10 Simple Fixes That Would Make Movie Trailers Awesome Again

Everyone knows movie trailers kinda suck. That's not to say they're not an awful lot of fun, just that all too often they fail at that very important "advertise the movie" part of their definition; when they're not purposely mis-selling the movie at hand (no, Drive isn't a Fast And Furious thrill-ride and, no, The Place Beyond The Pines isn't a Drive-esque stylish meditation on life), they're going to whatever length possible to spoil the plot.

It's now incredibly common for trailers to spell out a story beat-for-beat, although even if they don't then odds are that across a teaser, first trailer, second trailer, final trailer, international trailer and two dozen TV spots (and that is in no way an exaggeration) you'll get enough footage to piece the narrative together regardless.

But there's more to the suckiness of trailers than simply giving away the ending. Oh, that part's terrible and by far the worst way to market a film ever conceived, but if we're actually going to fix movie trailers and not just take them while grumbling, we need to be a little more methodical. What are the systemic problems that need to be addressed so we can get back to a time where trailers made you want to see a movie, rather than making you feel like you've already seen the whole thing before even buying a ticket? Well, I'm glad you asked...