the problem with movie trailers
- livia treviño
- Sep 13, 2017
- 2 min read
I used to spend hours at a time watching trailers on YouTube. Now, I can't even fully watch one. They don't make trailers like they used to. If I had a say, here's what I'd get rid of:
songs with lyrics
Replacing diologue with lyrics are never a good idea. Especially if it's Drake rapping "I got enemies, got a lot of enemies" to show that Jamie Foxx is a cop gone rogue. I just don't think I can stand hearing that "Human" song in another trailer, I just can't do it.
mini movies
Trailers should make somebody excited to see a move, they shouldn't give you the entire plot. This also goes for horror movies that give away the scariest scenes up front and leave nothing for opening night.
misdirection
Trailers are supposed to give you a tiny glimpse of the movie it's promoting, not a close look at a movie that could have been. "Passengers" and "Fantastic Four" are great examples of misleading trailers. "Passengers" showed a mysterious thriller that spoiled itself in the first 20 minutes. "Fantastic Four" promised a younger, better looking super group, but instead gave us a completely re-shot bore that I couldn't even finish.
wording
Nobody reads it!! My biggest pet peeve are words during trailers that don't serve any purpose other than telling you that - guess what? Tom Cruise is back and better than ever. And I want to throw up every time they impose words between random scenes.
voiceovers
Dramatic narration doesn't really work for movies, so why should trailers be any different?
All hope isn't lost for trailers, no matter how much I seem to hate them. Sometimes, I'll look back at an old favorite like "The Social Network" or "The Witch" and dream about the days when trailers meant something. I ache for the days when my best friend and i would send each other trailers and geek out about them.
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