Films that don't live up to the trailer

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stevo132

New member
Having recently seen Watchmen and Duplicity, I'm wondering if there's a new (old?) phenomenon of movie companies producing fantastic trailers that really capture what you'd want the film to be, but don't capture the reality.

In both cases, I think it was the use of music to create an overall "mood" in the trailer, that wasn't duplicated in the film itself.

P.S. Anyone know what the music is in the Watchmen trailer?
 
This has been going on almost as long as cinema itself.

Just think to all the trailers that you've seen for action films. Explosions, car chases and booming American voice over artists. And then...the films pants.

Same with quirky indie films. Put a indie bank on the soundtrack, and everyone suddenly thinks it's the next Juno or Garden State.
 
three worRAB ... The Phantom Menace.

The first teaser was and still is a great trailer. but as we all know the film was a shocker.
 
On this Watchmen trailer the music up to 1.20 is Pruit Igoe & Prophecies by the Philip Glass ensemble (available on the soundtrack). From then on its Take A Bow - Muse
 
I try to avoid trailers if at all possible. These days they tend to fit every interesting part of the film into it, sometimes including parts of the films ENDING!
As far as misleading trailers go, Ang Lee's Hulk was my biggest gripe. Trailer looked menacing and dark. The film was a giant blob of snot frog-hopping around the desert fighting poodles. Meh.
 
more fool you. You should expect what you get with that one.. :p

As for Phantom Menace - I hear that one a lot, but can't really remember it myself. Have to go check it out.
 
Scream 3 - it's like they packed every decentish moment into the trailer and left nothing for the actual film.
 
Oh I remember wetting myself when I saw that trailer for the first time!

As it happens, I thought the film started terribly and I felt like I'd made a HUGE mistake going to see it (Qui-Gon's child-like captain who couldn't act at the very beginning had me nervous in a way I couldn't quite descibe to you!) but as the film went on I actually enjoyed it more and more.

Ok, so Jar Jar was (and is) annoying as hell, but I felt I'd been well prepared for him by the two-month gap in US-to-UK release and he didn't seem anywhere near as bad as people were making out. Yes, he was terrible and he seems worse now, but at the time I was expecting him to be far worse than he was, simply due to the negative fan reaction. So, in a way, I was spared the assault of Jar Jar!

To be honest, what made the trailer for me was that 2 second shot (if that) of Obi-Wan and Darth Maul going at it and making every sabre battle form the original trilogy look like, well, the soon-to-be-famous Star Wars Kid.

When the film came along, the duel at the end was still the bit that made me wet my pants. So, technically, the trailer really showed up what was good about the film. TPM looks worse to me now, but its still got the best lightsabre duel fo the saga.
 
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