Can you judge a movie by its trailer?

[nancylebov]

In a comment to cathyr19355, I mentioned avoiding the new Fantastic Four movie because I thought the trailer was boring. Looks like I called that one pretty well, but this doesn't mean I've adequately tested my theory. That would require watching movies with unpromising trailers to see if I was right, and I'm not quite that dedicated to truth.

So, do you use trailers to decide on what movies to see? Have you found good movies with lousy trailers or vice versa?

Comments

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

If I'd seen the trailer for Star Wars before seeing the movie, I wouldn't have bothered with the movie. The movie was much better than I would have guessed from seeing the trailer.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I have two counter examples and dozens that prove me right. The trailers for The Iron Giant and The Frighteners did not impress me as being for movies that I would like to see. I enjoyed them both quite a bit. On the other hand I hated Armageddon exactly as much as I thought I would from the trailer. Likewise for House of Wax, Saw, The Bourne Supremacy, etc, etc, etc. I've seen a lot of movies I did not like after not liking a trailer due to social pressure or part of a movie when someone else in the household was watching it. I would even single out The Bourne Supremacy as a really excellently made movie for what it is, but not a movie that I like at all.

Trailers... Are hit and miss. But the one for sure thing is that if a movie starts with the ads full of critic quotes BEFORE the movie is released or in its first week... well then it is almost invariably just plain bad.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

The example that sticks in my mind is "IQ".

Every good scene in the movie was in the trailer.

[nosebeepbear.livejournal.com]

I can't seem to think of examples, but I know I've had this happen both ways. In particular, I'm thinking of the habit of trailer-makers to attempt to make all comedies look like stupid, plotless junk when sometimes there's actually more to them that makes them worth seeing. Since many comedies actually *are* stupid, plotless junk, I generally avoid anything that appears to be unless someone I trust recommends it.

[(Anonymous)]

The canonical example for this was Shakespeare in Love. Trailer looked like Dumb and Dumber in the Late Sixteenth Century; movie much better (closer to Much Ado about Nothing).

Did anyone else, after seeing the trailer, think "They're calling it 300 because they can't pronounce Thermopylae."?

--
D.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

In general, trailers reveal the movie for me pretty clearly. Once I get over my emotional reaction to a trailer, I can usually make a very accurate assessment of whether or not to see the movie. (In the case where I decide not to go, I often get my judgment confirmed either by friends who went, or by catching part of the movie on cable.) At this point I rarely go to the movies, but I can't remember the last time I really was disappointed in a movie whose trailer looked good.

[cathyr19355.livejournal.com]

By the way, I don't know who cathyr is, but she isn't me. I'm cathyr19355. :-)

I use trailers mostly to decide what movies to stay *away* from. Mostly, I use movie reviews to decide what I want to see.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Oops--I've corrected it.