison.

And anyway, that has more to do with 28 Days Later... being a phenomenally great movie than it does with the effects of trailer-giveaways. Like I said earlier, I knew like three of the five or so giant plot twists in Se7en and it's still one of my favourite films.

 

[Planet-man]

I would like to mention that when we saw Quantum Of Solace, neither the Watchmen or Star Trek trailers were with it. I did shut my eyes and plug my ears during Day The Earth Stood Still, though, because I'm almost definitely going to see it(and most definitely going to see the original for the first time since I was about 5 before that).

 

[TwilightEL]

As usual I wanted to make that poll a public-voter but forgot. D'oh. There should also probably be something like "The Pixar Option: I want to be shown the basic plot/genre/characters, but with absolutely no clips from the film itself".

Why is that a good thing?

To clarify, my point in this thread isn't against trailers as individual pieces of art on their own, which I love, it's against what they often do to the movies they represent.

I agree with Planet-man. I absolutely love going into a movie or book or whatever with NO idea what's about to happen, but for advertising purposes the Pixar style is best.

However, I love trailers on their own merits as individual works of art. I watch trailers for movies I've already seen. The first Watchmen trailer, for example, or these fanmade YouTube Heroes trailers that I'll dig up later. It's quite a conundrum.