I was thinking about how there is quite a bit of talent involved in making a good trailer, one that makes you really want to see the film. What is your favorite trailer, the one that everytime you see it, it makes you want to watch the movie right then and there. I'd have to say mine would be Adaptation, with Under Pressure by David Bowie and Queen playing (before it became widespread in many many trailers). If I watch that after I finish the movie, I'm tempted to watch it again back to back. What are some trailers you thought were better than the movie itself?

I really liked the "War of the Worlds" teaser & superbowl trailer,
but haven't seen the movie, of course.

The Hellboy trailer was better than the movie, Resident Evil:
Apocalypse had a great trailer too, haven't seen the movie though.

The "Sin City" (Robert Rodriguez) trailer has me psyched to watch the movie. Of course, I do hope that the movie is even better than the trailer...

I just saw the Sin City trailer and it does look really good. Although it also looks like Sky Captain sometimes. But I believe in Robert Roderiguez and I love the comic so I'm rooting for it. I remembered another case where the trailer outdoes the film.... TROY.

Sin City was very great indeed!

Kingdom of Heaven has a very beautiful trailer (the movie isn't released yet)

Sometimes for a movie you have to release very little info. A pretty bad movie here in Belgium, 'De Alias' had a very good teaser trailer, you only saw a woman crying in a kind of box, it was very dark, and suddenly you saw an axe against the box and she was yelling, so the trailer almost only exists of a black screen and a woman crying. I really wanted to see the movie afterwards.

Pitty the movie was so bad.

BTW: The scene with the box wasn't in the movie, but was just shot by the filmmakers for this trailer!

And Fight Club had a couple of very cool internet trailers too, I think you can find them on the dvd.

<<<-- Originally posted by Rob Lohman : I really liked the "War of the Worlds" teaser & superbowl trailer,
but haven't seen the movie, of course.

The Hellboy trailer was better than the movie, Resident Evil:
Apocalypse had a great trailer too, haven't seen the movie though. -->>>

That WotW teaser momentarily had everybody's jaws on the floor at a Superbowl party I attended.

BEAT (other thread reference ;) )

Everone started talking, all at the same time, about how awesome it's gonna be.

...and for the love of god, don't waste the two hours of your life watching Res Evil.

trailers have been around for quite a long time. if you're talking about historically, i really liked the trailer for citizen kane. it's a bit of a fluff, but very stylized... only orson could do it =).

as for THIS particular year, my favorite right now has to be Constantine (both teaser and full traier made me want to see the film no matter how bad it is), Kingdom of Heaven (full version was great... but the edited trailer is less quality than the full one, i'm still seeing it.), and Star Wars Episode III. lucasfilm has always made great trailers... we know by episode i&ii =).

sin city was pretty unique... but i haven't seen the film yet so i dunno.

fight club has one of my fav trailers of all time. i still remember seeing it. i was watching episode i phantom menace and i remembered distinctly that the fight club trailer was so much better than the entire film phantom menace =^). it didn't give ANYTHING away but it gave you enough of a hook to see the film and taht's what trialers should do. most trailers give the ENTIRE fim away... what's the point of seeing the film if the trailer gives away the ENTIRE film? also fight club's trailer was great because even in the trailer when the corporate art was destroyed you realized that anarchic part of yourself wanted to see that film so bad. it had th elements of the film on display for you. the dark humour the narrator's cynical voice. it was awesome. though i'm not a Gen-Xers i know that if i was... i'd've gone to see based on the trailer alone.

re: war of the worlds didn't impress me because if you look @tom&spielberg's current track record they're not exactly making classics. they're just making oodles of money. i have my doubts of war of th worlds. the last few films of tom&spielberg were pretty stupid and borderlining terrible.

why do people care about trailers its just a part of commerce. Most of the time they show the best parts and the movie sucks
I rather base myself on reading an article about it or hearing it from somebody instead of drewling for a couple of shots

Because certain aspects of marketing can be called artistic expressions. There are beautiful and dreadful examples.

One of my favorite trailers has to be from "Cliffhanger".

I remember seeing it the winter before it came out in theatres.

It was all visuals(no actual dialogue) and done with a really famous piece of orchestral music that crescended at the end.

