Movie Trailers - The Great Hollywood Lie

by Michael Bannon
How to avoid being fooled into watching bad movies by great 30 second trailers.

How sad is it that week after week people from all over the globe get tricked out of money by Hollywood? Let’s face it, the highest paid people in the business shouldn’t be the Actors, and it shouldn’t be the Directors, it should simply be the men and women who most of us have never heard of. They are the ones who edit the movie trailers together. They are the ones that give us a glimpse into what their new film has to offer, and they are the ones that trick us the most. This holds true for any genre but especially when it comes to horror/suspense and comedy. They trick you by often showing you the funniest or scariest scenes in the movie and make you believe that the whole film will be filled with the same thing.

How many times have you seen a movie trailer and thought to yourself “wow that movie looks fantastic, I can’t wait to see it”. Then you go see the movie, and it is nothing like what the trailer made it appear to be? Months before the movie is released you get bombarded with PR for the film, from posters, trailers and even pop up ads on the internet, and you get so filled with hope for these high budget, and often times low talent films that you can’t help but expect them to be great. So now you’ve wasted nearly $10 dollars for the movie ticket, and while I try and avoid the over priced, under-satisfying snack line, most people will go and spend at least another $10 there. Now you have spent nearly $20 for a very boring, sometimes upsetting 2 hours of your life that you will never get back again. That would be bad enough, but the worst part about it is that you will probably go and do it again next weekend as well.

So how can one avoid being tricked by the studios and how can you avoid wasting money after seeing these mini movies called trailers? Well the truth is there is no way to 100% to be sure that the movie you see is going to be good. But here are a few things that you can do to raise the chances of wasting less money by seeing the better movies out there.

1. Watch the trailers - Even though Trailers often trick us, they are still necessary to get some idea of what the movie might be about.

2. Read many reviews – The key to reading reviews is to not just read one and then go on what the author had to say. Read many and most important, try and find reviews from people who seem to have similar tastes as yourself. Most of us go see movies with certain friends because they usually have similar tastes as us and will enjoy the same things. Same goes for movie reviews. Find reviewers who seem to have similar tastes as you, and that will help you in picking your next movie.

3. Actors/Directors – If the main actor is someone that you do not normally like, then it’s a good chance that you will not like this film either. The same goes for the director. A lot of times the average person doesn’t even know who is directing the film before they go see it. If they would only check this beforehand they might find out that this person has been involved in many films that they did or did not like. Film in this sense is much like reading a book. Would you go buy a book that was written by an author that you hate? Try using the same thought process with film directors.

4. How many times have you seen the movie trailer? I’ve recently come to the conclusion that if I see the movie trailer on TV more than 5 times the week before the movie is being released, then I have no desire to see that movie anymore or at least on opening weekend. This is more a general rule for myself as I do not always hold true to it. For example, I could see the trailer for Spider-Man 3 100 times the week before it comes out, and I will still see it opening day. They have done enough for me over the first two films to convince me that the third will be just as good. This has caused me some disappointment in the past (The Matrix films) but generally when seeing sequels and trilogies it is ok to see the 2nd or 3rd if you liked the first.

5. Wait until opening weekend is over. There are so many movie websites out there now to find out what the general public has thought about a film. If you don’t trust the professional movie reviews, then wait a week or two after the movie has been released and find out what others think about it. This again will help you to filter out some of the bad movies out there.