How Accurate Is Your Movie Trailer Assessment Skill?

I have to echo the question… what “trust” was violated, exactly? How is the basic premise of the movie a “spoiler” that you were “trusting” people not to talk about? What on earth could they have talked about if they’re not allowed to say anything about the movie the thread was about?

Is it a spoiler if I tell you “Saving Private Ryan” is a WWII movie?

I suck :frowning: I think every movie trailer looks great

I can definitely tell when a movie is going to be really bad. I can especially catch the times a comedy’s funniest gag is in the trailer.

What I’m not so good at is telling the really good movies from the could-have-been-great movies.

No matter what, though, I’m very happy with trailer-editing today, compared to 20-40 years ago. It’s hard to believe those were actually used to make people want to pay to see a movie.

You know I’m a sucker for special effects. Which is why I went to see “Clash of the Titans.” Boy! what a pile of suck that was! I’ve seen better acting and writing in porn movies.

The world of Sci Fi has been sucking lately. I hope we get some new talent to the big screen sometime soon.

To answer all three of you, I shouldn’t have used the word “trusting” because that implies that other people spoiled the movie for me by discussing what it was about, and they did not. You’re right, it’s irrational to expect such a thing. I should never have gone into that thread. It’s my own fault, because I didn’t think and I understand that. If there’s a thread that’s labeled “Super 8 (spoiler free)” I know not to go into the thread because of course people will talk about the premise, as they should. “Spoiler free” means “don’t give away the ending” not “don’t say anything about the plot.” I do realize that, just so you know. I misspoke. I made a big deal about it at the time, but I was wrong.

I have great trailer-fu when it comes to my personal enjoyment of a movie. I rarely see a movie that I don’t like, and that’s generally because it’s a sequel to one I did like, or was based on a book I liked. But I have very specific tastes, and know how to recognize what I will like in trailers (for example the words “thriller” or “thrilling” are big neon warning signs saying, “SpoilerVirgin will not like this movie”).

I do remember thinking that I would like Primal Fear because the trailer made it look like a courtroom drama, and then finding that it was too much of a thriller for my taste. (Heh, I see in the IMDB that one of the genres listed is “thriller” – if they’d said that in the trailer, I would have known better). Recently I was a little of wary of Hereafter because the trailer looked like it could have thriller elements, but it turned out to be very good (IMDB puts it in the “drama” and “fantasy” genres).

OTOH, my ability to judge what everyone else is going to like, in terms of box office success, or popular and critical acclaim, is not good at all.

Come to think of it, I’m pretty good at judging comedies by the trailer by this rule: the funniest joke(s) are in the trailer. Usually, if there are 3 funny jokes in the trailer, the rest of the movie must have more. However, if there’s only 1, that’s the only 1 in the entire movie.