The topic of this comic is a huge pet peeve of mine. Hollywood seems to have gotten worse about this recently. The ending of Drag Me To Hell was completely devoid of suspense, because you knew for certain the demons were going to grab her at some point. Still a fun movie, but it would have been better if you didn’t already know for certain how it ended.
The trailer for the movie Funny People is another perfect recent example. Over the course of the preview, we learn that this guy becomes friends with a famous comedian (that would have been enough right there), that the famous comedian has terminal cancer (already too much, but ok), and then that the famous comedian amazingly recovers from the terminal cancer (what the hell!!). Seriously, that is like 90% of the plot development right there. It was still a pretty enjoyable film, but it would have been much more enjoyable if I hadn’t already known most of what was going to happen.
Hollywood, please stop ruining movies with your trailers. Bring back the lost art of the “teaser” – the trailer that piques your interest without giving much away. Makes for a much better movie watching experience, and you just might get a few more folks back in theaters.
(PS: for those of you keeping score, this is yet another comic gleaned from conversations with Ben)
YES!! YES!! YES!! it is so true! I can’t beleive how much of a plot people can spoil in the few seconds a movie trailer runs for.
Matt: I know! It drives me crazy. Getting to the theater early to watch the trailers used to be one of my favorite parts of the movie-going experience, not anymore…
I didn’t know about Drag me to Hell or how it went until I saw this, damn you.
Hux: Ooops, sorry. I was going to do this comic months ago, but I waited a while in the hopes that anyone who had interest in seeing the movie already would have… or at least would have seen the trailer that reveals how things end.
For this reason I never watch teasers or read about film before seeing them. And also because teasers are very unreliable for judging the quality of a film. Why do you watch teasers?
Emil: Good question. It’s certainly not because they are reliable indicators for judging the quality of a film. I guess it’s mainly because I enjoy the experience of getting hyped for a film that I am anticipating, and also because it is a good way to see what is coming out. But of course, the trend towards revealing WAY TOO MUCH in trailers is making them more of a nuisance than anything.
IMO the trailers for gamer deserve a mention, they were just as bad if not worse
chaos872: Yup, that is another excellent example. There are so many…..
Good lord. Amen to this. I hate. HATE. HATE. Trailers now, because they could be good AND not ruin my suspense. It’s perfectly feasible — hell, they used to DO it. And yet.
This really steams my clams, Ryan. Kudos.
I don’t even check up on what’s upcoming. I am still going through all the films on IMDB’s top 250 list. I have about 110 to go. This indicator is a better indicator than what looks nice from a preview/trailer.
Good new film will come on that list anyway. Gran Torino for instance. There are some more newer films on the list that I haven’t seen. Mainly because I don’t watch anything less than DVD quality, and there ain’t any of that yet. For newer films I only watch blu-ray rips. 🙂
Emil, that is a good strategy (except the DVD/Blu-Ray thing I don’t really care about at all.)
Oh and I forgot to add: just change the characters’ names to “Ben” and “Ryan,” hah. I think we would all get a good laugh abt it. Perhaps he could be “p” and you could be “~p” on his blog, when he’s slaving over a hot laptop, law of non-contradiction, etc.
Emil: That is a good strategy. I also love, love the movie theater experience though.. so it is helpful for me to know what’s coming out.
Michelle: If anyone is “p” it’s me, Ben’s gotta be “~p”.
Chaospet,
Still you don’t need to watch trailers. You can just check your nearest cinema for titles and search for them on IMDB, If it gets more than 8, then watch it. If it gets more than 7, then you may want to watch it depending on genre.
If you have to do it, you might as well do it right.