# Misleading trailers that ruined the movie for you **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 6, 2010, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-trailers-that-ruined-the-movie-for-you/549466 "2010-08-06T23:35:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-trailers-that-ruined-the-movie-for-you/549466/101 "2010-08-15T02:09:04Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > should have read the book first I didn’t even know there was a book, it came out long after I was of the "young tweener " reading age. And that’s sort of beside the point. The OP doesn’t ask “why didn’t you like X movie” it’s asking about “Misleading Trailers”. ---
**Author:** ![MrK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@MrK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrK)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-trailers-that-ruined-the-movie-for-you/549466/102 "2010-08-15T04:34:24Z")
_Bridge to Teribithia_ for sure. It had to be a tough movie to market, but there is no hint of the real plot. Read the book aloud to my first class of seventh graders. It was quite an experience. At least I wasn’t the only male in the room crying so I didn’t look too much like a wuss. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-trailers-that-ruined-the-movie-for-you/549466/103 "2017-05-03T20:24:18Z")
I was thinking that there was a recent thread on deceptive trailers, but some googling proved it to be just a sub-thread on a thread about _Passengers_. This one is 7 years old, but still relevant, so… I watched Colossal last night. While the trailer didn’t “ruin” the movie, it was deceptive at a _Bridge to Terrabithia_ level. The trailers all imply a light rom-com with a zany kaiju twist. Instead, it is a dark movie about psychological and physical abuse between a screwed-up alcoholic and a seriously twisted jerk alcoholic with a zany kaiju twist. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2017, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-trailers-that-ruined-the-movie-for-you/549466/104 "2017-05-04T06:00:34Z")
Yes! My wife and I were in the mood for an off-beat comedy, and about 30 minutes from the end she had to walk out because it was too intense and unpleasant for her. Very misleading trailers. I thought of starting a thread here just to warn people. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2017, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-trailers-that-ruined-the-movie-for-you/549466/105 "2017-05-04T12:02:49Z")
A lot of movies slant the trailer to give a false impression in order to get the crowds in. One of the more blatant I recall was a trailer for **arachnophobia** that seems to have been put together with just about every shot of John Goodman from the film. It gave the impression that it was a Goodman-centric movie, although he’s not in the film very much at all. When I first saw the trailer for **Dark Star** , I got the impression that it was a monster-loose-on-the-spaceship film. Those scenes with the “beach ball” were actually tacked on to the original film in order to pad out the time and maker it an acceptable feature length. They’re not in the original student film at all. Interestingly, Ridley Scott (who directed it) and Dan O’Bannon (who wrote it, and played crewman “Pinback” in the scenes with the “beachball”) went on to respectively direct and write **Alien** , which was, of course, a Monster Loose on a Spaceship film. They musta wanted to do it all along. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2017, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-trailers-that-ruined-the-movie-for-you/549466/106 "2017-05-04T13:17:24Z")
Someone my kid’s age handed me the DVD of Fight Club and said “You need to watch this.” “Ewww, why do I want to watch two hours of sweaty guys beating each other up?” I’d still remembered the trailers that had kept me away from the movie, not only in theaters but in any form forever. Loved it. One of the most conceptually interesting movies ever. As that kid said, “It’s really two different movies. The one you see the first time, and the one you see when you re-watch it”. I’d recommend anyone who hasn’t seen it to watch it, twice. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2017, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-trailers-that-ruined-the-movie-for-you/549466/107 "2017-05-04T16:15:41Z")
