Never Trust a Trailer/Film: Difference between revisions

Line 14:

** Also spawned a serious case of [[Did Not Do the Research]] in amateur film critics, many of whom blasted the film as "another kid movie about talking animals." Anyone who saw the movie can tell you it is neither kid-friendly nor about talking animals.

** Ironically, there was a direct-to-video animated spinoff where the kangaroo ''did'' talk, by means of a magic spell.

** The dream sequence in question is, in fact, a [[~~Big~~ ~~Lipped~~ ~~Alligator Moment~~]] that was added at the end of production specifically so it could be used in the trailer. The poster for the movie also shows the kangaroo wearing clothes and sunglasses and acting very human. Basically, the studio was afraid that they had a bomb on their hands with this film, so they made a crass, calculated, last-ditch effort to salvage the film by selling it to the public as a children's film (which actually worked somewhat as the film managed to do reasonable business at the box-office and a sequel is currently in the works)

** The dream sequence in question is, in fact, a [[Non Sequitur Scene]] that was added at the end of production specifically so it could be used in the trailer. The poster for the movie also shows the kangaroo wearing clothes and sunglasses and acting very human. Basically, the studio was afraid that they had a bomb on their hands with this film, so they made a crass, calculated, last-ditch effort to salvage the film by selling it to the public as a children's film (which actually worked somewhat as the film managed to do reasonable business at the box-office and a sequel is currently in the works)

*** Some of the dialog was redubbed to be more kid-friendly, too. There's a running gag where everyone keeps calling the main character "chickenshit." In the final film, this was changed to "chicken blood."

*** The film was also originally called ''Down Under'', that got changed to the somewhat misleading title we all know.

* Quite similarly to the previous two, ''[[The Santa Clause (film series)||The Santa Clause 2]]'' featured reindeer speaking proper English, when Comet was the only reindeer who could talk, although he spoke gibberish.

* Quite similarly to the previous two, ''[[The Santa Clause (film series)|The Santa Clause 2]]'' featured reindeer speaking proper English, when Comet was the only reindeer who could talk, although he spoke gibberish.

* The trailer for the 1986 Troma film ''Combat Shock'' toted it as being a Rambo-style bloodbath, though the film itself was more of a psychological horror.

** Troma likes to do this on all of their movies. Mostly because they want to the biggest audience possible but also because [[Lloyd Kaufman]] likes to play jokes on the viewers.

Line 38:

** Obviously meant for someone not familiar with [[Stanislaw Lem]]'s original novel.

* The trailer for ''Cry Wolf'' is almost entirely comprised of footage that isn't in the film itself, in an apparent attempt to market it as a PG-13 slasher film. The mild rating is actually justified in the film itself, as it's more murder mystery than slasher and one of the biggest questions is whether or not anyone has been killed at all.

* A trailer in 2002 advertised the film ''Lucky Star'' directed by Michael Mann and starring Benicio Del Toro as a professional gambler milking vast amounts of money from casinos and the stock market before drawing the attention of government agents. Turned out that there was never going to be a film at ~~all -- the~~ whole thing was actually an advert for the new Mercedes SL, his getaway car. The new Volvo S80 also used a film-trailer-style TV ad, and LG also pulled this stunt with its new Scarlet line of TVs.

* A trailer in 2002 advertised the film ''Lucky Star'' directed by Michael Mann and starring Benicio Del Toro as a professional gambler milking vast amounts of money from casinos and the stock market before drawing the attention of government agents. Turned out that there was never going to be a film at all—the whole thing was actually an advert for the new Mercedes SL, his getaway car. The new Volvo S80 also used a film-trailer-style TV ad, and LG also pulled this stunt with its new Scarlet line of TVs.

** This particular variant was parodied by Samsung in a fake trailer promoting smartphone. "No Guns", "No Romance", "No Plot", "Just Phone". "The Greatest Product Placement Movie of All Time".

