10 Trailers That Should Make You Nervous About 2017's Biggest Movies

How to generate anxiety in three minutes or less.

Harrison Ford Ryan Gosling Blade Runner 2049
Entertainment Weekly

The modern movie trailer might well reasonably be considered an art form in its own right. With so much expectation weighing on them, these two or three minute teasers have become the movie marketeer's most important weapon in the war against fan apathy. If they sell the hype - even though the film itself sucks - they're invaluable, so it's no surprise how much effort goes into cutting them.

Take the trailer for Suicide Squad, for example, which appeared to show a funny, exciting, and vibrant action film with awesome characters, an interesting plot, and a firm grasp of tone, only for the final film to be basically a disaster in every way. Just because the trailer is a work of genius, it doesn't mean that the film will be, too.

On the flip-side, some trailers look ominous from the outset. They can give away too much, or show early, unfinished CGI that resembles the amateur work of a five-year-old or they can just generally under-sell the final product in a way that is utterly ruinous to the studio's agenda.

When it comes to 2017's biggest films, there are already some trailers that outright fail to sell their associated movies, and others which - despite having received a warm reception - showcase potentially problematics movies when you look a bit closer. For one reason or another, they all give ground to be nervous about what's to come...

10. The Dark Tower - Official Trailer

Harrison Ford Ryan Gosling Blade Runner 2049
Columbia Pictures

It was frightening enough to learn that the upcoming Dark Tower film adaptation, based on Stephen King's seminal book series, would eschew the storylines of the source material in favour of an ominous sounding “reimagining".

Now that the first proper trailer has landed, though, it’s clear that story changes are the least of this movie’s problems. Going by the reactions to the first three minutes of footage, The Dark Tower looks like it's shaping up to be one hell of a divisive film.

The problems are two fold. First, there are the minor irks: Idris Elba, an otherwise godly actor, seems weirdly miscast in the title role with an accent that sounds “off” (funny, since we all know Elba can do a convincing American accent). Fans are also likely to wince at the unnecessary changes in characterisation hinted at in the trailer (as if Jake would ever need to convince Roland to go to the Dark Tower - the man is obsessed!).

The big problem, however, is that the film appears to have been made with a bland, blockbuster aesthetic, totally at odds with the source material’s dusty, beaten world. There’s a Hollywood “sheen” to the way everything looks - the costumes in particular - which betrays the grit of King’s novel. This wasn't supposed to be The Book of Eli.

Contributor

Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.