Sure we have about three months to go and there is bound to be a few quality cinema advertisements for the end of season Oscar derby and various Christmas blockbusters, but let us jump the gun shall we? After surveying the last year of trailers here are the best and most intriguing of the litter; released online, in the cinema (Coming Attractions) or other places (TV, VOD, etc). This is not a reflection of the quality of the final released films (although many of these did in fact live up to the promise of their own creative marketing). So that’s that. The list is tucked under the seat.
5. District 9 – This is how you tease a film. Re-purposing documentary footage from the region to keep audiences off guard when a monolithic mothership finally fills the frame and a reveal that this is in fact a science fiction allegory. Also large points for putting the hypnotic Solaris remake score to very, very good use. This may not have been 100% representative of the final film (although the James Cameron, who produced Steven Soderbergh’s Solaris, nod is appropriate), but it sure as hell fired up the imagination and got butts in seats in a similar fashion to Cloverfield a few years ago.
4. Terminator: Salvation – It is pretty inexcusable to do what this trailer does, namely give the bulk of the plot, including the twist of sorts, right in the narrative of the trailer. Yet, since the film itself was really a narrative mess, condensing it down to just under 4 minutes plays like a much tighter and more interesting version. And borrowing from aural queues from 300 – the use of a 1990s Nine Inch Nails song – to underscore the rhythm and mood of the piece, the trailer crackles on screen in the way the 3rd (and probably final) sequel in the Terminator franchise failed to do completely due to some pretty wacky re-writes or edits. That is neither here nor there, though perhaps McG and co. should have considered the trailer department to edit and score the actual film.
3. Where The Wild Things Are – How does one distill the energy and hope (and melancholy, uncertainty and fear) of being a young boy? Well lots of running, napping, and well, wildness is a good start. Couple this with a compulsively listenable Arcade Fire tune and the hints of adult world and you have yourself the promise of a Where The Wild Things movie that riffs on the mood of the tiny Maurice Sendak novel while also expanding it to a full narrative feature. For what it is worth though, the teaser is almost a perfect distillation of the book in and of itself!
2. Up In The Air – It is a rare thing for a trailer to be cut together by the director of the film, well beyond the most independent of films, anyway, and certainly it is not the norm for glossy George Clooney Indies(tm). But this trailer does the best of what trailers do, it offers the mood of the film, the gist of what it is in essence about and plants the seed in your brain that you simply must watch this movie. Part of the appeal of the trailer is how it cuts several of Clooney’s characters monologues into a voice-over narration contrasted with catch images of travel and people. The monologue makes a plea to actually sit up and listen right in the opening seconds. It also says so much about the movie and so little about the plot. I wish more (many more, actually) trailers were like this one.
1. A Serious Man – Thump! Thump! Thump! Already there is a hook in the first seconds of this teaser, and upon reveal of the source of the sound it ceases to go away; now acting as the tempo of the editing of the trailer. Like John Boorman’s Point Blank, the steady beat of the inevitable says much about how the films is going to play out with its main character. Layered onto the soundtrack is a car crash and a friend saying (without much conviction) that “everything is going to be fine.” This says much about the type of humour that the Coens are going to go with their ‘Jewish movie.’ The break at the end of all this aural bombast for total silence and a deadpan punchline cement things before leaving you with a little late 60s rock perhaps to establish the period, or perhaps to underscore just how great all of the other Coen’s credits that flash onto the screen simply are.
A few other Honourable Mentions (links go to trailers): Watchmen, Inglourious Basterds (…and I want my scalps!), The Informant! Last House On The Left (It’s the Sweet Child O’ Mine song), Zero, The Lovely Bones, Inception (Teaser) Black Dynamite, and Star Trek.
Movie laboratories are one of my favorite things ever. Metropolis,...
prepare to laugh:
http://themovieblog.com/2009/08/law-abiding-citizen-best-trailer-of-the-year
The top three are three of the best trailers in years and years.
I feel that Nine needs to be mentioned here.
Thought the trailer for (500) Days of Summer was very effective also.
Feel free to link to whatever in the comments sections and tell me why I missed something of real quality.
Of course, here are a few to compare to from previous years: http://www.rowthree.com/2007/11/19/in-a-world-where-creative-movie-trailers/
and the big 50 best ever list from IFC: http://www.ifc.com/news/2009/06/50-greatest-trailers.php
I thought the Avatar trailer was much better than people gave it credit for.
