People in the movie theatre where I saw Star Wars The Force Awakens on Thursday night started grumbling by the time the fifth or sixth trailer rolled out. Each green preview screen was another delay. But the eighth trailer won us over.
First we had this:
Then, if I’m remembering the order correctly, this:
Then this:
Then this:
Then this:
Then this (by which point people were beginning to grumble):
Then this (which may have been a good trailer and may have made the last one look like a joke but was still preceded by more groaning):
And, finally, this last one. The green preview screen that preceded it elicited the worst reaction of them all, but the trailer soon had the entire theatre laughing. We loved it. How ironic that it was a trailer about being forced to wait for the thing you want:
Well-played, Zootopia people!
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27 responses to “Of The Eight Trailers Before Star Wars, The Slowest One Got The Best Reaction”
We only had 2 trailers, Superman V Batman, then Captain America, which also made the previous trailer look like a joke.
Also had no ads. None.
The Edge Cinema in Katoomba is the best, had a huge screen, and had plenty of tickets for TFA available for every session, and still does. Well worth the drive for the nearly IMAX sized screen.
Ended up just walking into the next session and watching it again, so happy that the movie didn’t disappoint, I frigging loved it.
You’ve said something similar so it’s probably best to ask it here, why does this Captain America film make X-Men or Superman v Batman look like jokes? Honestly to me they all looked pretty much the same. I don’t watch these sorts of films but is there something hidden in the trailers that makes one look good and the other look like a joke or something?
The Batman V Superman trailer is without exaggeration one of the worst trailers I’ve ever seen to the point I’m probably not going to see the movie in cinemas anymore. Few reasons…
– awkward cuts which don’t even happen in time with the music. Gives it a very “YouTube fan video” feel.
– the music is repetitive and dull. It kind of sounds like they snagged the cheapest royalty free music they could and rolled with it. Again gives it a YouTube fan video feel.
– jokes that miss the mark in an otherwise serious trailer.
– worst of all, they straight up show how the conflict between Batman and Superman ends. The movie is called “Batman V Superman” but they show them making up in the trailer. It’s a step beyond trailers that show too much, it’s an outright spoiler. They should have called the movie “Batman and Superman V Someone Else.”
The Cap 3 trailer, on the other hand, is well cut, is set to a great piece of music which sounds like it’s straight from the soundtrack, and shows enough to set up the film’s plot while also giving people no idea where it’s going. Really great trailer IMO.
So are we talking about the trailers and not the films they are advertising? Because they all looked very similar / formulaic to me. Superheroes, ensemble cast, CGI to replace plot, CGI to replace characterisation, CGI to replace fight scenes.
I think the Captain America one had a plot line that seemed most interesting to me as someone who doesn’t watch those films, but I actually think the one thing they needed to explain more clearly in the trailer is the catalyst for the conflict. It’s not there or it’s not explained will enough for someone who may not know the story already to recognise. Don’t get me wrong, I hate trailers in general, you talk like over-revealing the plot is a problem only SvB had, but that has become the norm now. But yeah just needed that one piece of information to make the Captain America one more engaging I think.
All of these trailers and films for this superhero explosion Hollywood has created look so similar it’s confusing as hell. I actually thought Captain America was an Avengers film to be honest. May as well be for all the shared characters.
Over revealing in trailers is absolutely a big problem, but as I said, the BvS trailer went a step beyond and showed the resolution to the main conflict in the film.
I’m not really sure what you mean by CGI replacing everything — CGI is a great tool when used correctly, and literally 90% of CGI goes unnoticed — but yes, I’m talking about the trailers rather than the films.
Well I mean, take Star Wars for example, you look at the way the prequel trilogy has aged compared to the original trilogy. Yoda looks awful in Episode 1. Yoda actually looks better in Empire Strikes Back as a physical character, even though it’s “less emotive”. When I see CGI characters in a film, it pulls me out of it. I assume you’ve seen The Force Awakens but (spoiler tags even though this is barely a spoiler)
there were two CGI characters in that at least that immediately pulled me out of the film for the way they stood out as not real.Look at the first Indiana Jones films compared to the latest one. With practical effects, everything is grounded in reality, the action scenes are more personal, the stakes seem higher, and the danger seems tangible. As soon as the director loses the limitations of practicality, action scenes tend to take a nosedive. They become big, bombastic, confusing messes. It’s pretty, but empty.
The sort of window dressing CGI that, as you say, is unrecognisable most of the time, that’s awesome. But CGI isn’t at the point where we should be making entire characters who occupy anything more than the background of a scene CGI.
Funnily enough, if you remember they used a physical puppet for Yoda in Episode 1 originally and it was atrocious. In the end they replaced him with a CG version for later releases of the film which ended up looking significantly better – although most of the CG from that era looks dated when compared to what we saw in TFA or other, more recent films.
And soon we’ll be saying that about The Force Awakens. Real props / characters don’t age in that way. I’m gonna look up this Episode 1 puppet Yoda though.
