Misleading previews

[MovieAddict]

Just posting on The Hobbit Trailer string and made me think how I've been led astray more than once by a good preview.

One that jumps into mind is The Phantom Menace...when I saw that preview I was so pumped for the movie...only to be bitterly disappointed when it movie finally came out. I actually fell asleep the first time I say it.

I have faith in Peter Jacksons managment of the material so likely a phantom snoozer wont be the case for Hobbit.

What preview horror stories do you have?

[mkiker2089]

I haven't seen Be Kind, Rewind however I know that the trailer is the best of the movie.

One annoying thing is when trailers have scenes not in the movie. I've seen that quite a few times.

Then there's the flip side where a trailer sucks but the movie turns out to be good. Phantom of the Paradise springs to mind on that one however I saw it long before I looked up the trailer so I can't be impartial. Pirates 4 trailer would be another example for me. It didn't capture the mood of the film at all.

[mavrach]

Well for bad movies, it's the trailers job to mislead you to think it's a good movie. Phantom Menace had one of the greatest trailers I've ever seen. The trailer gave us the movie we wanted to see, without the silliness that bogged down the final product. I don't think it was a misleading trailer because it did show you what the movie was about. No trailer can depict poor pacing of a movie either.

My pet peeve is when a trailer sums up the entire movie. Iron Man 2 and Rise of the Planet of the Apes both had that problem. So when I finally go to see the movie, I knew every beat before it happened. It's bad enough that my brain is already turned off during these that I don't get any plot surprises either.

Or when trailers give away spoilers. I try not to watch trailers repeatedly because if I remember them too well, I'll piece them in when I watch the movie and see things coming.


As far as the trailer depicting something different from the final product:

Inglourious Basterds - The trailer sold it as a ragtag group of soldiers moving through Germany and executing Nazis. Turns out that was just a part of the movie. Most people who saw this were pleasantly surprised.

The Iron Giant - This was a bit of a tough sell, but I think this one bombed because it looked too much like a disposable kids movie, as opposed to a movie with a message that can reduce an adult to tears. I don't know how you could convey that effectively with a trailer though.

[mavrach]

One annoying thing is when trailers have scenes not in the movie. I've seen that quite a few times.

An odd thing I remember from Star Trek: First Contact is an alternate take. Picard saying "The line must be drawn here[/b] in the trailer is different from the one in the final movie. Back then I was so excited to see it that I rewatched the trailer dozens of times before it came out, so to this day I still expect the trailer's line reading to come out. I've never noticed that on any other movie.

[mkiker2089]

One annoying thing is when trailers have scenes not in the movie. I've seen that quite a few times.

An odd thing I remember from Star Trek: First Contact is an alternate take. Picard saying "The line must be drawn here[/b] in the trailer is different from the one in the final movie. Back then I was so excited to see it that I rewatched the trailer dozens of times before it came out, so to this day I still expect the trailer's line reading to come out. I've never noticed that on any other movie.

I've seen it quite often. Either the scenes are different or they are cut to make them seem different.

Spiceworld - had jokes that were actually a little funny, most of which weren't in the movie
Hugo - has action scenes cut together to make it seem as if there is a chase involving both kids, Chloe's falling off a chair is cut to look as is she is falling down stairs, and a few examples that escape me now
Star Trek (Abrams version) - well that had a lot of effects shots that either weren't in the movie or were trimmed down.


Most are less obvious however. Such as Monster Inc. which put all the good jokes into one Benny Hill style montage (fast running chase scene.) I'm not counting teaser trailers since those are cut by design to be a glimpse rather than a full preview.

I'm sure there are many more and better examples but I'm sleepy now. I used to work at a theatre so I got a fair amount of experience reading trailers. It's often what they don't tell you that is important. Such as the Prometeus trailer looks good, but it doesn't tell you anything. That's OK since it's a teaser, but if the full trailer is similar we may be in trouble.