Here’s what I posted in a similar thread a few years ago (slightly edited): The trailers for _The Bicentennial Man_ (1999) made it look like a stupid futuristic comedy with Robin Williams as a robot. I gave it a miss in theaters and it wasn’t until I saw it on cable years later that I realized it was based on an Isaac Asimov story _I had read._ I hadn’t made the connection to the title. In fact, the film was a fairly accurate and thoughtful adaptation of the story, about the struggle of a robot to understand what being human means, and ultimately to become human. It was nicely written and acted, and the ending was quite moving. But the moron marketing people positioned it as a comedy by excerpting just about the only 30 seconds of the film with any laughs. In so doing they drew in people looking for a comedy and undoubtedly disappointed most of them, since they probably weren’t looking for a 130-minute inquiry on human nature. The marketers also kept away the Asimov fans and others interested in the serious theme of the film. Thus, many of the people who saw the film didn’t like it, and many who would have liked it didn’t see it. Brilliant. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2017, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-trailers-that-ruined-the-movie-for-you/549466/108 "2017-05-04T18:25:40Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > When I first saw the trailer for **Dark Star** , I got the impression that it was a monster-loose-on-the-spaceship film. Those scenes with the “beach ball” were actually tacked on to the original film in order to pad out the time and maker it an acceptable feature length. They’re not in the original student film at all. Interestingly, Ridley Scott (who directed it) and Dan O’Bannon (who wrote it, and played crewman “Pinback” in the scenes with the “beachball”) went on to respectively direct and write **Alien** , which was, of course, a Monster Loose on a Spaceship film. They musta wanted to do it all along. Nitpick - **Dark Star** was directed by John Carpenter, not Ridley Scott. You got the Dan O’Bannon part right though. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2017, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-trailers-that-ruined-the-movie-for-you/549466/109 "2017-05-04T18:54:58Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > Nitpick - **Dark Star** was directed by John Carpenter, not Ridley Scott. You got the Dan O’Bannon part right though. But John Carpenter made The Thing so it’s all good. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2017, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-trailers-that-ruined-the-movie-for-you/549466/110 "2017-05-04T19:16:00Z")
BTW, looking back to the comments about _Bridge to Terabithia_ (from 7 years ago mumblemumble), my earliest exposure to that book was on an old PBS series in the late 70s or early 80s where a guy would draw illustrations from a book as he read aloud from it (the soundtrack recorded separately, of course.) Some googling provided the name of the series ([_Cover to Cover_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cover_to_Cover_%28PBS_program%29)) but it has little presence on-line except for [a handful of episodes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwoWGFZekOY) on Youtube. I’d like to find that specific episode again, but it looks like most of the series is pretty much lost. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2017, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-trailers-that-ruined-the-movie-for-you/549466/111 "2017-05-04T19:42:31Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > Nitpick - **Dark Star** was directed by John Carpenter, not Ridley Scott. You got the Dan O’Bannon part right though. Sorry 'bout that. I knew it, but my brain slipped. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2017, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-trailers-that-ruined-the-movie-for-you/549466/112 "2017-05-04T20:13:17Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Someone my kid’s age handed me the DVD of Fight Club and said “You need to watch this.” “Ewww, why do I want to watch two hours of sweaty guys beating each other up?” I’d still remembered the trailers that had kept me away from the movie, not only in theaters but in any form forever. > > Loved it. One of the most conceptually interesting movies ever. As that kid said, “It’s really two different movies. The one you see the first time, and the one you see when you re-watch it”. > > I’d recommend anyone who hasn’t seen it to watch it, twice. Yeah, I _really_ didn’t want to watch Fight Club when it first came out. Took some coaxing to get me to see it in the theater. I’m very glad I did. I can’t think of a specific movie off the top of my head, but a _lot_ of comedy films seem to put _every. single. joke._ into the trailer. It’s gotten to the point where I just don’t go see comedies if I’ve seen the trailer ahead of time. Of course, I don’t go to the theater all that often anymore, anyway. TV has gotten so good (and I love my home theater) that going to a movie theater is almost always an expensive step down in entertainment value these days. There are still good movies being made, but I’m not likely to hear about them during their theatrical run, because the big budget dreck gets all the promotion. I’m as big a fan of CGI explosions as the next fella, but I can only take so much guys, come on. So, I’ll just wait for people to filter out the junk for me, and catch it when it shows up on Netflix. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-trailers-that-ruined-the-movie-for-you/549466.md?page=5)