*** So he's the jerk to blame for giving the ad execs the "bright" idea of those smarmy, annoying commercials we got flooded with at the theaters over the last couple years!

Line 116:

* The promotion of ''[[Harry Potter (film)|Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets]]'' seemed to really love Dobby, despite him being onscreen for no more than fifteen minutes of a two and a half hour film. Apparently, Warner Bros.' marketing department decided kids love funny CGI characters and almost went so far as to made it look like Dobby would be the new movie's [[Plucky Comic Relief]]. Instead, it just made reporters loudly raise the issue of whether or not Dobby was going to be the next [[Star Wars|Jar Jar Binks]].

** The initial trailers for ''The Half-Blood Prince'' seemed to indicate the entire movie would be only about teenagers falling in love in a wacky romantic comedy, while playing modern techno dance music in the background. Eventually they decided they should mention the fact that I dunno...there's magical battles and investigating the history of Voldemort as they prepare to destroy him?

** And don't forget the line that "magic will spread from their world into our own" ~~-- indicating~~ that the Muggle world would feature prominently in ''Harry Potter 6'' ~~-- in~~ fact, Muggles play into only the first five minutes, and then we're back to the Wizarding world.

** And don't forget the line that "magic will spread from their world into our own"—indicating that the Muggle world would feature prominently in ''Harry Potter 6''—in fact, Muggles play into only the first five minutes, and then we're back to the Wizarding world.

** David Thewlis, who plays Lupin in the HP movies, put together a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXzdDRnWFqs fake trailer] for Harry Potter as a teen comedy romance.

** In a minor example, countless TV spots for ''[[Deathly Hallows]] Part 1'' took Dobby's line "I like her very much" and used editing to make it look he's talking about Hermione. In the actual movie, the line refers to Luna.

Line 146:

* The trailer for ''[[Slumdog Millionaire]]'' makes it look like a happy love-and-success story, using ''only'' the shot of the kid with his girl to the tune of "The Sun Always Shines On TV". It completely fails to touch on how hellish his life is to that point. A poster also advertises the movie as "Two hours of unbelievable happiness!".

* A television commercial for ''[[The Dark Knight Saga|Batman Begins]]'' attempted to appeal to female audiences by playing [[Nickelback]]'s "Someday" over shots of Bruce Wayne and Rachel Dawes looking at each other longingly. Not only did the TV spot spoil one of the climactic scenes of the movie (revealing that {{spoiler|Wayne Manor had burnt down}}), but it played up the expectation that the entire film was a love story with a bit of action on the side. Also, while not terribly misleading, a trailer for ''[[The Dark Knight Saga]]'' made it look as though the Joker had caused a truck to flip just by firing a machine gun. The two moments are not connected.

** Editing also made some parts of the Joker's dialogue ~~misleading -- in~~ the actual movie his line "It's all part of the plan" is part of his monologue about how people like order (while he never has a plan) and the part where he says "And here... we... ''go''" followed by an exploding building was from the scene where {{spoiler|he's EXPECTING an explosion and is disappointed}}.

** Editing also made some parts of the Joker's dialogue misleading—in the actual movie his line "It's all part of the plan" is part of his monologue about how people like order (while he never has a plan) and the part where he says "And here... we... ''go''" followed by an exploding building was from the scene where {{spoiler|he's EXPECTING an explosion and is disappointed}}.

** ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|The Lord of the Rings]]'' films had trailers like this. One that was during daytime TV that featured only the Aragorn/Arwen romance scenes shown with soft melodies.

*** This was parodied in one of the [[TBS]] promos for the trilogy, which intentionally takes scenes out of context to make it look like the film is [[Ho Yay|a love story between Frodo and Sam]].

Line 158:

* ''[[Stuart Little]]'' is a criminal offender. Several commercials show Stuart flying a plane or fighting the cat and other cool things, but none of that happens in the film. But it does happen in the ending credits as a montage for what happens ''after'' the story is over.

