10 Movies Killed By God-Awful Trailers
3. Cats
Tom Hooper's film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats musical was bafflingly bad. In the words of Ricky Gervais - "This is the worst thing to happen to cats since dogs".
In hindsight, it looks like the film didn't stand a chance since no one was backing its corner when the trailer premiered. Although you have to commend the visual effects team for trying to make the feline hybrids look photorealistic, it doesn't work. If you thought the characters from A Christmas Carol, The Polar Express, and Beowulf fell into the uncanny valley, Cats tumbled into the uncanny universe.
Instead of looking cute and cuddly, these Frankenstein kitties can't come across as anything except creepy. Coupled with the fact this trailer is sprinkled with Rebel Wilson's forced slapstick and James Corden's dumb jokes, there's nothing redeemable here, save for Jennifer Hudson's wonderful rendition of Memory.
Even if the visuals were fine-tuned before the film's launch (which they weren't), there was no chance in hell anyone was going to see Cats after it gave viewers enough nightmare fuel to last a dozen lifetimes.