Worst Trailer / Movie Quality Ratio

[MODMAN]

In the interest of supporting Wacky's Minefield relaunch ...

So, trailers are great marketing tools to build hype and anticipation. Scenes are cherry picked to emphasis a particular vibe - action, humor, drama etc. In an action-orientated flick we normally get flashes from key action sequences before culminating in a final WOW shot (e.g. The Fast and the Furious - Vin Diesel driving a car out of one collapsing skyscraper into another skyscraper, on to a truck in mid-flip).

Of course, the proof is ultimately in the final product. Quite often, the trailer will achieve it's objective of generating interest, with the movie itself being a disappointment. We can't hold it against the clever folk who create these trailers; their job is to market the product as best as they can to generate profit.

In your experience, what movies have left you the most disappointed after buying into the hype generated by it's trailers?

I will start with The Rise of Skywalker. The final theatrical trailer was phenomenal. Palpatine's ominous voiceover: "Long have I waited. And now - at your coming together ... will be your undoing." ... brief shots hinting at the largest space battle ever to grace the big screen. I was properly hyped. Abrams was back to wrap up the *ahem*, Skywalker saga. They couldn't drop the ball on this one.

But boy, did they ever. Palpatine - one of my all time favorite big bads - was absolutely screwed over by appalling writing and inconceivably idiotic motivations & logic. And the much anticipated space battle was a non-starter. When Lando arrived with that vast fleet of ships, I looked at the guy sitting beside me in the theater and we exchanged a knowing look. It was brief, but I think we were both thinking the same thing: this film has been shit. But, we've endured all this shit for the final act. We are about to get the mother of all space battles - the entire galaxy united for one final, hard roll of the dice against the Dark Side and tyranny. "Here we go ... " I said.

Well, that came to an abrupt halt within a minute after Palps zapped the whole fleet.

It's the LAST Star Wars movie and you're not going to give us a decent space battle? Fuck me.

Anyway. That's my pic. What about you?

 

[Ishcabittle]

Ghost in the Shell live action with ScarJo. From the trailer, it looked like they were going to be faithful, and the darkly powerful existential film was going to see an interesting twist. Seeing the trailer, I didn’t mind ScarJo either, star power in a beautiful package, and when they showed the scene in the ankle deep water with her in her invis cloak I was sold.

Then it was converted into a sorta terrible Hollywood flick and not the thought provoking piece of cinema that was the original. Oh well.

 

[MODMAN]

Ghost in the Shell live action with ScarJo. From the trailer, it looked like they were going to be faithful, and the darkly powerful existential film was going to see an interesting twist. Seeing the trailer, I didn’t mind ScarJo either, star power in a beautiful package, and when they showed the scene in the ankle deep water with her in her invis cloak I was sold.

Then it was converted into a sorta terrible Hollywood flick and not the thought provoking piece of cinema that was the original. Oh well.

I downloaded that some time back but never got around to watching it. I'm not familiar with the original work, but am aware of it's impact.

Looks like it's staying on the back burner.

Another one for me: Star Trek Into Darkness. I freely admit I got overly hyped - more so than the trailer justified. But, I was sold on the original '09, and this looked pretty damn promising, especially with the Cumberpatch.

It was a really strange viewing experience with some similarities with TROS - namely, I was waiting for the film to get going. But it just never clicked into place for me. Perhaps another interesting phenomena related to hype - anyone else find with a highly anticipated movie you tend to watch the time? At first, I like to see that we're still in the early stages and there's plenty more to come. But if things don't click, I start getting antsy after the halfway mark thinking "shit, this is going to pick up - right?" If ~45 minutes before the end I'm still not in the groove, that's when I normally start thinking "you've sold me on a turd, you SOBs".

 

[CaptainWacky]

I remember thinking the Man Of Steel trailers were amazing but not liking the actual movie much (I'll rewatch it sometime after enjoying Snyder's Justice League though.)

I followed Rise of Skywalker's production too closely to ever be tricked into thinking I'd like it, but yeah I think the finished film turned out worse than even I anticipated.

I've posted eight million times about Into Darkness but also hated it.

A more mild kind of example is when they give too much away in the trailer so you kind of feel like you've seen it all by the time the movie comes out. So I was excited about ANT-MAN AND THE WASP (I loved Ant-Man, okay) but I remember kind of feeling "wait, the chase through San Fransisco is the climax?" And remember when one of Sony's Spider-Man movies literally gave away the end shot in the trailer.