Watching a trailer can get you hyped for a movie.
But sometimes a trailer is too good and makes promises no film can deliver.
Even in this age of instant YouTube gratification, movie trailers are a big deal.
But some trailers do their job too well.
The giant gorilla seemed real as far as 30s audiences were concerned.
Look at it interacting with poor Fay Wray and swatting at real biplanes!
Where the trailer promised thrills and wonder, the movie delivered a self-serious drag.
The trailer for the sequelThe Exorcist II: The Hereticalso replicates the feeling of watching that movie.
ButThe Hereticis a far worse and weirder.
In isolation, these images manage to unsettle even the most steely viewer.
However, the 30-second teaser/commercial spot forMagicpromises a truly terrifying cinematic experience.
The Dark Crystal (1982)
Okay, hear me out.
Yes,The Dark Crystalhas much to recommend: fantastic puppetry, amazing world-building, and striking cinematography.
But it all comes in service of a generic quest narrative and stock characters.
Look, I was five-years-old when the movie came to home video and of course the Skeksis scared me.
But even that childhood trauma isnt enough to makeThe Dark Crystalinteresting to adults.
The trailer forThe Dark Crystalavoids the problems of the finished film.
In a place outside time lies a mystical realm of sound and vision, declares the narrator.
And thats whereThe Dark Crystalworks best, as an idea unrealized.
The judge in that case dismissed the suit, but moviegoers in 1989 might have had a case.
Leprechaun (1993)
Maybe,Leprechaunwas doomed from the start.
Still, the trailer forLeprechauntries its best to convince viewers that theyre going to watch a scary movie.
Did it look like a great horror movie?
No, of course not.
It wasnt that audiences associated the central character with a cartoon cereal mascot.
), and too much attention on dull human characters.
None of that shows up in the trailer forGodzilla.
Instead it does exactly what a goodGodzillatrailer should do.
The trailer itself is a perfectly satisfyingGodzillafilm.
The actual movie is not.
Those all might seem familiar in this age of Star Wars content oversaturation.
TheWild Wild Westtrailer did everything it could to convince moviegoers that they were getting Men in Black Cowboy Hats.
The trailer forPearl Harboronly fuels that nostalgia.
Modern action movies may be bad, butPearl Harborproved that poor quality isnt a modern invention.
After all, what are comic books but storyboards ready for filming?
(To be clear, if you think that, kindly hit yourself in the head.)
A 007 with a heart and who had loved and lost and now reverted to anger.
In the trailer forQuantum of Solace, we see glimpses of the next stage in that Bonds journey.
The trailer even includes a funny line from a pre-Stranger ThingsDavid Harbour.
The actual movieQuantum of Solaceisntnotthat, exactly.
Furthermore, Fincher gets electric performances out ofRooney Maraas hacker Lisbeth Salander and Daniel Craig as reporter/himbo Mikael Blomkvist.
Instead they suggested that he would make, well, the overly serious and unpleasantMan of Steel.
But for a few months, it looked like Snyder would pull it off.
Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
A great song covers a multitude of sins.
But it really undersold just how much ofLove and Thunderwould consist of rapidfire cracks at the source materials expense.
