Everybody knows that when you go to the movies, you don’t go for the movie itself, you go for the trailers. Movie trailers give us a glimpse of things to come. Sometimes we get good trailers, sometimes we get bad ones. But the most important thing is that we see what’s coming and and therefor know what to go see, and what to run screaming away from. On a little bit more serious note, a movie trailer is designed to preview an upcoming film, be it an action, sci-fi, drama, whatever. The question is, is how effective that trailer is. Does it get you pumped up for a movie that’s coming down the pipe, or is it one that you sleep through. For this list, I’m also including teasers, which are trailers that don’t show a whole lot, but just enough for you to get curious. For this list, these are the trailers that got ME hyped up. Whether or not the actual movie lived up to the trailer is a discussion for another time. These trailers are going to be for movies that have already been released. Yeah we’ve got some new trailers that look spectacular, but the film hasn’t been released yet, so they don’t count. So, let’s get this wagon train movin’!
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
There’s a funny story about this one. This trailer was released back in 1998. My parents and I went to go see Star Trek Insurrection in theaters, and Star Wars was one of the trailers that played before the movie. After seeing that, I was actually less interested in the movie that we went to see. The way the trailer starts with the words “Every Saga Has A Beginning,” sent chills up my spine. I knew George Lucas was going to do the Prequel Trilogy, but the trailer for The Phantom Menace blew me away. The use of music was brilliant, and we got to see a racing sequence as well as a glimpse of the film’s main villain, Darth Maul. While movie itself was kind of…meh, the trailer was a brilliant piece of marketing. It got people excited. This is definitely one of the most memorable movie trailers I’ve seen.
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
What? Two Star Wars trailers on this list? Not only that, but the Prequels? Yes. I’m not bothering with the second movie. Nobody cares about Attack of the Clones. Revenge of the Sith was the last film in the Prequel Trilogy and the darkest of all six. The trailer gives us a glimpse at how Palpatine begins to seduce Anakin Skywalker to the Dark Side. We also get to see bits and pieces of an epic space battle above Coruscant. The use of music from The Empire Strikes Back really amplifies the mood the trailer is trying to convey, and it does a really good job. This trailer definitely gave me chills. The film itself actually managed to live up to the trailer, and was a spectacular end to the Prequel Trilogy. It was the Star Wars prequel that I really wanted to see. I saw it six times in theaters.
X-Men: Days of Future Past
This is a more recent film. But this could easily be the best X-Men film to date. While the previous films had taken elements from the comics, Days of Future Past is based directly on the comic book story of the same name. Instead of Kittie Pryde going back in time, they send Wolverine. The music used in this trailer is powerful, emotional, and the elder Xavier pleading with the younger one to hope again. I was excited when I heard they were going to do this story line, but seeing this particular trailer made me feel like this was truly the X-Men movie that I had always wanted to see. Combining the cast members of the older films with the cast of the new and we have an incredible film. It’s easily one of the best of 2014. I could watch this trailer over and over again, and it still gives me goosebumps.
Man of Steel
After the semi-disaster that was Superman Returns, Warner Bros. went back to the drawing board. After years and years of trying to get another Superman film off the ground, in comes Zack Snyder to lead the way with the new film, Man of Steel. This teaser is absolutely wonderful. It uses some music from Lord of the Rings, but it doesn’t show a whole lot. What it does have is a voice-over of Russell Crowe as Jor-El. The trailer ends as we see Superman flying into the sky. We don’t get a good look at him, but we know it’s Kal-El. When you really want to get somebody interested in your movie, this is the way to do it. It’s minimal but very effective. It was very clear that this was going to be a very different kind of Superman, and I think it did a great job at getting that across.
Star Trek 2009
Aside from J.J Abrams’ love for lens flare, this trailer for the 2009 reboot of Star Trek hits all the right notes. With music from Two Steps From Hell, we get a real good look at the revamped Constitution-class Enterprise. As a reboot, this film features new cast members in roles that we have long associated with Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelly, Walter Keonig, and William Shatner. There’s a lot of action here, and yet it only scratched the surface of what the final film really had. The trailer was big, ambitious and it’s one of the best Star Trek movies to date.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
This trailer is actually for the Special Edition of the film which was released in 1993. It featured 15 minutes of extra footage that helped flesh out the characters a bit more. Michael Biehn even reprised his role as Kyle Reese for a dream sequence that was cut out of the original release. Some of the sequences that were cut out of the original film had an impact on a lot of the other scenes. This trailer makes you want to see the film again. With the Special Edition of T2 gave audiences a new look at what is considered to be one of the greatest sequels ever made. As far as movie trailers go, this one is top-notch.
So those are my picks for some of the best movie trailers that got me hyped up for a movie. Some of the movies didn’t turn out nearly as well as I was hoping. But good marketing can even make a bad movie successful. On the flip-side, bad marketing can sink good movies like Edge of Tomorrow. Getting a trailer right is tricky. You want to show the audience have in store, but you don’t want to give too much away. I’ve seen trailers that give EVERYTHING away. The movie trailers I just listed are the ones that managed to get it right.