[Mach6]

Highlander Endgame: I didn’t have the “pleasure” of seeing it at the theater but I’ll never forget reading Roger Ebert’s Q & A in the Sun Times & somebody wrote in that most of the scenes in the trailer weren’t in the movie. Bruce Payne/Kell’s magical/supernatural abilites & Connor & Duncan MacLeod jumping through portals are not in the theatrical cut. Then, I heard that all those scenes were shot specifically for the trailer! It’s one thing to suggest a different type of tone for a movie with the usual trailer editing; it’s another to completely deceive the fans with scenes that were never intended for the movie. A total bush league & low class move there.

[hoytereden]

Trailers aren't the only movie product guilty of misleading the audience. Posters, especially those wonderfuly lurid '50s sci-fi and horror titles, promised a lot more than they delivered. A classic example is the poster art from Curucu, Beast of the Amazon which probably got a lot of kids in the theater, myself included, but the film itself-Phew!

[mkiker2089]

Trailers aren't the only movie product guilty of misleading the audience. Posters, especially those wonderfuly lurid '50s sci-fi and horror titles, promised a lot more than they delivered. A classic example is the poster art from Curucu, Beast of the Amazon which probably got a lot of kids in the theater, myself included, but the film itself-Phew!

There was a Vincent Price poster that had a light saber on it. I think it was supposed to be a laser shooting from a small device but it looked like the inspiration for George Lucas. Not to sidetrack but someone once had a list of everything Lucas has done (including trademarks) and where it actually came from.

Anyway, I remembered another example. Roger Corman used to use a helicopter crash in all his movie trailers. He paid to have the scene made for one movie and put it in all his trailers regardless of content. The man is seriously frugal. He bought a warehouse, turned it into a town mock up, made many movies there, and sold it to a full fledged studio for a hefty profit.

[corkbouy]

One annoying thing is when trailers have scenes not in the movie. I've seen that quite a few times.

An odd thing I remember from Star Trek: First Contact is an alternate take. Picard saying "The line must be drawn here[/b] in the trailer is different from the one in the final movie. Back then I was so excited to see it that I rewatched the trailer dozens of times before it came out, so to this day I still expect the trailer's line reading to come out. I've never noticed that on any other movie.

The Dark Knight features this as well, especially the Joker's lines. Whether they used different takes for the dialogue in the trailer or manipulated in editing, I'm not sure. I ended up watching that trailer so many times, the final film seemed 'off' to me at certain points!

[Dunnyman]

Trailers aren't the only movie product guilty of misleading the audience. Posters, especially those wonderfuly lurid '50s sci-fi and horror titles, promised a lot more than they delivered. A classic example is the poster art from Curucu, Beast of the Amazon which probably got a lot of kids in the theater, myself included, but the film itself-Phew!

I like the "targeted" trailers. If you saw the railer for The English Patient during an NFL game, you saw all 6.3 seconds of the actual war scenes. You go see the flick and find out it's a horribly boring talk-fest when you were expecting, oh, I dunno, an actual war movie. The trailers that played during other TV showed it as it was, boring as hell with zero war scenes to lure in the women who would (presumably) be thrilled with a glacially paced snooze-fest.
Only once though have I ever been mad when a trailer scene never showed up and that was during the movie Radio. In the trailer you see where he's in class and answering a question asked by the coach (who back then coaches also taught other classes), but it shows up nowhere in the movie, nor did any of Radio's "education", which to me, missed a huge part of the story's emotional weight.

Now though, I simply don't even trust a trailer for any "blockbuster" films, they all mislead you.

A goofy side note to trailers is how many many of them feature Orff's "Oh Fortuna", but never in the actual film. That's just bizarre.

[Gabriel Girard]

A goofy side note to trailers is how many many of them feature Orff's "Oh Fortuna", but never in the actual film. That's just bizarre.

They also often use the Ice Dance from Edward Scissorhands and Lux Aeterna from Requiem For A Dream.

[JoshRode]

Independence Day stands out for me. I saw the trailer about a year before the film came out and all those huge ships just hovering over the world's cities was really cool. I pictured alien annihilation of all but a few holdouts, and a guerrilla war staged by the humans - kind of like the future in the Terminator films.