* ''[[Kung Pow]]: Enter the Fist'' had commercials in which several epic battle scenes were shown. However some of them were just a teaser for the sequel (which has yet to be released, if it ever will) after the end credits and never had any impact on the real movie plot. In reality though they were just deleted scenes.

* ''[[Adventureland]]''. Some people thought it was going to be a raunchy teen comedy, and that the trailer that played on Oxygen which played up the romance was the one that ~~lied--after~~ all, it surely must be yet another [[Token Romance]], right? Turns out, their relationship ''does'' drive the movie, and the movie as a whole was ''much'' more subtle and melancholy than was advertised. It was an excellent movie, but don't go in expecting ''[[Superbad]]'' set in an amusement park.

* ''[[Adventureland]]''. Some people thought it was going to be a raunchy teen comedy, and that the trailer that played on Oxygen which played up the romance was the one that lied—after all, it surely must be yet another [[Token Romance]], right? Turns out, their relationship ''does'' drive the movie, and the movie as a whole was ''much'' more subtle and melancholy than was advertised. It was an excellent movie, but don't go in expecting ''[[Superbad]]'' set in an amusement park.

* ''[[Stardust (film)|Stardust]]'''s trailer focuses on the word "ooh" so much that it appears to be something like ''Witches of Eastwick'' focusing on middle aged female spellcasters who like to get naked, and the rest of the trailer at least lets you know this is somewhere in the fantasy action genre. It might have driven away its intended audience.

** It also features a scene where all three of the witches are young when only one of them was in the movie.

Line 231:

* ''[[Sherlock Holmes (film)|Sherlock Holmes]]'' starring [[Robert Downey, Jr.]] was bafflingly mismarketed. The trailers, taking nearly every line and scene utterly out of context, paint Holmes as a depraved, ineffectual letch, juxtaposed with a squeaky-clean Watson against a backdrop of explosions and scantily clad women. In actuality the film is a ''far'' more faithful depiction of the mood, setting, and characters than has been seen in some time.

** On a smaller scale, there's a scene in the trailer of him kissing Irene Adler and later being naked and handcuffed to a bed, insinuating that there will be a romance between them. While there's some small romantic tension, {{spoiler|she's actually kissing him as he passes out from the drugs she put in the wine. After he's unconscious she strips and handcuffs him, presumably to keep him from chasing her immediately when he wakes up. None of it is consensual on Holmes' side.}}

** And to the disappointment of [[Yaoi Fangirl~~|Yaoi Fangirls~~]] everywhere, Irene's line "They've been flirting like this for hours" as seen in the trailer does not appear in the film. However, the film was filled to the brim with [[Ho Yay]].

** And to the disappointment of [[Yaoi Fangirl]]s everywhere, Irene's line "They've been flirting like this for hours" as seen in the trailer does not appear in the film. However, the film was filled to the brim with [[Ho Yay]].

* The trailers for the 2009 adaptation of ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'' made it look like a goofy, kiddy version of the story. The actual movie however, was surprisingly [[Adaptation Distillation|faithful]] and kept most of the original's story intact, including the [[Nightmare Fuel]].

** Some reviews actually complained that it was oddly dark for a Christmas movie. You have to wonder if they were familiar with the story at all.

Line 254:

* The trailers for ''[[Shutter Island]]'' latched on to two moments of the movie to make it look like Martin Scorsese had decided to make a supernatural mystery, completely ignoring most everything that happens in the last 85% of the film.

* While it does accurately convey the basic plot and tone of the movie, the trailer for ''[[The Specials]]'' has a couple of misleading elements: Melissa Joan Hart is prominently featured and listed among the main cast: she has a one-scene cameo with about five lines of dialogue. Also, it shows a sequence where each of the main characters comes out of the base poised for action, including some special effect shots. While this ''does'' happen in the movie, it's not until the very end, and we never actually see any of the superheroes fight any crime in the film itself.

