Thursday 27 January 2011

Trailer Trash - Gulliver's Travels

Trailers seem to be getting longer and longer. Far from teasing the audience and igniting curiousity, they show a concentrated version of the movie and reveal practically everything.

The trailer for Gulliver's Travels goes on for bloody ages and pissed off countless people over the Christmas period waiting....waiting....waiting for the main feature to begin. It is a shining example of the new breed of preview. The film itself only runs for 85 minutes (probably 8 of those minutes are credits) - meaning the trailer is 1/34th of the film or essentially 3% of it. However, it seems to contain every moment of note. It's unclear whether there is anything worthwhile in the other 82 minutes but judging from reviews probably not.

2 comments:

  1. I don't really agree with you. I saw the film, and well I see what you are trying to say. But you need to take into consideration that its Gulliver's Travels, a very very popular story. Everyone knows about the Lilliputs and so on, so what the trailer tried to do was try and tell people why its different. And also give JB some showtime. It's pretty smart actually, the trailer not JB. :)

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  2. I understand they have to make it clear that it's a twist on the conventional tale. However, they have included so many scenes and tried to cram so many funny moments into the trailer that it is just plain excessive. I can't help but feel that watching the film itself after being bombarded with the trailer at numerous screenings will mean that I'm using the trailer as a checklist to count down till the credits. Yeah, there's the table football bit. Tick off the KISS bit etc

    Revealing your hand in comedy is a risky business. Show too much in the trailer and by the time you watch the main feature you see the jokes coming a mile off.

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