Hollywood needs to stop ruining the film experience with their trailers by using anything from the last third of the film (1917 deserved better)

I know I’ll get some “old trailers showed even more!” and “spoilers make the film more enjoyable” comments, but the reality is that commercials are ruing t he film going experience more than talking audiences, waiters, and the watching them on phones.

A good story, especially a war story, comes with compelling drama. 1917 may be the best war film I’ve ever seen. I can’t tell you for sure because I knew two things going into the viewing experience:

Spoilers below that are already ruined by the trailers, but a warning anyway

1. I knew which of the two main characters would die, because of the shot at the end of the trailer showing him running by himself during daylight

2. More importantly, that shot is his grand, heroic, character defining moment that shows how he had developed from someone who doesn’t see value in valor (having traded away a medal), to someone willing to put his life on the line to save others

The sequence is powerful, and the film is filled with tension leading up that moment. It’s a grand glorious release, and if you knew nothing going in would have been a stirring, surprising decision that brings the themes of the film home. Instead you spend the entire film waiting for that sequence to happen. It takes out the dramatic tension. While watching the film we know that he doesn’t get shot. We know that he doesn’t die in the river. We know that he is alone. We know that he doesn’t stay, doesn’t get help, doesn’t quit, doesn’t find the General until after that shot. And that shit isn’t he climax. There are 8 more minutes of film afterwards, all falling with heartache, relief, and grief. The tension of an intense film is gone until we get that shot, and by then the film over.

Directors are making a big deal lately about needing to see their films on the big screen. On how sound is important, and aspect ratio, and that we should love going to theater. I’m paying $15 to see these films, but they’re ruined by a marketing department that does not give a shit if we enjoy the film once we’ve bought the ticket. They want to show the best shots to get us in the seats, and it’s bullshit.

1917 is filled with some of the best cinematography I’ve ever seen. You could make a trailer out the first hour and it would be enough. We don’t need to see the entire journey before we go on the journey.

Hollywood needs to change this approach. They’re ruining their own product. It’s insulting that they don’t care about the movie you NBC experience, and we live in an age when theaters are already struggling.

Any director that laments the way the cinema is going need to be pushing back hard against this. Yes, we talk about this all the time, but it hasn’t changed and it needs to. As annoyed as we may be of this topic, it’s more annoying sitting in a dark room for two hours pissed off that you’re not able to engage with an incredible worm of art.

I’m tired of paying high prices for ruined products, and I’m going to stop going to the cinema altogether. I’ll wait until it hits streaming and watch it on a phone, just so I don’t waste my money.

Also, Mr President of AMC, get your fucking commercials out of the post-start time. 45 fucking minutes of ads, half of them for soda and cars, is ridiculous and also turning me away from going back.

Submitted January 19, 2020 at 04:25AM by KingOfTheYetis https://ift.tt/2G1fXBv