To Watch or Not to Watch Trailers
A movie trailer is essentially the basic feel of the movie wrapped up in about 2-3 minutes. This insight into the movie does help the audience decide whether or not they want to sit through it; however, in many cases, this preview may cross the fine line between being a trailer and a spoiler.
Take for example the trailer of Cast Away (2000). The movie is about a man, played by Tom Hanks, who survives a plane crash and gets washed ashore onto a deserted island. The trailer not only gets that point across, but also goes out its way to answer the most pressing question in the movie: "Does he get rescued?"
Unfortunately, the trailer (read: spoiler) of Cast Away is not an anomaly in the film industry. There are countless other trailers like it that give away the plotline almost completely. The trailers of Free Willy (1993), The Island (2005) and Insidious (2011) to name just a few, do exactly that and ultimately ruin the excitement of the whole film.
In other cases, where the trailer does manage to not ruin the plot, it consists of some of the best scenes of the movie. It makes sense that the trailer should include those scenes – after all, the whole purpose of a trailer is to attract viewers, and what better way to do so than by showcasing the best the film has to offer? However, since you already see it beforehand, once it plays in the movie, it is somewhat robbed of its wow factor.
This usually proves to be less problematic for action or super-hero movies, where the best scenes do not necessarily give up crucial storylines. In these cases, the trailers are perfect. After all, who wouldn't get hyped up seeing that car drop scene from the trailer of Furious 7 (2015), or our favourite super heroes making their stand together in The Avengers (2012)? The aforementioned case of trailers poking into the plot, however, is most prevalent in horror movies. The trailer of The Conjuring (2013) is terrifying – absolutely bone-chilling. Yet it is so at the expense of ruining almost half the scares in the movie. If you watch the trailer before the movie, you can easily pick up when some of the horror elements are going to make an appearance.
On the flipside, watching a trailer is convenient. It's easier than reading online or magazine reviews or watching video reviews that are generally longer than the trailers. You also get to know significant aspects of the movie, hopefully "non-spoilery" features like the basic theme and an idea of how it looks, which act as deciding factors on whether it truly is a movie worth your time. It's better to withstand a three minute ordeal than a three hour one.
Then again, let's say, you see the trailer, you love the actors in it, the cinematography is appealing and the plot seems interesting. However, what would you do if by the end of it you realise that everything that is about to happen has been neatly summed up with nothing left to curiosity?
Bottom line: watch trailers at your own risk.
With a keen eye and a broken brain to mouth filter, Mahejabeen Hossain Nidhi has a habit of throwing obscure insults from classical novels at random people who may or may not have done anything to warrant them. Drop her a line at [email protected]
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