Movie Trailers Are Basically Bad Now
Today I’d like to write about something that’s been irking me for quite a while now, but feels it’s gotten substantially worse post-pandemic, perhaps post-Guardians of the Galaxy:
Movie trailers are almost all terrible now.
This is not because they’re too long or give away too much of the film (which are sometimes issues), but because most opt for a remixed version of a current or once Top 40 hit…
If you do know what I’m talking about, I hope you share my pain. If you don’t know, let’s dive into some terrible trailers:
Avengers: Age of Ultron
One of the first trailers of my memory that used this technique is the second installment from Marvel’s successful and never-ending Avengers franchise.
Perhaps a byproduct of Disney acquiring Marvel back in 2009, a couple years later Avengers: Age of Ultron decided to incorporate a song from the Disney library, since it worked so well with this film, thematically!
A third of the way through this trailer, Pinocchio’s “I’ve Got No Strings” is given the YouTube “slowed + reverb” treatment to signal… hmm maybe something bad is about to happen right about now. Something bad is about to happen: this trailer.
Dolittle
Sometimes the whole trailer includes these awful remixes as the centerpiece.
In 2020, Robert Downey Jr’s Dolittle bombed. And it wasn’t because of the pandemic, since the film released in January and COVID didn’t ramp up till March.
It may have been due in part to the film’s trailer, which for some reason needed to be cut to an egregious rehash of the classic song “What A Wonderful World.”
Perhaps purchasing the rights to the famed Louis Armstrong recording was too expensive (doubt it, the film’s budget was $233.6 million). Or maybe they needed to make sure the film felt EPIC while also feeling #nostalgic, which is my guess…
Either way, this doesn’t make for a compelling trailer.
Dune
On the other hand, sometimes films do well despite these remixes. Sometimes audiences genuinely enjoy them.
Just scroll through some of the YouTube comments of Dune’s trailer to find people raving about it’s perfect use of Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of The Moon.”
Hey, awesome payout for the bands, I’m sure, but I still don’t feel that any of these types of trailers are artistically interesting and ever make the film seem better for it.
Uncut Gems
And it’s not just Disney, Warner Brothers, and the other major movie distributors that do this. You’re beloved A24 is guilty of it too.
Take Uncut Gems. Amazing movie, meh trailer.
While not nearly as atrocious as the previous examples, including a song people know for the sake of familiarity does not make the movie look better.
How To Make A Blockbuster
Of course, trailers have always been formulaic. It just seems like it’s getting worse and worse. Before diving into how I think we can improve trailers by looking at some trailers I really love, let’s check out this great parody video.
Just wait till you can give an AI a video like this as a template, then give them your movie, and see what they come up with…
Good Trailers
The Other Side of The Wind
Not many movie trailers stick with me, but this one did.
I think it excels for a variety of reasons. I think a good trailer is more like a teaser. Don’t tell us the whole story, just do a vibe check. Loosely, whats happening, but don’t tell me everything, or else I won’t care to watch.
Secondly, the film benefits from being a movie about moving-making. So there’s a lot of fun referential elements that can be played with in the dialogue towards the audience seeing the movie.
Lastly and most importantly, the music is fantastic. Minimal percussion that bounces off the dialogue, as though it’s an instrument too, is sometimes all you need. Forget the usual trailer’s BWAMMMM!, which can have its place, but sometimes all you need is a snare hit.
All Light, Everywhere
With documentaries, you have a bit more leeway. The narrative structure being a bit more loose, the trailer templates don’t hold as much influence.
What we can learn from the trailer from the fantastic film All Light, Everwhere is that a trailer is best when it keeps its momentum, acting as more of a montage, than trying to be a short film and tell a complete narrative.
Additionally, use the score from your film!! Audiences, I would hope, would rather get a taste of the world of your film in a more full way by also hearing the music of that film, than get the visuals from your film along with a song they may know tacked onto it.
The Sweet East
The Sweet East is a film I recently caught in theatres and loved. It also had a great trailer which put it on my radar months before.
Using film score intermingling with dialogue in such a way that it becomes a part of the music, the trailer does exactly what I think makes a good trailer.
Dad & Step-Dad
If you think all this time I’ve just been describing a “teaser,” not a trailer, then here’s another trailer with less of a montage-y feel.
For low budget, improv masterpiece Dad & Step-Dad, the filmmakers went nostalgic, parodying some of the family comedy trailers from the 80s + 90s which include a crisp narration. In fact, many pre-BWAAAMM movie trailers included narration and I think we should get back to that.
Narration makes a great trailer too, not every trailer has to be epic, because not every movie is epic. Doesn’t hurt to add Celia Hollander’s beautifully fluttering score either.
Do you agree with me? Disagree? In spite of what I’ve written, do you have a great trailer for me that uses an a cappella remix of an early 2000s hit?
Would love to hear from you…
will dinola (he/him) is a film composer, musician, and writer currently working in new york city
he is interested in people’s passions and pushing the art of film scoring to new horizons
he writes about his experience in a newsletter called “do”
