Great Modern Movie Trailers (that live up to expectations, exceed, disappoint)

Sucker Punch

Zack Snyder films have a tendency for this. Watchmen, Batman v.s. Superman all had rather exciting trailers that gave away the best parts of rather disappointing films, and though I don't like 300 at all I'll admit the trailers did a great job of marketing it, but Sucker Punch actually managed to convince me it was a great film from the trailers with its intense visual panache. I thought I'd be going in to see a masterpiece; it ended up being a moderately entertaining film with some major flaws that have really aged in a bad way over time.


Conclusion: Didn't live up to expectations
Godzilla

I do like Godzilla for what it is, a decent monster movie with some great visual sequences. The trailer, however, is rather deceptive. It implies a stronger human element to the proceedings than we end up getting; you'd think, just from watching this, that Bryan Cranston is going to be our human lead and give an incredibly powerful performance as a grieving husband trying to get to the conspiracy of things. Instead, he gets killed before even the halfway mark. The film also implies more Godzilla than we actually get in the finished film. Now the film is still fine as a straightforward action movie, but this trailer implies so much more than just that.


Conclusion: Disappointed by trailer, though somewhat satisfied by film itself.


Fury

After watching this trailer, I just wanted to watch Fury as soon as possible; even without considering how awesome Brad Pitt's haircut looked and the fact that Shia LaBouef seemed to be giving an invested performance, it looked rather exciting and heart-pounding, as well as providing insight into an aspect of WWII combat I'd never really seen on film before. The final film is a good film, but ends up being far more generic than I'd expected it to be. There's traces of a masterpiece in it, which the trailer seems to imply, but it ends up being just a rather good war film than a great one.


Conclusion: Though I did like the film, bit of a disappointment.


Deadpool

Hm. Could any film have lived up to the extreme, and extremely effective marketing campaign behind this one? Answer is no, not really, but having said that the trailers did nicely bring across the exact tone of the film and pleased everyone enough to turn up to the cinemas.


Conclusion: Overhypes the film, but it works.




Bridge of Spies

One of those trailers that fittingly to the film itself, is styled in a rather old-fashioned manner of presenting you with the plot, its characters, all based to some rousing music as it emphasizes the themes of the film and its central character. I'll say this is a great trailer because it really does show exactly what you're going to get; I really like it because, rather than tricking me into watching the film, it approached me and enticed me in a most earnest fashion. Great trailer.


Conclusion: Lived up to expectations and in some ways, exceeded them (Mark Rylance).


Prometheus

Finally a long-awaited second venture by Mr Ridley Scott into the Alien universe, complete with a banging trailer that seems to bode nothing but greatness. Nothing can go wrong, right? Well, strictly speaking Prometheues didn't exactly lie in its trailers. The sequences in the trailer appear in the film, but the things is those scenes were the highlights and the final product just doesn't feel as cohesive on the whole. The trailer promises something big and grand but the film just ends up feeling less than the sum of its parts.


Conclusion: Disappointment.




Kill the Messenger

Based off this trailer, you might think you've found yourself a gem of a conspiracy thriller along the lines of something like JFK or All the President's Men. Well, I wouldn't say the film ends up being quite as great as those films. There's something missing to it - the topic matter is there, the lead performance is there (Jeremy Renner is excellent), the ensemble is actually solid within the film, but I don't know, the film as a whole just didn't make the sort of impact I thought it would. The trailer like Bridge of Spies hit me in the old sweet spot, and though I didn't end up loving this as much as Bridge of Spies, I won't fault the trailer for misguiding me too much since it is a well-made film, just not as well-made as I thought it would be.


Conclusion: Somewhat disappointed; the film itself is good, not great.


Spectre

I've gone on record calling this the best Bond film of all-time. I'll retract that statement now; it really hasn't aged that well for me, and while I still like it, it's probably only barely in my top 7 bond films or so. I think the brilliant trailers played their part in hyping me up so much for the film that I ended up liking it more than I should have when watching it the first time round.


Conclusion: Initially met expectations set by trailer, but over time have grown disappointed by the film.


Black Snake Moan

One hell of a trailer that draws you to the film immediately by very simply presenting you with its concept. Samuel L. Jackson as spiritual blue guitarist v.s. Cristina Ricci as misguided drug addict (sorta). The trailer doesn't give away some of the slightly weaker elements of the film, but I'd say it's a great trailer nevertheless since it presents the best and most prominent parts of a rather terrific film.


