10 Ways Trailers Let You Know A Movie Is Secretly Awful

1. Giving Away A Major Plot Point (Or The Entire Plot)

Getting a feel for the narrative content of a film is something that good movie trailers strike a balance with - they give you an idea of what the film is about but leave you eager to find out more when you actually watch the movie.

The problem arises when the trailer starts to give away more than it really should, leaving audiences wondering to themselves why they should bother going to see it since they already know what to expect. It's a problem which has been increasingly prevalent in recent movie trailers, to the point where many should come with a "Spoiler Alert!" notification before the footage rolls. Director Robert Zemeckis offered his view on why trailers do this, likening Hollywood movies to fast food: "We know from studying the marketing of movies, people really want to know exactly every thing that they are going to see before they go see the movie.

What I relate it to is McDonald's. The reason McDonald's is a tremendous success is that you don€™t have any surprises. You know exactly what it is going to taste like. Everybody knows the menu.€ Recent high profile examples of awful movies which not only give away a large portion of the plot but even notoriously ruined major reveals and plot twists include The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Terminator Genisys, and the disgruntled reaction from fans certainly indicates that Zemeckis is way off the mark in his assessment.

Although it's fair to say that spoiling a twist in the trailer wasn't the biggest cinematic sin committed by Terminator Genisys. Of those, there are too many to count. What other ways do trailers trick people into seeing rubbish movies? Share any we missed down in the comments.