Then the film came out and it was...well, Independence Day. It was okay for what it was, but I was sorely disappointed.

[azul017]

The Dark Knight features this as well, especially the Joker's lines. Whether they used different takes for the dialogue in the trailer or manipulated in editing, I'm not sure. I ended up watching that trailer so many times, the final film seemed 'off' to me at certain points!

Oh, they definitely used different takes. The scene with the Joker pulling out his card, for example, is noticeably different in the movie itself. With the scene in the trailers, it's more confident and assured. The version used in the film had that noticeable tic and more wary take Ledger did during shooting.

[Attrage]

One annoying thing is when trailers have scenes not in the movie. I've seen that quite a few times.

An odd thing I remember from Star Trek: First Contact is an alternate take. Picard saying "The line must be drawn here[/b] in the trailer is different from the one in the final movie. Back then I was so excited to see it that I rewatched the trailer dozens of times before it came out, so to this day I still expect the trailer's line reading to come out. I've never noticed that on any other movie.

I've seen it quite often. Either the scenes are different or they are cut to make them seem different.

Spiceworld - had jokes that were actually a little funny, most of which weren't in the movie
Hugo - has action scenes cut together to make it seem as if there is a chase involving both kids, Chloe's falling off a chair is cut to look as is she is falling down stairs, and a few examples that escape me now
Star Trek (Abrams version) - well that had a lot of effects shots that either weren't in the movie or were trimmed down.


Most are less obvious however. Such as Monster Inc. which put all the good jokes into one Benny Hill style montage (fast running chase scene.) I'm not counting teaser trailers since those are cut by design to be a glimpse rather than a full preview.

I'm sure there are many more and better examples but I'm sleepy now. I used to work at a theatre so I got a fair amount of experience reading trailers. It's often what they don't tell you that is important. Such as the Prometeus trailer looks good, but it doesn't tell you anything. That's OK since it's a teaser, but if the full trailer is similar we may be in trouble.

^ Trailers are cut together months and months before a film’s release date – so quite often the editor and director don’t have the final cut or even final takes of scenes to work with – that’s why trailers often contain scenes that don’t end up in the final cut, or alternate takes of some scenes.

[stypee]

The whole "misleading" trailer thing came from Roger Corman.

He had some really horrible movie he was putting out with that had very few action shots and goofy special effects floating around. He used every single frame of the action sequences in the trailer giving theatre goers the idea they were going to see this gigantic action film. Instead they paid good money to fall asleep.

I don't recall the name of the film but its in his biography. I sort of appreciate his honesty about that.

[Superfly]

The whole "misleading" trailer thing came from Roger Corman.

Yeah, Corman was a master at this kind of audience manipulation, and more power to him for it! The trailer for Jackson County Jail shows you almost all of the action scenes, the rape scene, and even the ending of the film! And the posters for his films always promised way more sex and violence than you'd actually get. But that's advertising at it's best. And you've got to love those 'Women In Prison' trailers.

My most recent letdown from a trailer has to be Contagion. The preview made it appear to be full of action and intensity, instead, what you got to see was a disjointed, dull, waste of acting skills and time. The whole time I was watching it I kept saying to myself "Maybe I just should have watched OUTBREAK again"

[mkiker2089]

He was good. He did the same cut work with films as well. If a movie bombed he'd cut the effects shots, redo the acting, and re-release it. The Carnosaur series is a prime example and god help me I liked all of them. He used so many effects scenes that sometimes it was like you'd seen the movie already. That's because you have. I used to rent his movies from a local video store and most were enjoyable cable TV style movies.

[tucco]

I know movie previews routinely show scenes/images that aren't in the final product, but when they look like an interesting direction in the film and don't show up in the movie.... I don't lie that at all.

A good example is the scene in the preview for District 9, where they ask the alien they are interrogating "where do you want to go?"....and the alien responds "Home...."

That did not appear in the movie and that sure looked like it would have been interesting to delve into more of why they came in the first place.