10 Movie Trailer Cliches Everyone Is Tired Of

4. The Unrelated Reaction Shot

The most important job in trailer creation is editing, because it's the juxtaposition of images which will ultimately convince a potential viewer to actually go see a movie (or not, as the case may be).

Though a lot of trailers move so fast that a lot of the editing choices barely make a conscious dent, one of the more annoying trends is the tendency for reaction shots to be spliced into scenes, typically as punchlines for comedy one-liners and dramatic beats.

It's as though the marketing team isn't confident enough in the gag or scene itself and so decides to bolster it with the neon signpost of a famous actor chuckling to themselves.

It's patronising at best and infuriating at worst, if only because these reactions are so often blatantly cut from other scenes in the movie entirely.

Example: Thor (Chris Hemsworth) dropping a hearty chuckle after listening to Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) arguing is pretty bad, especially as that particular laugh doesn't even appear in the final cut of the movie. At least Thor is in the same room as the heroes when it all goes down, though.