We’ve all gotten excited over movie trailers, only to rush out to see the actual film and be bitterly disappointed (I’m looking at you, Phantom Menace). But I’m at a loss to recall any instances where the trailer was horrible, but the film itself was actually really good. Can anyone think of any examples?
I’m guessing in most cases it would be that the film was poorly marketed – presented as a bubbly romantic comedy, for instance, when it was actually a complex character drama. (Like Shining, but for real.)
Happens all the time. Moonlight Mile is a really good movie with a dumb trailer. Also, I wouldn’t have seen Three Kings if I hadn’t been dragged by a Marky Mark fangirl.
I had no desire to see Fight Club after having seen two trailers that made it look like a brutal macho beat-em-up movie. Finally I watched it on cable, and was astounded to learn that it was far from being the mindless piece of junk that the trailers had implied it was.
I didn’t see the movie, but the trailer for Journey to the Center of the Earth was one of those where you feel like you’ve seen all the surprising/interesting parts by the end.
The trailer for Stranger than fiction made it out to be a standard Will Ferrell fails-at-comedy affair. It was in fact an incredibly funny and also tragic film that had me in tears at one point.
Star Wars
When I first saw the trailer in January of 1977, I was underwhelmed. The special effects looked OK, but the color seemed muddy, making everything look cloudy (bad print?), the music was not the John Williams score that would eventually be used, but some dark, brooding music. And instead of that stand-out yellow-neon-against-black logo, they had some nondescript type font in blue spelling out “Star Wars” It did NOT make me want to go out and see the film.
Terminator
As I’ve said before, the trailers I saw didn’t convey anything of the film. I thought it would be people in rubber masks running around LA and shooting each other up.
Then I went to the theater, saw the opening shots before the title, and realized I was in for something good.
RoboCop
Again, the trailer didn’t give you an idea of how literate the film would be – it looked like a broadly-played farce.
Dark City, which had an awesome trailer, was surpassed by its film quite a bit. The trailer was just a deep electronic beat, intercut with shots from the film. Confusing, but brilliant. The movie was even better.
