Worship Media Arts

Ok… I just have to get this off my chest…

I’VE HAD IT WITH MOVIE TRAILERS!

It’s gotten to the point where too much is revealed, plots are spoiled, and the majority of narratives are stuffed into the two to three minute trailers meant to promote films.

I’ve often joked at our seminars that now-a-days you watch the trailer and see every major plot point and then end up having to pay to see the ending. While that started out as a joke, I’m beginning to thing it’s true.

I’ve always heard it said that some readers like to read the last page of a novel first so they know the ending in advance. I couldn’t imagine doing that. For the most part I hate spoilers. I want to take the ride from the beginning to the end and along the way I like to see what I can figure out about what’s going to happen.

It’s a bit of a conumdrum, really; movie trailers. Ideally, they should introduce enough of the story to get people interested without being a summary of the film before it’s released. For years movie ticket sales have been in decline, so maybe trailer editors are less willing to risk teasing the audience. Instead give away too much of the story up front.

Last Friday, I took my son to see Bedtime Stories starring Adam Sandler. I was looking forward to seeing this film myself, and I really couldn’t wait to see my son react to some of what I saw in the trailer. As the movie began and the story started to unfold, I became frustrated. Within the first 20 minutes or so I could see exactly where the film was going because the trailer had revealed many of the major scenes.

In the film, Adam Sandler’s character tells his niece and nephew bedtime stories and they basically come true the next day. Of course in the trailer this is laid out pretty clearly, only when you’re watching it prior to entering the theater, you don’t realize (spoiler alert) that every story he tells appears in the trailer. As the film progresses, if one thinks back to the trailer (as I did) they can clearly see how each story will work factor into the final plot.

Throughout the picture, I found myself thinking, it’s not over yet because they haven’t done X scene or Y scene that was in the trailer. I also remember thinking, oh, this scene doesn’t matter because I remember seeing X happen in the trailer. It took much of the fun out of it for me. I really wish they’d revealed much less and give moviegoers a smaller taste of the essence of a film.

Of course this isn’t an isolated incident. I’ve experienced this with other movies in recent years as well. I’m just really tired of it!

End of rant.

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