Remember loving trailers

To me they were as much a part of the movie going experience as popcorn and sticky floors. I liked to be teased, to see a little kernel of hype snowball into a burning desire to see a movie on opening night.


I think the moment that trailers hit the big time was a weekend in 1998. A new movie starring Brad Pitt was set to release called Meet Joe Black.  Meet Joe Black was plagued by production problems, actor strife and god awful reviews-- yet the movie had a massive opening weekend.  There was a simple and shocking explanation for this.  Attached to most prints of Meet Joe Black was a trailer for Star Wars Episode One and because of this one preview people flocked to see it.  At the time it seems bizarre, people shelling out nine dollars to see just under sixty seconds of orchestral score over quick cuts of space ships blowing up.  Yet this was just the beginning of the trailer focus.

Ten years later it seems like most trailers are better than about 90% of the movies released last years. To begin with, most trailers are better than the movie they're previewing.  Who saw the the trailer for Burn after Reading and wasn't blown away?? The dialogue was so sharp, the music so hip and the cast list so top shelf. I could tell the moment I saw it that this was going to be another masterpiece from the Cohen Bros.  Then I actually saw the movie. Instead of the quick movement and sharp dialogue, I got a lumbering mess. I had been completely bamboozled by the willie marketing people at Fox Searchlight. Those coy son of a guns knew exactly what it would take to get me in that theater. I ignored all types of warnings from critics because of that 90-second bit of trickery.  Don't forget that's what trailers are, trickery, they are all the best parts laid out for us to absorb as quick as possible.

Hell, there's no need to even see a movie anymore.  Just take your computer over to Quicktime and you've got crib notes of every major and minor film for the next year. These clips spell the movie out showing you entire character arcs, every major plot point and set piece,  even giving you some pieces of dialogue so you can put a cool quote up on Facebook. These monstrosities are designed with the sole purpose of making sure there is absolutely nothing that can surprise or catch you off guard when you actually go to see the movie in theatres. After seeing a preview of Bride Wars I now know enough about the movie to describe the movie in detail at cocktail parties and could probably quote you an estimate on a June wedding at The Plaza.
 
Why doesn't Hollywood understand that we want to be seduced by a movie, not bombarded by it? When we meet someone new we don't want their entire life story shoved in our face in the span of a minute in a half.  We want a short introduction and then we can decide if we want to spend  90 minutes getting to know them.  That's what trailers should be for a movie, a brief preface that makes us want to spend an evening getting to know them.