'District 9': Apparently Cooler Than You Remember

There are plenty of examples out there where the hype machine misconstrued the advertising of a film to merely stray the viewer towards a certain opinion.

I remember the trailer for Escape From L.A. The trailer made that movie look badass! Unfortunately, that movie was shite.

You brought up Whiteout, which is a perfect example. One trailer implies its either an alien or monster thats after them, when really its neither.

Look at the Transformers 2 trailer. All they showed was the explosions and most CGI heavy scenes, tricking people into thinking it had both a story AND visuals. Boy, was I glad I didnt see that crapfest. A million bad reviewers cant be wrong!

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Oh that's easy. Inglourious Basterds is the most recent. Have heard tons of complaints about how the basterds aren't just killing nazi's left and right like the main trailer and tv spots would have you believe.

If I wasn't following every bit of info since it was released myself, I might have to agree.

They also don't imply or mention that about 50% or so of the movie is subtitled. I could see a lot of people being upset about that (although strangely, out of all the complaints I have heard about the film, this has not been one of them).

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Man Of The Year

The trailers and the posters both lead you to believe some kind of snarkier version of a typical Robin Williams movie but then half way through it turns into a conspiracy thriller with people getting killed and what not.

Either way not a good movie.

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You forgot to mention how they use Jackson's name. In the US poster, it is obvious Jackson is producing. Here, they are practically claiming he directed the whole damn thing.

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I especially love how the second poster does not mention Blomkamp at all and completely lies and says it's a Peter Jackson film.


Also, right on the money with Man of the Year. One of the only films I ever walked out of because it flipped genres every 20 minutes.

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I can think of two where I had to convince people that the movie was not what the trailer portrayed:
Drag Me to Hell
Brothers Bloom

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I'd call the foreign poster "truth in advertising" myself. At least they're promoting it as the duimb action film it descends into after the first 30 minutes instead of trying to convince audiences it's this amazing piece of intelligent Sci-Fi a la Moon or 2001. I hated how many people were duped into believing the film was more than it was. Just look at the last 30 minutes, when a man fires a *pig from a gravity gun*. Sorry, but that's just as bad as anything I saw in Transformers. I'm all for dumb action movies, but not dumb action movies that pretend to be intelligent social commentary. Sure District 9 did social commentary well in the first 30 minutes, but after that, meh, it's just Transformers with smaller aliens.

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Man of the Year is a definite Decepticon. Drag me to Hell only fulfills the poster imagery in a hand-full of scene clips--no longer than a minute, but it could be building to a sequel.

I've heard Gamer is a big disappointment as well. Inglorius Basterds didn't deliver on the gore, but was still a good flick...

Punisher War Zone I just couldn't stand...yes it's a war between the main dude and the villian, but I expected a pack of bad guys to be after him..not just some lame ass mobster...

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I still can't get over how awesome the trailer for Star Wars: Episode I, The Phanthom Menace was-and how the actual film disappointed on so many levels.

And not to jinx anything, but the trailers for Where the Wild Things Are are just so...perfect... both imagery-wise and musically-wise...that I'm almost afraid to see the actual film now.

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Bridge to Terabithia was one of the most egregious ones in recent memory. The ads sold it as a typical fantasy film with heavy CGI effects. The actual film was the most traumatic kiddie tearjerker since "My Girl," and the only fantasy moments were those shown in the trailers.

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When thinking of misleading trailers, Nothing comes to mind. Literally. There's a movie called Nothing and the trailer makes it seem like this messed-up psychological thriller/horror movie. When in fact, it's one of the most unique hilarious comedies I have ever seen. There is nothing at all scary about the movie.

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ADVENTURELAND was marketed as an Apatow-esque ROFLcomedy, when it was much more thoughtful than the punch-em-in-the-dick trailer would suggest.

The houseboy suggests CITY OF EMBER, which wasn't marketed at all and should have been sold to libraries and bookstores.

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I felt that way about Inglorious Bastards. The marketing made it look like a great adventure in the lives of a renegade group of nazi killing misfits. I expected a lot more than I got. Most of the film is just dialogue. This shouldn't have surprised me cause its a Tarantinofilm but I expected something more dynamic like planet terror by Robert Rodriguez. I thought maybe Tarantino had realized it was the more popular of the two films in grind house and learned some lessons.

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A lot of studios market their films overseas by misleading the audiences especially sci-fi flicks. In asian markets only hollywood movies with robots, superheroes and action work. Very few drams work here. Hence, you see this D9 poster with tons of robots. They are just trying to get a good OW and rest doesn't matter.

hell even paramount made some misleading posters for star trek by making it look more like some end of the world Disaster movie.


The only studio that surprisingly doesn't do is Fox. They could make posters with bunch of Mech robots smashing stuff and what not for AVATAR but they won't because they are a stupid ass studio.

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Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - the trailer.Possibly the most inspired trailer/sketch ever produced. A shame that the scene is not only not in the film, but was never filmed to be so. Quite what the trailer suggests I'm 100% sure is not the film that followed.

Shame, as the trailer is absolutely hilarious.

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Marley&me's trailer made it look like silly, fun comedy for the whole family. Not even a hint of the dog dying. Criminal.

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ever seen the trailer for Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead? it makes it seem like the whole movie is a total free-for-all and doesn't mention any of the job/financial woes which makes up for at least 75% of the movie.

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nothing was more misleading than the marketing for the village.

biggest piece of junk ever made and i will never let go of the grudge i have against that garbage.

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