I agree 9 was very good.
I think the lesson from this list is that the teaser is a much more vibrant and inventive form than the trailer actual.
In the 5 films above:
2 Teasers
3 Trailers (Although it is debatable that WtWtA is one or the other)
In the Hon Mentions: 2 Teasers, 7 Trailers.
But yea, many of the most creative trailers out there are usually the teasers. Often because the people cutting them have very little, if any actual footage to work with, but some of the best teasers: Face/Off, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Strange Days, Snatch, and Mothgirl (http://www.renerd.com/?cat=20)
Some of the trailers I watched the most:
Harry Potter 1.
Kingdom of Heaven (a strange edit of the second-to-last trailer, which is unavailable anywhere, other than online before the last trailer premiered, and on my DVD for sideways(!)).
I was dissapointed too see the Observe and Report trailer left out, that was an amazing trailer. I still watch that trailer over and over again even though I have seen the movie several times now.
I usually like teasers more than full trailers. They do a better job of piquing my interest, by latching onto an intriguing concept of the film (District 9) or getting the mood across, or sometimes by just being clever (was it Resident Evil: Apocalypse a few years back that had the one that started out like a commercial for the Umbrella Corp?). I start losing interest if there’s too much about the story. Don’t tell me the story. Make me interested to find out what the story is.
Another one I liked this year was The Girlfriend Experience. The lack of any dialogue, the simple juxtaposition (both comparing and contrasting) the salaries of Christine and her boyfriend, and mostly the frenetic drums had me.
I’d nominate GI Joe for worst trailer. I mean even though I hated it, obviously a lot of people ended up pleasantly surprised by it. This was a blockbuster film whose core audience didn’t trust it or anticipate it until the very last second when their peers chimed in. Word of mouth helped the film better than any marketing did.
Also for worst trailer I’d nominate Adventureland, which is still probably my fave of 09 however promised a film it wasn’t and ultimately disappointed one group of people while preventing another from giving it a chance.
@Jandy – (was it Resident Evil: Apocalypse a few years back that had the one that started out like a commercial for the Umbrella Corp?)
Yep, that one even convinced me to see the film theatrically (Well that and I happen to like director Russel Mulcahay).
The Lacuna Corp teaser for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was pretty awesome too, even if the zest of the final trailer for that film trumped the teaser.
@ I start losing interest if there’s too much about the story. Don’t tell me the story. Make me interested to find out what the story is.
definitely agree.
I would say that of the 5, all of them but Terminator are teasers. I think I categorize any trailer that’s not a scene for scene summery as a “teaser”.
But usually that is the pattern that the distributers follow they release an initial short, artfully cut trailer with a strong concept and then a second longer “and then what happens is!” trailer [record skip].
Kurt, YES. Those two are probably my favorite trailers of all time. I couldn’t remember if the Lacuna Corp. one for Eternal Sunshine was a teaser or the actual trailer. I don’t remember watching another trailer, but that could be because I often don’t watch anything but the teaser. Like Rusty says, they usually release a good teaser, then a far-too-revealing full trailer, so I’ve pretty much stopped watching anything except the first trailer released. (Unless I see it in theatres, of course, which I can’t really help.)
Kudos on including the Last House on the Left trailer in the Honorable Mentions though, that really was a killer trailer that got me totally pumped for the film.
If trailers for 2010 movies count then Inception should be on this list
(oops, didnt noticed it in Hon Mentions)
Law Abiding Citizen, I was in stitches when I first saw the trailer.
I tend not to seek out and rewatch trailers online, but I know the ones I did this year were Star Trek, Watchmen and Where the Wild Things Are.
Really liked the “Freedom Fighters” trailer for Star Trek. It had more of a moment of Kirk in the chair than they actually did in the movie!
Where the wild things are trailer is great.
Oh yeah, Star Trek’s was solid, but a lot of it was the “Freedom Fighters” song itself, I think.
Yeah that song was made to be in a trailer.
You guys are certainly right. The trailer is much better cut with that song. Some how I missed this trailer during the marketing run up to the film, perhaps this is the one that Rot meant when he suggested it for the Hon. Mentions above. Rot? Either way, it is linked above now, in the TREK half of the title at the end of the post.