(Ed note: This article will discuss key moments in some movies. Some are much older movies, so if this article spoils the movie for you, too bad, ya shoulda watched it already! But some are more recent. Care will be taken to avoid outright spoiling big plot points, but since these scenes were in the trailers, they’re spoiled already. Still, consider this a blanket spoiler warning.)
I’m a huge movie buff and love the cinema. When trailers are released for upcoming movies, I immediately go to YouTube to see them. But something been bugging me for a while. A lot of trailers nowadays show you pretty much everything and don’t really hide anything. I’m a little excited when I start to watch a trailer. But once you see it, odds are you already know what’s going to happen. Is it worth buying a ticket to see the move after that?
I’m not the only one worried about that. Someone took to Twitter and asked Rian Johnson, the director for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, if she should avoid watching the trailer. His answer confirms my fear:
“I am legitimately torn. If you want to come in clean, absolutely avoid it. But it’s gooooood….”
I a legitimately torn. If you want to come in clean, absolutely avoid it.
But it’s gooooood….. https://t.co/Y29K5yz8i4
— Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) October 8, 2017
It makes me miss the 80’s when a trailer would usually show you what you need to see without showing so much. The narrator was some deep-voice movie guy who told you what’s up but gave you nothing. That would draw me to the movie, making me want to see it.
Some trailers back then still spoiled bits of the movie. Rocky IV’s trailer showed Apollo Creed’s death. But those didn’t happen often. And since there was no YouTube back then, people only got to see trailers in theaters or on TV.
I miss going to see the movie with pretty much no knowledge and not knowing what’s going to happen. But now we get these trailers that pretty much shows everything, even the climax fight or last scene. You watch it and you already have an idea about who’s who and what’s going to happen. When that happens, you lose interest. The hype is mostly gone and you’re pretty much watching the movie with part of the hype gone.
If this trend upsets you, too, you must be asking, “Why do they do this” or “Why show so much?” The movie studios have an answer for all of us: because we want it! Trailer directors often say that moviegoers want to see dramatic moments in the trailers. That was the excuse Matt Brubaker, president of Trailer Park, used when he defended the spoiling of Rachel McAdams’s character’s death in Southpaw.
“There was a lot of discussion internally whether to show the death of the wife,” Brubaker said at the time. “But it was decided to show more of the good, so to speak. People have felt burned in the past. If someone’s going to pay $20 to go on opening weekend to see this movie, they want to know that they are making a pretty good investment.”
That makes a little bit of sense I guess. They think we like it because we don’t want to waste our money on a bad movie. And I know some do like seeing a lot. But not all, and not the biggest parts. Did I need to see the literal last scene in the trailer for Quarantine? Was it necessary for me to see the big twist in Terminator: Genisys? If you use the logic that Brubaker uses, seeing the trailer should’ve helped us decide if the movies were good. But the trailers literally showed the best parts of both movies. They both sucked! So if anything, the trailers were made to lie to us!
Another thing that ruins the anticipation of movies is the number of trailers that are made. I’ll be ok with one trailer or even two, but not three or four like most Marvel and DC movies release. Keep it simple and make people want to come to the theaters and enjoy the movie. You don’t have to ram a half dozen trailers down our throats. By the time the movies come out, I’m literally exhausted from all the marketing shit and just want to get it over with!
The new Star Wars: The Last Jedi trailer is going to hit today. The director just warned us all that it will spoil something. That shit scares me. Now I’m worried that I’ll accidentally see it and have the movie ruined for me. I say just tease us only and don’t show it all. Don’t spoil the villain like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice did. Don’t spoil the final fight like Wonder Woman and Spider-Man: Homecoming did. And we don’t need to see a major death like Amazing Spider-Man 2 did. Shit, I practically saw everything important in Annabelle: Creation just from the trailer! We don’t need to see any of that before we see the movie.
For those in the movie industry reading this, STOP! Thank you for providing us these trailers, but we don’t need everything. Keep us wanting more and make us buy tickets and see these movies you make cleanly. The more you show, the more we will lose interest and say, “Fuck it! I’ll wait till it comes out and rent it or bootleg it.” Bring back the deep-voiced movie guy and give us fewer spoilers.
Here’s my slogan: LET’S MAKE TRAILERS GREAT AGAIN!! I swear I didn’t rip it off from anyone else’s slogan. For those reading this, pass it on and share it. I want this to spread like wildfire! Share it with all and all. I want to hear what you think and want to add. Let me see what you got to say! I really want to know your thoughts about this.