* Ah, ''Towelhead''. Based on the trailer and title, you'd think it's a coming of age comedy about a young Arab girl dealing with racism and restrictive parents while growing up. Actually it's a very [[Squick~~|Squicky~~]] film about a girl's sexual awakening as she goes through puberty, with racism only a mild element. As for being a comedy, basically any scene in the film that can elicit even a chuckle is in the trailer. And many of them aren't at all funny in context in the actual film.

* Ah, ''Towelhead''. Based on the trailer and title, you'd think it's a coming of age comedy about a young Arab girl dealing with racism and restrictive parents while growing up. Actually it's a very [[Squick]]y film about a girl's sexual awakening as she goes through puberty, with racism only a mild element. As for being a comedy, basically any scene in the film that can elicit even a chuckle is in the trailer. And many of them aren't at all funny in context in the actual film.

* The trailer to ''Vulgar'' somehow managed to make the films seem ''lighthearted''.

* The trailer to ''Lymelife'' greatly overemphasized the comedic elements. The film is barely a comedy at all. Furthermore it also made Jill Hennessy's character look like an overprotective bitch. While far from perfect, Hennessy is probably [[Adults Are Useless|the most sympathetic adult in the entire movie]].

* The trailer for ''[[Payback]]'' has a minor one in "This is [Porter's] dog" ~~-- it~~'s only a dog named ''[[We Named the Monkey "Jack"|after him]]'' by a friend/love ~~interest -- and~~ a major in featuring scenes that did not occur in the film, such as a shootout with a disguised hitwoman (restored in the [[Recut|Director's Cut]]).

* The trailer for ''[[Payback]]'' has a minor one in "This is [Porter's] dog"—it's only a dog named ''[[We Named the Monkey "Jack"|after him]]'' by a friend/love interest—and a major in featuring scenes that did not occur in the film, such as a shootout with a disguised hitwoman (restored in the [[Recut|Director's Cut]]).

* The trailer for ''Green Zone'' implies a Bourne-style thriller, with the government trying to take Matt Damon's character out as part of a cover-up. This is done through changing the context of lines: "I know what you did" is actually {{spoiler|a line at the end of the movie}} and the line "Take that son of a bitch out!" is actually referring to someone else.

* Pretty much ''every'' trailer for ''[[Alpha and Omega]]'' lied about something.

Line 281:

* A trailer for ''[[The Diary of Anne Frank]]'' shown on TCM spun it as an uplifting romance. The fact that they were hiding from the Nazis was given only a token nod at the beginning.

* The marketing for ''[[Bunny and the Bull]]'' made it look like a zany [[Road Movie]] comedy, and a pretty weak spin-off of ''[[The Mighty Boosh]]'' to boot (''every single'' trailer and advertisement reminded us not-so-subtly that it was by the director of the Boosh, and featured the shows' lead actors, [[Noel Fielding]] and Julian Barratt). This probably made BATB more successful in the UK than it would otherwise have been, as the Mighty Boosh has a dedicated enough following to give pretty much anything associated with it a sizeable popularity boost. But it was still ''hugely'' misrepresented by its advertising, and was far more [[Darker and Edgier|dark, gritty and sombre]] in tone and content than the Boosh had ever been. There were humorous moments, but to call it a comedy would be wildly inaccurate. Also, Barratt and Fielding were not major characters (as the adverts seemed to suggest) and had only relatively small cameos. It was actually still a very good film on its own account, but some of those who went into it expecting "Mighty Boosh: The Movie" were sorely disappointed.

* The trailer for ''[[Iron Man (film)|Iron Man]] 2'' had this in spades, but not in the normal ~~way -- the~~ scenes in the trailer were completely different in the movie. For example, the "kiss for good luck" bit was gone, leading to Tony just jumping out of the plane, no romantic subtext involved.

* The trailer for ''[[Iron Man (film)|Iron Man]] 2'' had this in spades, but not in the normal way—the scenes in the trailer were completely different in the movie. For example, the "kiss for good luck" bit was gone, leading to Tony just jumping out of the plane, no romantic subtext involved.