Conclusion: A trailer as divisive as the film itself, so I'd say if you liked the trailer, you'll like the film.




The Aviator

This trailer cheats in so many ways. Using the soundtrack to Love Actually, giving away so many close to the chest details to maximize emotional impact, and in the process pretty much revealing the whole arc of the film. I'll admit watching this trailer gave me goosebumps and made me watch the film as soon as I finished it. I ended up being quite disappointed; it's far from Scorsese's best film, in fact I'd say it's one of his weakest films, as well as one of DiCaprio's weakest performances. The trailer implies a more earnest, old-fashioned, vintage sort of Hollywood biopic and I can't help but feel that might've made for a better film than the tonally imbalanced, somewhat dragging and overly stagey product we got in the end.


Conclusion: Loved the trailer, really didn't like the film, and they seemed like two entirely different entities.




Pacific Rim

This trailer is amazing, and I have to give credit to whoever pieced together footage and Ramin Djawadi's score into this explosive few minutes of Kaiju/Jaeger splendor. The film is a fine film, and one which I did not mind watching at all, but there's a lot of cheesy and generic tropes in the trailer nicely steps over, and the trailer also noticeably skips over any of the more 'dramatic' moments of the film which are its weakest parts. Still, the Idris Elba speech does work as well in the film as it does in the trailer.


Conclusion: A disappointment, but everything I loved in the trailer I still loved in the film.




Guardians of the Galaxy

There was a period a few years ago when I was getting tired of Marvel. Each of their films were perfectly solid, but I just felt like they were repeatedly re-hashing the same old formula over, and over again. Then this trailer came around and suffice to say I was entirely gobsmacked. It's testament to the film's strength that it actually exceeds the loft expectations I had going into this; the trailer promises a funny, action-packed and rather refreshing take on the Marvel universe, but the film itself has an added emotional depth that these trailers don't really belie, choosing to focus on the more 'fun' aspects.


Conclusion: Exceeds expectations.




Filth

I'm quite tentative about trailers like these nowadays, which almost give too much away, but I think this works in favour of Filth, a film which is a perfectly fine vulgar comedy, featuring a great central performance by James McAvoy. The comedy bits in the trailer are slightly less funny in the context of the film, where they're enjoyable but somewhat undercut by the rather mean-spirited nature of it, which is the point I'm sure. The dramatic moments, however, which we get doses of in this trailer, are actually handled in a far more sensitive fashion than the trailer implies. In the end, I think this trailer somewhat oversells how funny and entertaining the film is, but also cleverly hides how dramatically effective certain bits of it are. I'm glad they didn't give away the ending since the last few scenes of Filth are in my opinion, easily the best bits of the film.


Conclusion: Somehow manages to slightly disappoint, slightly exceed, and meet expectations all at the same time.


Cloud Atlas

A great trailer that establishes the structure of the film, lays out its various subplots without giving away to much, and employs a great combination of its score and M83's 'Outro' to powerful effect. It would be nearly impossible for any film to live up to this trailer, and indeed the amazing novel it is based upon. The final, finished product is an intriguing film, a failure on certain levels (some of its performances, some of the makeup, some of the editing) and masterful on others. I can't properly judge whether it's a misleading trailer or just an exceptionally great one that no film could ever really live up to, but I'll stick with a bit of both for the time being.


Conclusion: A great trailer for in some ways, a pretty great but problematic film. The trailer somewhat disappoints, but also gives an accurate impression of what the film is going for.


Hon. Mention: La La Land, Hacksaw Ridge, and Rogue One

I'm not going to discuss these trailers in thorough detail yet since I've yet to see the films, but these are all great trailers and I really, really hope they live up to them.




Hon. Mention: Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

Watched the film before the trailers, but I have to say that if I'd chosen to do it the other way round, I might have ended up being more enthused about getting into the prequels trilogy than I was.


And finally, a trailer that wasn't so great in my opinion, but the film itself...


The Hateful Eight

The film is now officially one of my all-time favourites, its staying power really is tremendous. What is it about this trailer that bugs me, then? Well, it's understandably a bit more lighthearted and marketed as a dark Tarantino comedy of sorts, but the style it's presented in seems more akin to something like Django Unchained (which I loved), and less like the brooding, paranoid and surprisingly emotional, with aspects of black comedy, film we got. I think the trailer presents a misguided view of the film, and really if you haven't seen The Hateful Eight yet I'd recommend going in without watching the trailers; they really don't do it justice.