Movie Trailers: Spoiler Trailers Spoil Films

Hollywood movie makers erroneously countenance the production of trailers that give away the best moments in the movies they are meant to advertise. These trailers are now dubbed Spoiler Trailers. These spoiler trailers do essentially the same thing as spoiler reviews: they give away the movie and spoil the viewing experience of all who are exposed to them. And who isn't exposed to trailers? Even those who try to avoid watching trailers for various reasons are unrelentingly exposed to them at every film showing attended. I suppose one could save ones seat and then lurk out in the hall until all the trailers have been shown....

The effect of spoiler trailers on movie viewing is to disappoint and distract viewers from the film. Anticipation and excitement are purposely built up by trailers and this carries over to the actual viewing experience, from which we expect greater things than the trailer offers: We have higher expectations of the film than of the trailer.

When the trailer portrays the best moments in the film, when it give away the premises, puzzles and conclusions, the resultant disappointment works to the disadvantage of the movie, partially because of the let down feeling that accompanies the disappointment. Additionally, a lack of focus results as the viewer inwardly says things like, "That's the whole joke? We already know the whole joke?" or, "Aw - that gave it away! That gave the whole thing away!" The actual, and sometimes excellent, details of the film cannot be attended to during reactions and comments such as these. Furthermore, these inner comments serve to remove the viewer from the fantasy, which is an occurrence that is, as I say from time to time, counterproductive to the objective of film making - very counterproductive. Along with these reactions can also come a disappointment-sparked lack of interest in the remainder of the film, a "Why bother?" kind of attitude which, of course, further sabotages viewer reaction to the film.

What are some recent examples of spoiler trailers? Take the Lead (Liz Friedlander, 2006), starring Antonio Banderas, is an excellent example. The trailer features many segments of the best tango ever danced in cinematographic history. This dance is fabulous. The trailer also clearly shows the setting and the situation, as well as a good chunk of the dance. When watching the film, the viewer anticipates the upcoming dance because the setting and situation are unmistakable. But, like with all great moments, there is a build-up and set-up before getting there. With each preparatory cut, and there are several, an expectation of "Now comes the dance..." is followed by the disappointed realization of "No, not now." Thus, the spoiler trailer produces a double-edged sabotage to the film. First, anticipation produces lack of focus on the preceding scenes, so that they are poorly attended to and under-appreciated. Second, disappointment at already having seen almost the whole dance leads to sulky disinterestedness in what follows. The fantasy has been broken and viewer response is much lower than it would have been without the spoiler trailer.

Another great example is the current release, The Devil Wears Prada (David Frankel, 2006), with Meryl Streep, Ann Hathaway and Stanley Tucci. Two huge spoilers are in Prada's trailer. First, Meryl Streep's entrance and, second, her biggest joke. Her entrance from the elevator is shown and, judging by her demeanor and deportment, you might think this is her first appearance on camera. That thought might be attended by an inner comment like, "Wow, what a great appearance." But it isn't her first entrance. At the cinema, you see that, in fact, much footage is devoted to getting her to that fabulous moment in which she steps out of the elevator. If these preliminary sequences were viewed for the first time, without prior conceptions and anticipations built up by a spoiler trailer, then the sequence could have a dynamic effect (I'm not sure; I was so disappointed, I couldn't pay attention). But, because of the spoiler, the full sequence of Streep's introduction is a disappointing annoyance. Further, her best joke is shown in whole in the trailer, so when viewed in context, the reaction tends to be, "That's it?? We already saw the whole thing??" Again, the result is a dampening of viewer reception of the film.

Two recent movies that did not release spoiler trailers are The Da Vinci Code (Ron Howard, 2006) and Poseidon (Wolfgang Petersen, 2006) They each showed a lot, but nothing in its whole context - and that seems to be the key: exposing or withholding context. Each of the cuts shown in these trailers had new connections and unknown context when seen in the full film. So - spoiler trailers can be avoided, and they ought to be.

Many people like to write movie reviews these days, whether on Yahoo! or IMDb or elsewhere. When you write your reviews, mention how the movie viewing experience is spoiled for you by too much being given away in the trailer. Go even further than that, decry spoiler trailers. Movies are based on the demi-god of consumerism, and if consumers reject a practice of an industry, the practice is ultimately changed. More than that, because spoiler trailers negatively effect the way viewers respond to industry's multi-million dollar movies (or is it multi-billion dollar?), they are also negatively effecting box-office draw. Movie makers have a strong motivation right there - draw at the box-office - for changing away from the practice of producing spoiler trailers. All we have to do is say - very loudly, but politely - that spoiler trailers spoil movies - and box-office money-making.