10 – Sucker Punch,
- If there is one thing Zack Snyder can do its make films with awesome trailers. In the spirit of fairness it’s the reason Watchmen isn’t on this list as well.
- Sucker Punch’s trailer was a visual feast that never could be lived up to in a feature film length, it’s a crazy insane couple of minutes to watch leaving you disorientated and wanting more. The movie though is also insane and disorientating but leaves asking “what the hell did I just watch!”
- With a convoluted plot to explain the literally insane delusions of the action scenes the full film doesn’t have the same impact as the trailer and everything becomes a bit of a dull mess.
9 – Knowing,
- Speaking of dull messes. Nicholas Cage oh what happened to you. The years have not been kind. Knowing was another one of those conspiracy films with a magic mathematical code that predicts disasters. Cage and his family stumble upon the code and hijinks ensue.
- The trailer is interesting and lays down a lot of the premise quickly, introduces some mysterious forces that seem to be trying to shut them up about the code, all looks like a good thriller with some disaster porn thrown in. Congratulations you sold me on your disaster code film!
- What we got with the finished product though you don’t need a magic code to predict. It’s a mess and introduces aliens and the end of the world which starts to really push it into silly places that it really didn’t need to go to. It all just gets a bit out of hand. Cage doesn’t get to go to MAXIMUM CAGE mode and it becomes a disappointing experience, at least The Wicker Man is funny.
8 – After Earth,
- Shyamalan strikes again this time with a Sci-Fi film with Will Smith and junior Smith crashing on an abandoned Earth where animals have evolved to be ultimate killing machines.
- The trailer for this one might be the worst on the list, but it does strike some hope that this could have been a decent film. A decent Shyamalan film? In 2013? I don’t know about this trailer but okay…maybe
- No the trailer is a damn liar and a lot of us fell its charm. Surprisingly After Earth had strong box office returns on the first day of its opening weekend but all the people who did see it quickly took to social media to get the word out about how terrible the film actually is. The box office took a steep dive on its second day never to recover.
- But it speaks volumes about how great trailer editors are when they can make a terrible film look like its good.
7 – Superman Returns,
- It could be that Man of Steel learned how to make such a great trailer by looking at its predecessor. It could be said that the trailer was the only good thing to come out of Superman Returns.
- Pushing the angle of being a continuation of the Christopher Reeve films…Kinda…sorta…the trailer uses the classic voice of Marlon Brando to hit us right in the nostalgia spot. Even the look and casting of the film fits with the older movies. This made everyone believe at the time that we would be getting something like Superman 2 or even better.
- Shame that instead we got the boring cousin of Superman 3 that focuses so much on reminding us of the other films it doesn’t ever come into its own and be interesting. It does try to sometimes *cough* superman’s kid *cough* but it ends up being silly.
- Still waiting on that great superman film of the modern age, maybe if we edit all the trailers together of this and Man of Steel we might have something good.
6 – Cloverfield,
- Cloverfield’s preview plays out much like a short film, we get an introduction to the characters with even a bit of development. It plays straight, as if we are watching a party and everything is normal then Oh no statute of liberty head!
- It’s an effective scare that makes immerses you totally in the situation the characters are going through. But it’s not as effective over a whole film.
- While Cloverfield is a decent monster movie, it is a bit of a disappointment. Nothing really comes as close to impressive or iconic as the sequence we see in the trailer. Not a bad film just not able to live up to the monstrously awesome potential of the trailer.