** The alternate opening with that scene appears on the DVD... with unfinished effects, showing they quickly dismissed that scene.

* The trailer for ''The Losers'' made the film look like the titular group spends the movie fighting back against the CIA, especially with the line "We're declaring war on the Central Intelligence Agency." However, aside from one or two references early in the movie, the main villain has absolutely nothing to do with the government agency.

Line 341:

** Like the ''Sweeney Todd'' example above, ads and trailers made no indication to the film being a [[Musical]].

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyOyBVXDJ9Q&feature=related One trailer] showed Rapunzel with [[Prehensile Hair]] that could grab and attack a character on its own. Other trailers showed her using the hair to close doors and windows. In the film, the hair has none of these properties, and actually has to be carried by characters throughout, as it is liable to getting caught on objects as it drags across the ground.

** By playing up some [[Subverted Trope~~|Subverted Tropes~~]] and the one scene in the film where Rapunzel overpowers the main male character, while using a punk-pop song by singer [[P!nk]], the trailers led some to believe it was a [[DreamWorks]]-style parody of traditional fairy tales, rather than a fairly straight-forward version of the story that updates Rapunzel to an [[Action Girl]].

** By playing up some [[Subverted Trope]]s and the one scene in the film where Rapunzel overpowers the main male character, while using a punk-pop song by singer [[P!nk]], the trailers led some to believe it was a [[DreamWorks]]-style parody of traditional fairy tales, rather than a fairly straight-forward version of the story that updates Rapunzel to an [[Action Girl]].

** One [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESMMMIViQdMpA web-exclusive trailer] parodies the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI "Double Rainbow" viral video], and though it is cut together mostly from scenes in the film, the voiceover is only in the trailer.

* Due to the overwhelming success of ''[[Dirty Dancing]]'', a lot of trailers for ''[[Road House]]'', which also starred Patrick Swayze, targeted women audiences. One wonders how stunned they were when they saw Swayze {{spoiler|rip out a guy's throat with his bare hands}}.

Line 359:

* A lot of people didn't want to see ''[[Coraline (animation)|Coraline]]'', even ranting about how it wasn't as scary as the book, after seeing the theatrical trailer, which made it seem more kid-friendly. This resulted in several people missing out on a great film, and [[What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?|many parents escorting terrified and crying children out of the theaters]]. Coincidentally, [[Neil Gaiman]] cited the happy, childish trailer as his favourite.

* The trailer for ''[[All Dogs Go to Heaven]]'' make it looks like a happy, sappy movie about a dog taking care of an orphan. If you ever saw the movie [[Nightmare Fuel|you would know it's anything but that.]]

* All of the trailers for ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]'' made it out to be a slapstick, comedic parody in the same vein as most of Dreamworks's animated features. Granted, this could be excused by the fact that the title character is voiced by Jack ~~Black--but~~ considering his usual style of acting and choice in film roles, this would seem to be a very strong example of [[Misaimed Marketing]] twice ~~over--most~~ fans of Jack Black's usual work would not go to see him in an animated feature, and most parents would not want their kids to see an animated feature which starred Jack Black. In any case, the movie instead turned out to be a pretty serious, epic action film with almost mythic proportions at times.

* All of the trailers for ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]'' made it out to be a slapstick, comedic parody in the same vein as most of Dreamworks's animated features. Granted, this could be excused by the fact that the title character is voiced by Jack Black—but considering his usual style of acting and choice in film roles, this would seem to be a very strong example of [[Misaimed Marketing]] twice over—most fans of Jack Black's usual work would not go to see him in an animated feature, and most parents would not want their kids to see an animated feature which starred Jack Black. In any case, the movie instead turned out to be a pretty serious, epic action film with almost mythic proportions at times.

** The comedy was all still there, not made up, but spaced out and used as comic relief to lighten the tension. Which means people coming to the film solely for Jack Black comedy were probably disappointed, and those who might have enjoyed the action never got a chance to see it because they were driven away by the trailers.

