Amazing movie scenes ruined by spoliers in Trailers

[Crothian]

I think Phantom Menace showing the Doubler Lightsaber was the worst offendeer. THat would have been amazing to see in the theater as it was the beginning of a very good scene.

 

[Kai Lord]

I think Phantom Menace showing the Doubler Lightsaber was the worst offendeer. THat would have been amazing to see in the theater as it was the beginning of a very good scene.

Agreed, another irritation is when you think the trailer is just whetting your appetite for a particular character, like Darth Maul or Aaliyah in Queen of the Damned, but then when you see the movie itself you discover that the only scenes they're in are the ones from the trailer.

I remember being intrigued by the trailer for "Cast Away" until they showed the scenes of him getting off the island and reuniting with friends and family.

Going waaay back I remember the TV ads for "The Last Starfighter" closing with, "...and this is the story of one who made it" then they show him kissing his girlfriend after returning to Earth.

 

[SteelDraco]

I think the worst offender in this is the trailer for The Sixth Sense. Ruined a good portion of the mystery and suspense of the movie with the tagline "I see dead people." For the first, what, third of the movie, you're wondering what's up with this little kid - but only if you haven't seen the trailers. Fortunately, it's a good enough movie that that doesn't ruin it - but imagine how much better it would have been if you didn't know what was going on when you went into it.

 

[Rashak Mani]

I agree that the Two Towers Trailer gave away too much to those that arent LOTR readers. Silly to do that...

Overall MOST trailers give way too much info and spoil a lot of the movies. Some of the movies that I most enjoyed were those I had no idea what they were about.

One good example is "The Lost Boys" I hadnt even seen a poster.... had no idea it was about vampires ! Mid way thru what I thought was a gang movie I was pretty shocked to see the vampires !! haha

 

[Kai Lord]

Some of the movies that I most enjoyed were those I had no idea what they were about.

One good example is "The Lost Boys" I hadnt even seen a poster.... had no idea it was about vampires ! Mid way thru what I thought was a gang movie I was pretty shocked to see the vampires !! haha

That was how I saw the original "Die Hard" in the theatre. Hadn't seen a single preview or heard a thing about it. Didn't know it took place in a building or anything. All I saw before going was a poster of Bruce Willis holding a pistol against a plain background. Freaking awesome experience to see it cold.

For a long time after that I deliberately avoided all movie previews and even would look down at the floor during the Coming Attractions before theatrical movies. I actually got to see Terminator 2 opening weekend without knowing ahead of time that he was the good guy.

With so many films on the horizon that look great, I've taken to doing that again.

 

[Assenpfeffer]

I think Phantom Menace showing the Doubler Lightsaber was the worst offendeer. THat would have been amazing to see in the theater as it was the beginning of a very good scene.

By far the best scene in the movie, in fact.

 

[Shapermc]

On a note of seeing movies w/o knowing a lot or almost anything about them I saw Event Horizion because I over heard someone say "Man I'm still having Event Horizon Flashbacks." I never saw a preview for it, only thing I saw for it was the poster with the big ship on it. One of the greatest movie experiences I have had.

I have done this to my wife as well. I have been like "You'll Like it I promise." and all she knows is the title of the movie and I will go rent it or pull it out of my movie library. The most recent one that I did this to her with is Highlander. It is now one of her fav movies.

***SPOILERS FOR EMPIRE AND THE NEGOTIATIOR***


*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
OK first off the one that gets me the worst is The Negotiatior (Kevin Spacey and Samuel Jackson). You know how in some trailers they run the 2 sheets of credits and then have a one liner? Well in The Negotiator has that one liner where it shows Sameul and Kevin are sitting in a car and say "Now they have to deal with the both of us." ASIDE from that RUINING the movie it was also CUT from the movie. On a side note the guy who made this trailer must have been firied because the Trailer did not make it into DVD.

