Yep, It's True: You Can Review a Movie Based Solely on Its Trailer
Filed under: Drama, Trailers and Clips
One of the unwritten rules of movie reviewing used to be that if it was in the film's trailer, you could mention it in the review without it being considered a "spoiler." But in the last few years, we've learned that you can't follow that rule in every case, because too many trailers reveal too much. It's totally backwards, but movie critics now find themselves having to be more careful about giving things away than the studios are. Christopher Orr, film critic at the politics-and-arts magazine The New Republic, has gotten tired of trailers that tell the whole story. So as an experiment, his review of 21 (in theaters tomorrow) is based only on his viewing of the trailer -- he hasn't actually seen the movie. He's betting that the trailer tells him everything he needs to know (except for the characters' names, which he got from IMDb). After he sees the film, he'll update the "review" as necessary.
Now, here's the funny part. I have seen 21 (here's my review from SXSW), and Orr's review is shockingly accurate. I read it expecting to find that he had jumped to one or two conclusions, based on the trailer, that aren't really true of the movie as a whole. But nope: There's nothing in his "(p)review" that needs to be corrected. He even picks up on some of the minor, nit-picky (but annoying) details about the film, such as how the card-counting group's "secret" hand signals are "as subtle as semaphore."
So let's discuss. Which trailers do you think gave too much away? My go-to example is the trailer for Cast Away, which revealed (spoiler alert) that the main character does, in fact, get off the island. What about you? Which trailers were the worst offenders? And does it matter? Have you ever decided not to see a movie solely because the trailer had revealed too much? Or do you see the movie anyway?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-27-2008 @ 2:54PM
Elisabeth said...
I still think "What Lies Beneath" was the worst trailer/ad campaign ever. It gave EVERYTHING away, rendering the whole "Ooooh, the house is haunted by our next door neighbor" subplot useless.
I saw it anyway, but it definitely ruined what might have been a fun thriller.
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3-27-2008 @ 4:11PM
Philpott said...
"What Lies Beneath" has been credited as starting the trend that has yet to end.
3-27-2008 @ 3:34PM
MosquitoControl said...
Speed 2. It showed the boat crash into a dock and come to a stop on land. In other words - it showed how the boat stopped "speeding."
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3-27-2008 @ 3:40PM
sjepps said...
I remember reading a trailer review (by Ryan Stewart) for "Things we Lost in the Fire" last year and the main complaint was that the Trailer gave away everything, which is probably why the movie did so poorly....
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3-27-2008 @ 3:55PM
madgamer said...
The trailer review is an awesome idea, and it seems like you could do it on quite a few movies nowadays. As for the question, If the movie actually looks good, I don't think a trailer has ever deterred me from going to see it because of it giving too much away.
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3-27-2008 @ 4:09PM
William said...
Though I can't think of any examples off the top of my head, I think most any comedy/romantic comedy trailer for the past few years has given away almost all, if not all, the funny parts of the movie.
While that hasn't necessarily stopped me from seeing the movie, I have definitely walked out of more than a few movies thinking, "wow, none of that surprised me, and I didn't laugh at all because I'd already seen it in the trailers a billion times..."
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3-27-2008 @ 9:52PM
superbagman said...
Oh boy, not that it was a very story-filled movie, but the trailer for Polar Express showed pretty much the whole movie. I remember thinking that the trailer was a better cut of that movie though...
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3-27-2008 @ 10:08PM
Nell said...
Julianne Moore's "The Forgotten" trailer gave away the idiotic "surprise" ending.
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3-28-2008 @ 12:04AM
Anthony Duran said...
The trailer for "The Negotiator" gave away the plot point that Sam Jackson and Kevin Spacey team up towards the end, as opposed to being adversaries the entire time. You were pretty sure this was going to happen regardless, but, still...WTF?!
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3-28-2008 @ 11:17AM
xdonniex said...
Mel Gibson's Ransom pre-dates Cast Away by 4 years. That is one of the first trailers to give away a big twist. I've also noticed that the longer a movie is out, the more the trailers give away. Runaway Bride's trailer eventually ended with the final wedding.
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3-28-2008 @ 1:59PM
eltejano said...
The trailer y'all linked to recently for REDBELT seemed to give away every single tidbit of the movie
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3-28-2008 @ 7:22PM
Travis Tidmore said...
Glass House with Leelee Sobieski. Parents die and leave the kids to their friends. Then it gives away that the new guardians want to kill them for their inheritance. The only thing it didn't give away was exactly who lives and dies.
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3-29-2008 @ 4:00PM
Mike Johnson said...
Meet the Browns, gave the beginning, the middle, and the end. I know Tyler Perry had a play first but, everyone has not seen the play.
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3-30-2008 @ 1:17AM
michelle said...
The Sixth Sense!
Imagine not knowing the kid was seeing dead people until half way through the film when he tells Bruce Willis.
Maybe I wouldn't have figured out the ending 15 minutes in.
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4-03-2008 @ 4:08PM
Jean Ryan said...
Many of the previews I have seen in the last five years reveal so much of the movie I have preferred not to waste money by seeing it in a theater and wait until it comes to the library. This has cut down my theater attendence from five or six shows a month to maybe two. If the preview is for a movie I particularly want to see I will get up and walk out until the ad is finished - which has eliminated concession spending as carrying around food and soda is cumbersome in a dark theater.
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