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An Argument Against Movie Trailers... Kind Of
Tomorrow's the day. I've been waiting for this for two years.
Yes, I'm talking about the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Ever since The Force Awakens came out, I have been wanting to see what was going to come next... But I do not want to see what comes next until I am sitting in the movie theater tomorrow night.
I have had a personal philosophy for a couple of years now to not look at too much information about a movie that I want to see before actually watching the movie. I don't remember exactly when I started to do this, but I remember when the Hobbit movies were coming out, I would go and watch every single trailer and every single TV spot and every single pre-release clip of the movie. But somewhere along the line, I realized that was taking away from my enjoyment of the movies.
Now, this goes farther than just movie trailers. It's about spoilers and enjoying a story the way that it was intended to be presented. Stories resonate with people for a variety of reasons, but one of those main reasons is suspense and wanting to know what is going to happen next. If you find out too much about a movie before you see it, you are taking away that element of surprise and wanting to know what is going to happen next.
The most egregious example of this that I can think of is Batman V. Superman. The title of this movie leads you to believe that Batman is going to be against Superman for the entire movie. But the full-length trailer shows you that by the end of the movie, they'll be fighting on the same side against Doomsday. What a letdown!
On the flipside of this, the trailer for The Force Awakens gave away next to nothing about the plot of the movie. All I knew about this movie going into it was that it was a Star Wars movie, basically. The trailer showed some action shots and people standing and various lines of dialogue. But none of it could be put together to gather any sort of plot, really. And I firmly believe that helped me to enjoy the movie more. I remember turning to my friend next to me when the opening crawl finished to say, "So that's what this movie's about!"I went on to absolutely love that movie.
I've seen the first two trailers and that's it for The Last Jedi. I haven't read any reviews, asked for any reactions, or watched any clips. I muted every word I could think of that would give me a spoiler on Twitter. If a trailer comes on TV while I'm watching, I cover my eyes and make noise and ask someone to tell me when it's over.
Now, I don't go to this extreme for every movie. Usually, it's just for big ones like this. But if I'm watching a trailer for something that grabs my interest, then sometimes I'll even stop the trailer before it ends because I can see it giving too much of the plot. And I certainly won't watch more than two trailers for a movie I want to see.
This isn't an argument against trailers. It's an argument for watching movies in a way that allows you to fully experience them.