EDIT: I saw the video. I think the biggest problem is that it’s a puppet used in a CGI world (which makes it stand out big time), and that the puppet itself looks less awesome than the original trilogy Yoda did. You’d think after that long there would be some pretty significant puppet technology that could have improved the look of it.
Is that stoner sloth??
http://www.stonersloth.com.au/
Was thinking the same thing. Perfect timing for this trailer. 😀
I’ve always had this hatred for pre-movie things. Like, isn’t it enough that we paid for the ticket? Shouldn’t that entitle us to just watch the movie instead of wasting 20 minutes on previews and ads?
The ads shit me, but I don’t mind a few trailers. Certainly don’t need 8,though, that’s just stupid. I just don’t like the fact that the movie ends up starting about 20+ minutes later than the advertised session time.
I didn’t go to the midnight screening of Star Wars but I know people who did. It was scheduled to start at 12:05am but there was THIRTY FIVE minutes of ads and previews, so the movie actually didn’t start until about 12:40am. I mean come on, people are probably already struggling to stay awake and you slug them with 35 minutes of ads and previews before the movie starts. Why are we paying 20 bucks a ticket to sit through 35 minutes of ads?
I was at a midnight session and it was exactly as you described. The Rivoli in Camberwell didn’t put on anything celebrating the event but deemed it noteworthy enough to slam their customers in the face with ad after ad. I’m sure they made enough money not to care, but it’s put me off going to the movies for a while. Cynical, money-grabbing opportunism. Then Village Cinemas had the temerity to send me a survey the following day asking how they did!
Fortunately, the film was wonderful.
I’ve watched 3 movies in Hong Kong cinemas – The Avengers, Godzilla and Firestorm
They were a mix of afternoon and evening sessions
Every movie started on the advertised ticket time. I remember seeing the Avengers, it was a 2pm start and thinking “ah its fine, a few minutes of ads and crap” – walked into the cinema 2.03 and the opening scene was already playing
When I asked my HK friend why, he said its because the people of HK just dont put with things they dont like. If it annoys them, they vote with the wallets and are very vocal (ie they will CANCEL their mobile phone plans, and move to another provider, not just get on forums and whinge like we seem to do).
Our problem is we bend over too easily for things we hate. $20 to see a movie and then ads? No thanks, not anymore
Woah why so many trailers?
When I watched the first time at a midnight showing we had no trailers just straight to the movie, almost missed the opening crawl whilst going to the toilet. Second time we got trailers for In the Heart of the Sea (Out), Creed (out), Daddy’s Home and Joy if I remember correctly. Smh Maryborough cinemas!
You yanks got it better than here in Australia. 40 minutes of ads for Schweppes drinks, telstra pepsi and other annoying products followed by one trailer for the new Captain America then the film. 12:01am session time, 12:45am start. And cinemas wonder why their attendance is down in comparison to a decade ago
Tell me about it.
About 20 minutes in to the TV like adverts I blurted out “Oh fuck off” a little louder than I thought. Thankfully people laughed and some chimed in with “Start the damn movie!”
Midnight showing, no trailers and a single add for a new local sports club opening up. Larger than normal screen and in cinema 2 built for 250 people had 30 people in the room. I cinema 1 was at capacity but. The local cinema is an independent cinema. Not a franchise so might play a part in it.
Go to Imax, no ads (other than a short one about their fancy new projecter) and only trailers for movies that they have announced to show at Imax – so we got Warcraft, Civil War and Batman V Superman trailers – oh and obviously it’s a bigger/better screen and better sound…. At least Melbourne Imax anyway, can’t speak for ads/trailers at others but I imagine they would be about the same.
That’s my reaction normally, regardless of context. I feel like an old man saying this, but most modern trailers are more likely to give me a headache than to get me excited for the film. I like the Zootopia one though, I like that it’s almost a self-contained scene and gives away nothing.
Only had 4, but they concentrated the awfulness of it all by showing a trailer for the Point Break remake nobody wanted.
Now with a crap-tonne of extreme sports thrown in to pad out the movie, and a bunch of actors you’ve never heard of, led by a DP taking a stab at directing. (I barely cared about the original, and that had a decent director and cast… this just looks painful.)
I have always said that the trailers are the second best part of the movie. No one has disagreed so far.
After sitting through 15 minutes of local advertisements, the trailers began. But there was an issue with the projector so they cut all trailers and went straight to the movie. Normally I’d be fine with this but I actually wanted to see the Warcraft and Superman V Batman trailer on the big screen in 3D, so I could make a definitive decision on whether to see them in 3D or not.
A bit of a bummer, but star wars was so good, I’ll go see it again with the trailers
Sat through 22 minutes of TV style commercials and 3 trailers (BBC’s Sherlock movie, Batman v Superman & a live action remake of The Jungle Book). 30 minutes of crap total before the movie even began. I made sure to put in complaints to the manager on call, emailed the head manager of the cinema, and sent a copy to head office, and I got a survey to fill out which I made sure to mention it there too.
So weird. I went to the midnight showing at Chermside and there was like… three trailers. The movie got underway damn fast, literally within minutes of what I expected.
Also, that Zootopia trailer was hilarious. I have to see that. Man… the US gets much better trailers than us.