Trailer not enough to judge movie quality

Moviegoers have become so contentious that they spend as much time arguing about trailers as they do the movies they represent.

Look at James Gunn’s most recent Superman trailer. Some online viewers have praised it as a masterpiece, highlighting the heart and humanity manifesting within Gunn’s version of Clark Kent. Others think Gunn is the devil because he stole the character’s gravitas, turning Superman into a goofy cartoon that will only appeal to children.

Neither side is wrong. You can’t tell someone to like or hate what they hate or like. That said, some entertainment pundits have criticized the internet for having excessively strong reactions to movie trailers.

Trailers exist to sell a product, and you can’t always trust them to paint an accurate picture of the final film. But that doesn’t mean you can just ignore them either. The cinematic experience is expensive.

Most of us can’t afford to watch every film that comes out. Trailers are just one factor among many that consumers use to decide where they will spend their hard-earned money. That raises an important question. What should we look for to determine whether or not a particular film is worth watching at the cinema?

There are no definitive answers. However, the following factors tend to stand out. First, your reaction to a trailer matters. Trailers are a sample of the movie in question, and if you don’t like the sample, you are unlikely to enjoy the film.

Admittedly, you can’t ignore the fact that trailers are promotional tools. Barring a few exceptions, your favourite filmmakers don’t get a say in the kinds of trailers their movies get.

That responsibility falls on the shoulders of a studio’s marketing department. They know what the public wants (or so they assume) and they will endeavor to edit the material at their disposal into footage that appeals to as many viewers as possible.

The marketing team can easily lie to the public by creating a trailer that does not accurately represent the film. Nonetheless, you should pay attention to a trailer’s vibe. If something about the trailer rubs you the wrong way, you should expect a similar reaction to the movie.

Secondly, how much of the story did the trailer reveal? Trailers that seemingly show you the entire movie should encourage you to stay away. Studios typically publish overly revealing trailers because their films have little or no depth.

The best trailers will show you just enough to whet your appetite. You can tell that a film has more to offer because every new trailer you get keeps showing you the same three or four scenes. This happened with Thunderbolts.

Many viewers did not realize that each additional trailer we got was merely expanding upon the same four scenes we saw in the first trailer. This usually shows that a film has many surprises that it doesn’t want to ruin. This brings us to the final consideration. Some trailers reveal too much.

Others won’t tell you anything, which is equally irritating. But that issue pales in comparison to the third category, which is trailers that clearly have no story. Each three-minute trailer the studio releases is a series of pointless explosions, suggesting that the movie in question is an empty spectacle.

To be fair, most films start with a spectacle-heavy trailer. But the follow-up trailer always slows things down to delve into the story. Films that can only offer spectacle-heavy trailers are telling you what to expect. Listen to them.

Now, obviously, some trailers subvert these trends. I thought The Wild Robot looked terrible because I hated the trailers. But then I watched it, and it is wonderful. Wait until the first reviews come out. It is those that will tell you whether or not a film is worth watching on the big screen.

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