One of the most effective ways to get people interested in seeing a specific movie is the trailer. It’s the commercial in which you show the most exciting/funny or scary parts in the hopes people will pay money to see your movie. It’s a commercial and the marketing will show you whatever which will get you in the cinema seats. This results in something which will mislead or even spoil a movie. For me it’s a reason to not watch any trailers anymore, but once in a while I check them out after I’ve seen a movie out of curiosity. This week’s question:
Which trailers do you think were misleading?
The first one I immediately can think of is that for The Grey. It sells the movie as an action packed movie where Liam Neeson fights with wolves. If you actually saw the movie you realise it’s not action packed at all and that there really isn’t that much fighting either.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRWF4cepn8U]
Recently I watched Cosmopolis, for which my review will appear later this week, and after seeing it I really wondered how this movie was marketed, because I really had troubles getting through it. This was the trailer for it:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WpEc-rJQ3s]
Reality is that it’s a long movie where there’s so much talking that I’m pretty sure that it’s something a lot of people won’t be able to enjoy.
There must tons of other trailers which you felt were wrongly representing the actual movie:
Which trailers do you think were misleading?
Definitely Cosmopolis. I was pretty hyped to see this movie and it was a complete waste of time.
Yeah, I had a hard time finishing it and still have to think about how to word that in my review of it.
I can’t think of a specific one but comedy trailers are very misleading. They always put the biggest laughs in the trailer, so you think it’s gonna be a laugh-riot and super hilarious but turns out it only causes some chuckles and smiles and few big laughs. Oh, I just thought of one. Looper. Same issue with The Grey. The trailer promised an action-packed movie and it wasn’t. It was rather talky.
Yeah, and because of that the jokes are not as funny anymore because you already know they are coming. Looper I have not seen yet (same with the trailer), so have expectations yet.
“Sweeny Todd” is a musical?
Interesting point. It was a Broadway musical long before it became a movie but in both cases it is more a hybrid horror play / movie which is unusual so I see your point.
I never saw the trailer for it (and haven’t watched the movie either). So they didn’t market it as a musical?
HAHA Trailers are very misleading at time. The latest for me was End of Watch… trailer = action cop thriller movie = character study with a little action at the end
Yeah, that’s really misleading Scott!
Lawless. The trailer got me pretty damn hyped. There were gangsters and things getting thrown down. It looked like a pretty thrilling bit of prohibition era film. Like a film version of Boardwalk Empire. Didn’t pull through at all!
Oh and those pesky Paranormal Activity trailers ALWAYS have clips that are never in the film! That’s just plain lies!
Saw the movie two weeks ago and hadn’t seen anything about it. Not having expectations I quite liked it (7/10), but can imagine it being disappointing if the trailer made it look like something else.
The Bridge to Terabithia! The film is a wonderfully heartfelt tale about everything childhood-related, with two kids dealing with bullying, parents, teachers, feeling isolated, and much more. Part of their lives involves coming up with a make-believe fairy tale world. The trailer shows nothing but this imaginary world, and makes the movie look like a Narnia-esque kiddie fantasy fluff. It’s kind of infuriating, because the film itself is delightful and unique.
That’s a movie I still have to check out. I think I have it around somewhere and the cover makes it look like a fantasy movie too, so interesting that it really is only a small part of it, but was marketed differently.
Oh, you have to see it. It’s an absolute gem of a movie.
Agree on The Grey!! totally misleading. I felt disappointed after seeing it
Even without having seen the trailer I was disappointed by it 🙂
lucky I saw it because my friend lent me the DVD, I dont have to spend money at all…or else I’ll terribly upset
The Drive trailer made it look like an average car chase movie when it was really much more.
It was indeed as there wasn’t that much chasing anyway…
I know the trailers for Catfish and Drive pissed off a lot of people. Both were pretty misleading, and someone even tried to sue Drive’s distributor for false advertising.
Yeah, I remember that story 🙂
I swear I DID NOT want to see The Grey at all. I was finally convinced by my Dad, and voila, it’s one of my favorite movies ever.
Wow! Just shows what a trailer can do…just try not watching them at all. I’m pretty sure it will increase your enjoyment of a lot of movies.
Not misleading, per se but I hated the trailer for Drive. Apparently so did some other people since that one lady was trying to sue the production company over it…
But if she sued she must have felt it was misleading….
I think in her claim she said she wanted constant car chases like Fast and Furious, I don’t really remember. I guess she was misled by the trailer
Seeking a Friend for the End of The World with Steve Carell caught many offguard as it switched from comedy as seen in the trailers to serious half way through. It’s hard to avoid the trailers when they play at least 10 minutes of them. I like heckling trailers for instance if a trailer just isn’t grabbing me and a character starts to say “Looking for …” I’ll say loud enough fro friends to hear “a better script” or “better acting”.
That’s funny 🙂 Personally I just don’t look at the trailers which play in front of movies. My friends don’t think it’s weird anymore when I look at the ground and plug my ears 😉
I have to ditto Eric on the Catfish one. As a matter of fact, it made my list in a post I did a while back about “Tricky Trailers” ( http://wp.me/pWaTa-PJ ) To that, I’d also add Jarhead. Expected a war movie…got something FAR different.
Great question!
So it seems I’m not the only one feeling mislead about trailers. Of course a movie needs marketing, but why do a lot of them just create false expectations. It can only damage the reputation of a director/studio…
I’ve stopped watching trailers altogether Nostra but I do like your idea of going back over them once you’ve seen the actual movie. I must try that. Thanks man.
We are some of the only ones that don’t seem to watch them Mark. Happy to have found someone else who doesn’t watch trailers. I will do it a bit more just to see the difference between them.
Yeah, I think i’ll start doing that. I’ve even got the stage where i’ll go into the cinema late, just to avoid them.
Hi, Nostra and company:
I determined years ago that the majority of a film’s Money Shots wound up in their trailers. To the point that if you paid some attention and applied imagination. You’d basically had seen the film within three to five minutes.
Remembering what was in the trailer when seeing the film later on DVD. I was vindicated a large majority off the time.
Sadly, most trailers today lack continuity and focus on action or expensive Special Effects scenes. (Avatar’ leaps to mind!) Making them a hodgepodge that dazzle, titillate the senses, but define little.
Securing my Soap Box.
Carry on.
Yeah Jack, that’s the feeling I started to get a long time ago and the reason I stopped watching them. It’s so refreshing to walk into a movie without expectations.
I can’t say I’ve found misleading trailers to be an issue quite so much as how they give every freaking thing away. It drives me nuts, seriously.
That was the main reason to stop watching them, so know how you feel!