Theatrical Traitor

So I'm taking the chance to rant tonight about something that's really been bothering me lately. I'd say it actually started bothering me a few years ago, but it's only gotten worse as the years have gone by. What is it? I'm talking about every company involved in cinema releasing a dozen and a half previews for every movie, especially big movies, they come out with. I'll explain.

The movie that provoked my actually writing about this subject was I Am Legend. If you haven't heard of it (*cough*loser), it's the new Will Smith movie destined to make millions and millions. It involves some sort of disaster leaving him as the last living human on the planet. You're right, it does sound awesome. Of course, he comes to discover that he isn't quite alone and the music will become ominous and I'm sure plenty of action will unfold. Sounds like a fairly ambiguous synopsis right? That's the way it should be. The only reason I know so little about this movie is that I've chosen not to watch anything other than the official theatrical trailer. This has turned out to be quite a task, because there are about 20 different trailers, previews and TV spots promoting it and they're on every channel once every 5 minutes. This frustrates me to no end as a person who goes to the movies on a regular basis. Why does this frustrate me you may ask? I'm glad you asked.

Tons of previews for big movies pisses me off for a few reasons. The most significant reason, however, is that for some strange reason I enjoy going to a movie and being impressed by cool scenes and laughing at funny stuff for the first time. I did pay to get in after all. But it seems like nowadays I walk into a movie and I've already seen the funniest, most impressive, most badass scenes, and all I go to a movie for is to see the filler in between the big budget stuff. I know people who watch as many trailers as possible because I guess they hate surprises.

Why this is done is something of a mystery to me. I'm guessing that the marketing department did a blind study or a survey that showed that people like watching previews of movies they are interested in. Or a studio released several trailers of a movie and the movie subsequently did very well. Marketing departments being what they are, they most assuredly took credit for the success of the movie that would have made tons of money anyway (hell, more if they hadn't spent millions on all the commercials and theatrical trailers). Other people heard about this and suddenly it was very clear to executives that the best way to ensure a movie's success was to release as many different previews as possible showing different sections of the movie. Way to go assholes.

Here's what I'd like to see happen: studio spending their time and money on just one well done, official theatrical trailer. Because all I'm looking for is a reason to go see the movie or not to go see the movie. All it really has to do is intrigue me and pique my curiosity. If it does that I'll see all the cool special effects and the scenes they spent millions of dollars on when I go to see it. After I've actually paid, which seems to be more beneficial for them to me. But that's just me.