the movie trailer dilemma

By DOUG and Kayla Nunn

There was a point in time when I was so excited to go to the theater, not just for the movie but for the trailers. This was before YouTube and the only way to see the newest trailer was in the theater, or you could wait, get lucky and catch it during a commercial break on TV. Slowly that started to shift. I noticed trailers getting longer and with more dialogue. Now instead of the 1 or 2 trailers we get 3 trailers, then instead of 3 trailers we get a short teaser trailer then three more trailers, then it went to 3 teasers and 3 trailers plus TV spots. The point is, it feels like the production companies are taking advantage of hype and trying really hard to get views on YouTube in the hopes the trailer will go viral and not focusing on the actual point which is to get us excited about the movie without spoiling it and to hold us off until the movie comes out. Go on YouTube and watch older trailers. You will get little to no plot, the timing is all over the place yet it is still entertaining. Not to mention, what happened to the loud voice actor telling us how rad the movie is gonna be?!

Now I feel like we get way too much information. There are defi nitely trailers out there where I feel like after viewing it I don’t need to see the movie because I got all the information in the trailer. But it’s not just that, it’s also the quantity of trailers and each trailer has to be diff erent adding new scenes revealing locations or new characters, simply releasing too much information. For an example of a recent good trailer, watch the new “Avatar 2” teaser trailer. It is beautiful with great visuals and a good score but if you notice, the music and sound you hear are not the actual sounds of the scene - or if it is, it is quiet and distorted, creating a distance from the actual scene. Hopefully they stay on this trend but I have a feeling the next “Avatar” trailer will be full of plot details I really don’t wanna know until I see the movie. The recent “Dr. Strange Multiverse of Madness” trailers, and Marvel trailers in general, are suff ering from this greatly right now I feel. For example, one of the “Dr. Strange’’ trailers revealed Professor Xavier and then in the last TV spot a couple weeks before the movie’s release they revealed that it was a version of Professor X from the 90’s animated series by showing his iconic yellow hover chair. Having seen the movie I can say right now, had I not seen the chair or Professor X in the trailer and TV spot, it would have made the reveal and the scene much better. Yes it was still great to see a character I grew up with on the big screen again but I just wish I was spared the details. Even though I enjoyed the trailer, I truly feel they are taking away from the actual movie experience. Yes, I know the simple solution would be to just not watch trailers and avoid anything with spoilers or deep dive videos. But we all know how hard that can be, plus the TV spots play randomly so you can be watching the Seahawks game and then… boom, all of a sudden you see Professor X’s yellow hover chair.

If any big Marvel guy or movie producer is reading this *cough cough Kevin Fiege* please stop making mini movies instead of trailers! I do think this has something to do with why the last couple Marvel movies have been met with some criticism, and maybe it’s not Kevin or the director or anyone involved with the movie, maybe the movie production reaches out to an outside source or marketing company for their trailers? But with some of the sensitive topics that Marvel deals with I highly doubt it. Lots of what Marvel does is preplanned and very thought out which confuses me even more. They should be smart enough to know that revealing too much can be a bad thing. Not to sound like I’m bashing on Marvel because this is happening to trailers across the board. Don’t get me wrong, I will still consume any content Marvel puts out like Bruce Bogtrotter eating chocolate cake. I only say Marvel because people looking to make a good trailer or movie look at what’s selling and working and Marvel has been on top for a while now but I do hope to see a trend of more secrecy and mystery soon. Let’s just get back to the trailers where we get yelled at by the guy that sounds like Peter Cullen.

Doug and Kayla Nunn are owners and operators of The Time Capsule, a retro media hub that celebrates all things nostalgic and pop culture related.

Find them: @retromediaman | 23 Orondo Avenue, Wenatchee and at timecapsulecollectibles.com C