Ok now there is this really bad movie out there right now called EMPIRE with John Legazamos. I had no desire to see this movie but my wife dragged me to it. The trailer shows John getting duped out of millions of dollars. In fact the trailer is more than 50% showing how he gets screwed out of the money. This take place in the last 20 min of a 2hour movie. The whole time they want you to like the guy that you know as the bad guy from the trailer. I thought that this was going to happen in the first 30min of the movie and it happens in the last 20. Very disapointing.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Not to defend the movie buisness too much but they have a fine line that they need to walk. I am not saying that they don't fail at times but that it is dificult getting the right mix. You want a trailer to bring in as big of an audience as possible without giving too much away but if giving away something will bring more people in right away you have to do it. This did not used to be case 20-30 years ago when movies were allowed to grow over many months, but now the business has changed and movies are only out for a month or two if you are lucky.

Star Wars Ep. I: Yeah it would have been nice to keep the double lightsaber secret, but I bet there was more intrest before the movie by showing it as people went "Thats really cool, I can't wait to see that"

Sixth Sense: "I see dead people" does not give the movie away as the kid's ability is shown throuhout most of the movie while the true twist is not given away. You probably got more people to see the movie than if you did something else.

Event Horizon/Pearl Harbor: These get lumped together under the false adverizing catagory. While I disagree with this, obviously somebody had to sign off on it as they somehow feel that they will get more people to go if people are under a false impression. This does not bode well for a movie as you are alienating the true smaller audience for a larger up front take. Two reasons I can come up with for this are either corporate greed or a lack of faith in the movie by someone high up in the Studio.

Bad Comedies: Here the trailer producer is in a jam. If most of the movie isn't funny you can't make a trailer from these scenes as it won't draw people to watch the movie. In order to get people to go you have to put something good into the trailer and unfortunately that means the few funny scenes. This is not the fault of the trailer as much as the poor quality of the actual film.

Known Qauntities (i.e. Austin Powers 2): If you are relying on a already positive attititude based on a previous work you can be more inventive and do things like the Star Wars spoof trailer that they ran for Austin Powers 2.

Cut Scenes: As for incuding cut scenes in trailers it would have to depend on when you are talking about. Most movies don't have a final cut until shortly before it is released, so if you are advertising it 6-12 months in advance you can't know whether a particular scene will make the final cut or not.

Since studios want to make money they will continue to make trailers in much the same way, and that means sometimes putting some spoilers in order to get they best turnout. If you want to be surprised then Kai Lord has the best option, don't watch the trailers.

 

[Assenpfeffer]

Star Wars Ep. I: Yeah it would have been nice to keep the double lightsaber secret, but I bet there was more intrest before the movie by showing it as people went "Thats really cool, I can't wait to see that"

I agree completely with all your points, except in this one case. Because Phantom Menace didn't need to be hyped this way. Anticipation was at an incredible high, regardless of whether folks knew about Darth Maul's lightsaber or not. Let's face it, the movie is a steaming crap sandwich and still made in the neighborhood of $500 million domestically.

So I think this was a bad move. Just as I think the revelation of Gandalf's resurrection was a bad move. In general, however, I agree with your points.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

I agree completely with all your points, except in this one case. Because Phantom Menace didn't need to be hyped this way. Anticipation was at an incredible high, regardless of whether folks knew about Darth Maul's lightsaber or not. Let's face it, the movie is a steaming crap sandwich and still made in the neighborhood of $500 million domestically.

Yes, to a point but see my Bad Comedies point for a better explanation of what was going on. Since the movie was so bad you had to pick and choose what got into the trailers from such a small selection. Additionally people expected Lightsaber duels, so while you can include several other lightsaber scenes in the trailer in order to get a good duel scene Darth Maul's lightsaber had to be given away. Just imagine how well it would have gone though if Jar-Jar was the main focus of the trailers.

So I think this was a bad move. Just as I think the revelation of Gandalf's resurrection was a bad move. In general, however, I agree with your points.

I still need to see the movie again in hopes I like it better (as the FotR grew on me) but you may be right about TTT trailers. It might be possible to put a trailer together without Gandolf. What they were probably thinking though is that since such a large part of the audience already knows Gandolf lives and this is revealed quite early and is not a major twist (like Sixth Sense) that keeping him out is not a major objective. As such they probably went in a chose those scenes that they felt would best draw people without worrying about Gandolf.

As I said though it is a fine line and I am not saying that there are not failures both minor and major. Could I have done a better job, probably not. But that does not mean that someone else could have made better trailers for TPM or TTT.