Random Dumbest Movie Trailer Cliches That We Need To Reti (13 items)

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  (#1) Blatant Spoilers

  The point of a trailer is to offer a taste of an upcoming movie. But far too many these days give the whole story away. A number of recent trailers for prominent, highly anticipated films have made the mistake of including major spoilers. The second trailer for The Invisible Man, for example, gave away one of the movie's best jump scares, while the one for Terminator Genisys totally revealed what should have been that picture's most shocking plot twist. 

  Appears in:

  • Kingsman: The Golden Circle
  • Terminator Salvation
  • Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
  • Funny People
  • Children of Men
• 

  (#2) From The Same Studio

  It makes perfect sense when a trailer tells us a new movie is "from the director of" some other, popular movie. That clues us in to what we might expect from the film in terms of tone or theme. It makes far less sense to tout that a movie is "from the studio that brought you" something else. Sure, The Town was from Warner Bros., the studio that brought us Best Picture Oscar winner The Departed. But it's also the studio that brought us Battlefield Earth and Catwoman. 

  Appears in:

  • The Town
  • Free Guy
  • Christopher Robin
  • All Saints
• 

  (#3) Visionary Director

  By definition, a "visionary" is someone who can imagine or envision things in a way few others can. You wouldn't know that from modern movie trailers. An increasing number of them use the phrase "From Visionary Director" (or "From Visionary Filmmaker") to trumpet the person behind the film. Sure, it's no stretch to use that term when describing directors like Guillermo del Toro and Ridley Scott. Both have the acclaimed resumes to back the label up. But does anyone really think the term applies to The Darkest Hour's Timur Bekmambetov or Gods of Egypt's Alex Proyas? 

  Appears in:

  • Crimson Peak
  • Blade Runner 2049
  • A Monster Calls
  • Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
  • Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
• 

  (#4) Repeating A Name

  Some movies really, really want you to know the name of their main character. So much so that their trailers include a montage of different people saying that character's name. Aside from the repetition being annoying, this cliche wastes valuable time. Instead of repeating a name, it could be showcasing the actual dialogue. 

  Appears in:

  • Norbit
  • Ramona and Beezus
  • Paddington
  • Baby Driver
• 

  (#5) Assembling Unrelated Scenes

  It's good when trailers want to avoid revealing major plot points that audiences would rather discover for themselves. That said, it's irritating when two completely unrelated scenes are cut together, making it seem like something is going to happen in the movie that doesn't (like the Last Jedi trailer implying that Rey might join forces with Kylo Ren) or giving the impression that two characters share a scene when they don't (as in the Inglourious Basterds trailer that suggests Lt. Aldo Raine will directly encounter Adolf Hitler). This can have the effect of creating false expectations among viewers, who await tantalizing possibilities the film itself has no intention of getting into.

  Appears in:

  • Star Wars: The Last Jedi
  • Inglourious Basterds
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron
  • Suicide Squad
• 

  (#6) The Last-Second Jump Scare

  Paranormal chillers have been a hot property in the last decade. Regrettably, most of them are sold the exact same way. Their trailers typically end with a jump scare right before cutting to the title of the movie. This is invariably accompanied by an abrupt loud noise on the soundtrack. 

  Appears in:

  • Annabelle Comes Home
  • Lights Out
  • It Chapter One
  • The Nun
  • The Conjuring
• 

  (#7) Excessive Fading To Black Or Strobing

  People sensitive to strobing effects must be especially frustrated by all the trailers that utilize them. They can come in various forms. Some have very brief images interspersed with blackness, almost as if you're blinking really fast. Others show a couple seconds of footage, fade to black, and repeat. Still others suddenly zap into a flash of white light. Then there are trailers like the one for A Wrinkle in Time that do all three. 

  Appears in:

  • Dreamcatcher
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron
  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens
  • Jurassic World
• 

  (#8) Slow Motion Beat Drop

  This particular trope is most common in comedies. It involves a character or group of characters walking, dancing, or somehow moving in slow motion while a funky beat plays on the soundtrack. It's a shortcut to let the audience know the movie is going to be wacky with a capital W. 

  Appears in:

  • Tammy
  • Daddy's Home 2
  • Booksmart
  • The House
• 

  (#9) The 'Inception' Airhorn Noise

  When the trailer for Christopher Nolan's Inception dropped, audiences were dazzled by the use of an airhorn-like noise that made a loud BWAAAH! It had the effect of making the movie seem dramatic and suspenseful. The trick worked so well that countless other trailers have aped it in the last decade. Watch the previews for virtually any action movie these days and you're likely to hear that familiar BWAAAH! 

  Appears in:

  • Wonder Woman
  • Elysium
  • World War Z
  • Multiple Transformers sequels
  • Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
• 

  (#10) Cutting Away From Swearing

  You can have swearing in trailers, but it limits the other movies that trailer can play in front of. A way around this is to cut away right as a character is about to swear or to put a sound effect over the offending word. Doing so allows the preview to keep the joke - or, in the case of action pictures, the tough-guy moment - without getting too edgy. The downside is that the technique sticks out like a sore thumb because no other dialogue is ever treated this way. 

  Appears in:

  • Men in Black International
  • Hobbs & Shaw
  • Baywatch
  • Cheap Thrills
• 

  (#11) Comedy Bait And Switch

  You know the drill. The trailer starts off super-serious, with a tone that suggests it's going to promote a heavy drama, an action flick, or a horror movie. Then - surprise! - it abruptly changes course with a joke, revealing that it's actually the trailer for a goofy comedy. If there's a benefit to briefly pretending a comedy isn't a comedy, we don't know what it is. This cliche is utterly pointless.

  Appears in:

  • Tyler Perry's Boo 2! A Madea Halloween
  • Zoolander
  • Tropic Thunder
  • The Smurfs
  • Spy
• 

  (#12) Minor Key Pop Song

  The use of pop songs in trailers has been commonplace for decades. As ScreenCrush's Matt Singer points out, there's been a recent trend of using slow, minor-key interpretations of pop hits rather than the peppy originals. Presumably, the idea is to create a sense of ambience or mystery, but it's been done so often that the trope has become tiresome. From Destiny's Child's "Survivor" in the Tomb Raider trailer to Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence" in the trailer for Ghost in the Shell, this cliche is now so prevalent that it no longer makes the movies feel distinct.

  Appears in: 

  • A Cure for Wellness (The Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated")
  • The Social Network (Radiohead's "Creep")
  • A Wrinkle in Time (Eurythmics "Sweet Dreams")
  • Blair Witch (The Police's "Every Breath You Take")
  • Dracula Untold (Tears For Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World")
• 

  (#13) Rhythmic Sound Effects

  Almost all trailers feature pounding music, be it an orchestral score or a song. A few years ago, some brilliant trailer editor got the idea to match up sound effects with the beat of the music. Now, everyone wants to do it. Bullets, punches, screeching tires, and explosions are made to sound like percussion. It was cool the first time or two, but now it's lost its novelty value. 

  Appears in:

  • Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
  • Atomic Blonde
  • Baby Driver
  • Proud Mary
  • The Equalizer 2

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