10 Trends That Are Destroying Modern Movies
10. Trailer Spoilers Are Getting Worse
SPOILER ALERT: the Prometheus crashes into the escaping Engineer ship; Gwen Stacey dies; Hiccup's mother is alive; Lotso's the villain. Oh wait, they're not really spoilers - all those major plot beats were in the trailer.
It's been recognised for a long time that movie trailers tend to err on the side of showing everything in the hope it'll convince you to buy a ticket, but in recent years things have really stepped up. Second, or even third, act twists can find their way into teasers, while getting an action sequence where the money shot hasn''t already been shown (most Marvel movies are big culprits here) is painfully rare.
While studios going all in on the trailer means they may get a few extra bums on seats, this method can only have a detrimental effect on a movie. If we've seen pretty much everything before then even an exciting film is going to feel incredibly flat.
The sheer number of alternate trailers doesn't help either. See an interesting snippet in a teaser and can't wait until the film arrives to see the scene expanded upon? You don't have to; the next trailer will no doubt give more away.