*** The trailers for the sequel appear to be giving it the same treatment, probably to keep from spoiling how awesome it will really be. Still, fans should be more [[Genre Savvy|savvy]] this time to look past them.

Line 368:

* Parodied in the trailer for ''[[Aqua Teen Hunger Force]] Colon Movie Film for Theaters'', which gives a long list of things that '''do not''' appear in the movie. Except the flaming chicken.

** Similarly, an early trailer for ''[[Team America]]'' gave a long list of actors and political figures...followed by the note that "They're all going to hate this movie" (since it's a send-up of [[The War on Terror]] and directly makes fun of many of them).

* ''[[Mrs. Doubtfire]]'' is another [[Robin Williams]] film whose trailers will make you think 'zany wacky' and that the Dad he plays is dressing up so as to avoid the results of some harebrained scheme that went wrong. The trailers kind of completely ignore the heart-wrenching scenes wherein he and Sally Field tear each other to emotional pieces as and after their marriage falls ~~apart--in~~ front of their kids. [[Pierce Brosnan]] is made to seem an unwanted interloper - in fact he is scads more responsible and stable than Williams' character. And the unmasking scene is not an 'uh-oh' but a huge emotional gamble that at first backfires hideously.

* ''[[Mrs. Doubtfire]]'' is another [[Robin Williams]] film whose trailers will make you think 'zany wacky' and that the Dad he plays is dressing up so as to avoid the results of some harebrained scheme that went wrong. The trailers kind of completely ignore the heart-wrenching scenes wherein he and Sally Field tear each other to emotional pieces as and after their marriage falls apart—in front of their kids. [[Pierce Brosnan]] is made to seem an unwanted interloper - in fact he is scads more responsible and stable than Williams' character. And the unmasking scene is not an 'uh-oh' but a huge emotional gamble that at first backfires hideously.

* ''[[Sucker Punch]]''. It is not a lighthearted film at all.

* The trailers for ''[[The Adjustment Bureau]]'' suggested that Thompson (Terence Stamp) is the primary Adjuster, when really he's only in the second half for four or five scenes. The primary Adjuster is Richardson, played by John Slattery. [[One-Scene Wonder|Although, Terence Stamp stole the show anyway.]]

Line 417:

* ''[[The Way of the Gun]]'''s misleading trailer made it look as though it was going to be a farcical comedy, when in fact the movie itself is a fairly sullen action flick.

* A TV spot for ''[[Megamind]]'' added a fart joke to Minion, but there wasn't a single toilet joke in the film.

* Trailers for Tim Burton's ''[[Dark Shadows (film)|Dark Shadows]]'' played up its [[Fish Out of Temporal Water]] humor, which it has plenty ~~of -- but~~ it's a [[Black Comedy]] with moments of high drama rather than a farce.

* Trailers for Tim Burton's ''[[Dark Shadows (film)|Dark Shadows]]'' played up its [[Fish Out of Temporal Water]] humor, which it has plenty of—but it's a [[Black Comedy]] with moments of high drama rather than a farce.

* The third trailer for ''[[John Carter (film)|John Carter]]'' made the embarrassing choice of using dubstep and added in a line from Deja Thoris that hinted at a plot element about the risk of both Mars and Earth being destroyed. The film didn't do so well at the box office, so methinks Disney were forcing the failure a little too hard.

* ''[[The Iron Lady|The Iron Lady's]]'' trailer suggests that the film is about the political career of [[Margaret Thatcher]]. The actual film is 1/3 about the political career of Margaret Thatcher and 2/3 about an old lady with crippling mental illness, haunted by the memory of her late husband. Whoever cut together the trailer correctly identified which part audiences ended up enjoying more.

Line 425:

[[Category:~~{{BASEPAGENAME}}~~]]

[[Category:Never Trust a Trailer]]

[[Category:{{SUBPAGENAME}}]]