What movies did NOT live up to their trailers?
3 months ago by TheImpressiveX to c/movies
Let's add The Force Awakens to that as well. People were really hyped by the trailer and what they thought it would lead to. Only for it to be a mediocre opening to an even worse trilogy.
I think people got really attached to the idea of a new direction for Star Wars that they thought they were getting from the trailer, and then were disappointed when reality inevitably fell short of it.
Godzilla (2014).
Thought it would be a cool new take on kaiju movies. It had Bryan Cranston, a cool new Godzilla design, the marketing implied it'd be paying homage to the early tokusatsu Godzilla films, etc.
They kill off Bryan Cranston in the first few minutes, and then the rest of the movie follows his character's generic action movie protagonist son. It barely shows Godzilla until the end, which wouldn't be a problem as long as there is a compelling human narrative (Godzilla 1954 and Godzilla -1 are good examples). But the narrative effectively turns into US military propaganda. Behold, as the brave servicemen of the US military rise to any challenge, driven by an unshakeable sense of duty and patriotism. Not even a kaiju will sway them. The military saves Godzilla, who then defeats the monsters, and all is well. Roll credits. Hope some teenagers are convinced to enlist.
I was not surprised to learn after the fact that the US military had a hand in writing the script. They even purged a few unsympathetic portrayals of military history from early drafts as well, such as Ken Watanabe's character's familial connection to the bombing of Hiroshima. They did not want anyone to imply that nuking Japan was wrong.
All that is to say, the movie misses the point completely, when Godzilla (at least in its original incarnation) is supposed to be a direct allegory to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—disaster that begets greater disaster. The cold war arms race.
Even the original isn't really good, it was just the first what we would call CGI/Live Action integration.
Oh, I was definitely referring to the original. I saw it twice in the theater when it came out but it was still the equivalent of a made for tv movie at the time. Great visuals. Terrible, uneven storytelling.
The goal of the good guy is so dumb, « let’s print orange tree on the North Pole » (hardly a spoiler is in the first 20min).
That was a test. But apparently the fact that it was specifically an orange tree was a reference to some tech thing in real history.
I enjoyed Ares. Not like as an actual movie, but it was a fun time.
Smokin' Aces was so bad that I can't believe I sat through the whole thing. It looked like it would be a fun heist/fiasco movie, but it was incredibly dull without any likeable characters.
The first Suicide Squad movie. trailers made it look awesome, dark DC movie. it was anything but.
sticking with DC i'd also go with The Flash. Keaton returning as Batman, awesome. movie was anything but with EXCEPTIONALLY bad CGI. like holy crap bad CGI.
The Flash was just a two hours long joke to put Clooney as a punch line.
Disclosure Day
Bambi Meets Godzilla
In contrast to the post, The Shining trailer is what all trailers should strive to be.
Reign of Fire.
It looked awesome, but wasn’t.
Jarhead (2005).
The trailer pitches an action/adventure war movie. Think like "Saving Private Ryan" but more adventurous. What we get instead is a "kids go to war only to discover that war is boring, not fun and terrible" movie. Also it just wasn't a good film.
In theory it's genius marketing. As a movie goer I'm excited to go see a war movie. But then, like the movie itself, I discover war isn't all it's cracked up to be. Except... I knew that already. Sometimes I just want to see a fun action movie.
Funny enough the film has three direct to video sequels (although sequels in name only) which are generic action war films.
Godzilla (2014).
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Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (episode 1)
I remember being so hyped for this trailer. Then the movie came out and it was awful/dull/wooden/juvenille/poorly written.
save