Should You Avoid Trailers?

Truth be told – I don’t watch movie trailers. Other than the occasional advert that happens to cross my path on television while I’m lounging on a recliner, I have total a disinterest in them. But, “Oh!” you say, “What about the new Suicide Squad trailer?” Or “How about the upcoming reboot of the Star Wars franchise? Surely you must be interested in those teaser trailers?!” I couldn’t be more excited! I’m just not too keen on having my viewing experienced ruined by a 30 second clip trying to sell me a movie I was planning on seeing anyway.

It appears that the art of the of making a movie trailer is dead. Quite frankly, I suppose it hadn’t even started. As an avid movie viewer, a trailer is supposed to make you want to see the finished product; its job is to give you a summary of the film, getting you as emotionally invested as it can while not giving away major plot points. Although most trailers manage to be entertaining and just informative enough to keep the viewer interested, the unfortunate problems arise when you see too much of the plot.

Stop! Don’t Spoil It For Me!

Southpaw is directed by Antoine Fuqua and stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Rachel McAdams, 50 Cent and Forest Whitaker. The film is about a boxer that falls into a depression after his wife is murdered trying to stop a fight between him and an opposing boxer. This leaves him suicidal and out of his normal boxing form. His daughter then proceeds to get taken away from him for lack of safe living conditions, he must fight his way back into not only the ring, but also into his daughter’s life. How do I know that his wife gets murdered or that he tries to commit suicide? It’s in the trailer.

Initially, I thought the trailer was magnificent, the sound of Eminem’s Phenomenal pumping through my speakers, the gritty authenticity of the boxing world, the blood-stained mat of the boxing ring and its bright lights, the immense pressure one must feel.  Then the trailer ends – I felt satisfied; not the typical, “I am totally ready to see this,” kind of feeling, but one of, “Hm, I’ll catch it on FX when I have the time!” But no, this is not what I should be feeling, especially when Harvey Weinstein is betting on Gyllenhaal getting an Oscar nomination for his work. This was apparently going to be the next great redemption/boxing movie, I should be excited! Of all the movie trailers I choose to purposefully watch, this is the one that ruined my subsequent movie trailer watching experiences.

You see, the problem with this trailer is that there are no surprises left in the film. We know that his wife gets killed and that triggers his downfall. And in traditional sports movie fashion (or cliché I should say) the only thing left to see is if whether or not he will redeem himself – and based on the trailer, he’s shaping up to do just that. This is isn’t how you should sell a movie, but here’s how you should.

Marketing a Film Correctly

The Revenant is an upcoming action adventure western directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson and Will Poulter. DiCaprio stars as Hugh Glass, a 19th century frontiersman who is mauled by a bear and left for dead by his hunting partners. With a vindictive spirit, Glass finds the strength and the will power to not only care for his wounds and befriend friendly natives, he also manages to make the 200 mile trek back to nearest settlement to find who did this to him. Now, The Revenant’s trailer and Southpaw’s are complete opposites.

The trailer purposely leaves the plot ambiguous; unlike Southpaw, it doesn’t give away much that we don’t already know if you were to do a quick Wikipedia search of the titular character. As the trailer progresses, as a viewer, you’re not too sure what’s happening. You see DiCaprio getting spat on, running through trees, basically standing in brooding poses half the time. The music starts to swell, you hear heavy breathing, see intercuts of what looks like a series of important encounters, the music stops quickly and then the title card: The Revenant. I sat there watching in awe of the sweeping camera angles from Iñárritu, the incredible cinematography (which was all shot in natural light) from Emmanuel Lubezki, and an amazing score done by Graeme Revell. With the amount of trouble that has already plagued this production, the trailer looks like a miracle in itself. Now this is how you sell a movie.

Do you agree that trailers give away too much plot? Let me know in the comments!

(top image: Southpaw – source: The Weinstein Company)