Misleading movie trailers

Dai

Pokémon Master
Sometimes the people making a movie and the people marketing it just aren't on the same page. Maybe the marketing team didn't understand the film, or maybe the studio wanted to draw in a different viewer demographic, but sometimes you can be left wondering what happened to the movie you thought you'd been sold. What are some examples you can think of? Terrible movies with amazing trailers also count.

Zone Troopers
This trailer was on the original VHS for Ghostbusters. I was about six when I saw it the first time, and this trailer scared the hell out of me. Looking at it now, it's aged badly, but there's no denying that it's pitching a horror movie. Instead, the tone and content of Zone Troopers is closer to a pulpy 1950s comic.

Birdy
I think this trailer was on the same tape, and also creeped out my six-year-old self (that Ghostbusters VHS had a lot to answer for). 😆 Based on this trailer, you'd be forgiven for thinking this was some kind of fantasy or body-horror movie, but it's actually a war story about PTSD.

The Grey
The trailers for this movie gear you up to expect an action adventure with Liam Neeson punching wolves with glass knuckle-dusters. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be a dark and sombre film about the different ways people face death. Those iconic final shots of this trailer are especially misleading, making you anticipate a scene that we never see, because those are literally the final shots of the movie. To its credit, the film was much deeper and more emotional than I expected, but the viewers who went in wanted to see Neeson in superhero mode were probably disappointed.

Battle: Los Angeles
I love this trailer, not least because of the eerie music from the late Johann Johannsson. It completely misrepresents the film though, making you expect a gritty SF docudrama, but it turns out to be the most blatant recruitment ad for the US Marines since John Wayne's The Green Berets. Though panned by critics and audiences alike, I quite like the movie, though it is difficult to get past the flag-waving oorah side of it.

Fist of the North Star
LOL, okay this doesn't really misrepresent the movie, but I had to include it here. I was so excited to see a live-action Fist of the North Star, and in 1995 this trailer looked awesome to me. Now...not so much.
 
So funny that you started this thread after I watched this film yesterday and thought how misleading the trailer was.


For context the trailer is pretty representative of the story. What it doesn't represent is that the film is about 80% Mandarin! Not a big deal for me but having looked at the Amazon reviews it seems a lot of people in the UK struggle with subtitles.

Also: film was meh but only £5 🤷‍♂️
 
I'll also throw in the (in)famous National Treasure 2 trailer that was made up of about 50% alternative takes and scenes that aren't in the final film!
 
I'll also throw in the (in)famous National Treasure 2 trailer that was made up of about 50% alternative takes and scenes that aren't in the final film!
Ah yes, that reminds me of the similar situation with the first two Rogue One trailers, where almost none of the dialogue remained, the whole climax was completely different, and even the main character's personality changed.
 
One of my favourite films of all time is Body Double and has a trailer which is just staged or acted out with scenes that has nothing whatsoever to do with the film
Bad marketing from Columbia
 
Suicide Squad (2016)
This one isn't misleading so much as it's evidence of how drastically the tone of the original Suicide Squad changed during editing. This is the initial Comic Con reveal trailer that dropped a year before the movie, and presents a dark, straight action movie that hints at a sombre take on its characters. I don't know if there's really a movie like that buried somewhere in the raw footage that was shot, but that's definitely not the movie that was eventually released. What we ended up with instead desperately tried to ape the goofy tone of Guardians of the Galaxy, and was barely held together with some of the worst editing in living memory.

Dead Island
Not a movie this time, but definitely misleading. Acting as a reveal trailer for the game, this three-minute short film is a more effective and emotional story than most full-length zombie movies I've seen. It completely misrepresents the tone of the game though, which ended up being goofy and trashy in the extreme.
 
Back
Top