HANG ON!

It ended with Sylvestor Stallone doing the "Kings Leap"(which doesn't really appear in the movie)...

I was reading this guys list of all time favorite movies (most were pretty good) and he included the trailer for Cliffhanger! So I specifically tracked it down and watched it and yes it is an amazing trailer. Also, has anyone ever seen the trailer for the movie Dr. Detroit starring Dan Akroyd? I've never seen the movie, but apparently his character has some metal claw hand and the trailer was sheer chaos. The movie must be mid 80's if it's lucky. I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes, not because the movie was that funny, but the pure insanity of the trailer.

Going way back - remember the original "Alien" trailer? The entire trailer was this egg slowly opening up....that's it! However, it got everyone into the theater because it was creepy. Also, interestly...it really had nothing to do with the movie itself. The egg was in the movie, but only very briefly. (great scene though)

So, the moral of the story? Trailers shouldn't give the movie away! I make it a point to avoid watching the entire trailer...maybe 15-20 seconds to see who's in it.

If you haven't done it yet - go see a movie without watching the trailers. It's a whole new experience....I just did it for "Sideways". My friend said to see it, so I went....totally awesome experience!

More recently, the Incredibles. The trailer with Mr. Incredible trying to put on his belt. I laughed so much. They did such a great job with that, I'll bet I watched it a hundred times. The one with "woman, give me my super-suit" was funny too but the big disappointment came when I went to see the movie. It was alright, but not on par with the other Pixar movies in my opinion.

The teaser trailer for "Signs" (Mel Gibsons) was really intriguing but the movie was a huge disappointment as well. The movie was nothing like I expected from the trailers, I actually kind of felt robbed afterwards.

...and Star Wars Episode I
I couldn't contain my excitement when I first saw the trailer on the big screen (I was a Star Wars kid growing up, wanted to be Luke so bad) But when my buddy and I went to actually see the movie on opening day, we ended up walking out of it because it sucked so bad!

Newest Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy trailer makes fun of trailers.

http://home.gotland.com/wisby/internettrailer.avi

hi keith, there's a UK version of the internet trailer they broadcasted on sky one:

http://home.gotland.com/totta/uktrailer.avi

That trailer gives me hope.

The Day After Tomorrow was pretty catchy. Movie had a lot of holes but the trailer spoke to me.

Also, Independence Day.
Not that the trailer was overly visually stimulating. Just that, the way they drew us in and made us all want to see it sooooo bad that by the time it came out, it had already sold out theaters all over the world. Did anyone else watch that movie in a full theater?

Yes, I too watched Independence Day in a packed theatre that we had to get tickets to before actually going to the show. The day it was released too, where I lived there was a gigantic storm, and as we came out of the theatre there were monstrous gray clouds like in the movie and my friends and I all "oooooohhhhhh"-ed. It was cool.

the scene that had everyone jumping was the opening of the alien scene. it was so predictable that everyone sorta braced for it... but when the Dolby Digital sound kicked in everyone leaned back/jumped and the girls let out a scream... ah it was a wonderful summer =^).

some movies are best experienced with an audience.

1986 baby.

My brother, his friend and I convinced my Dad's receptionist to give us money out of the petty cash so we could see ALIENS.

That was awesome. We had to apologize later when he gave her hell for giving us money for that.

But Daaadd.. It was so cool!

OK how about this? I can't remember any of the origianal Star Wars Trailers but how full was the theater when you saw Return of The Jedi? I personally waited in line for about 4 hours with my mom and a bunch of other kids. Just to see it in Dolby Stereo on one of seven screens. Wow! Those speeder bikes were the coolest special effects I had ever seen. They still look a hell of a lot more real than some of the new computer stuff.

you can see the old star wars trailers on the trilogy DVD box set out now =).

Keith,

Are you really an Air China Pilot or is that just a nice little title they gave you?

I'm part of the FAQ :)

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10188&highlight=Air+china+pilot

I saw Sin City this weekend (which was incredible) and there was a brand new trailer for Episode III. It was hands down the best trailer I have ever seen. I have never wanted to see a movie more. It gave me shivers. May 19th why are you so far away?