The TV Addict 

Christopher Orr over at The New Republic has gotten sick and tired of movie trailers giving away the entire plot of the film, so in response to that he has crafted an interesting experiment. Instead of seeing this week’s new release, 21, he’s reviewing the trailer itself, using it to infer the entire plot because, well it’s basically all there. He reviews the trailer here, and then reviews the movie itself afterwards here to see how accurate he was.

It’s an interesting experiment because it cheekily acknowledges an annoying Hollywood trend that seems to only get worse. It also rightfully suggests that if a studio wants to show us the entire plot of a film in a trailer, then why bother to see it, and not just settle for the trailer? I’m fully on board with this, because it’s gotten so bad that I rarely watch anything after a teaser trailer comes out. I remember a few years back I saw the trailer for TAKING LIVES and was pretty sure I had figured out who the killer was. When I saw the movie, I turned out to be right. That’s the reason that  - as much as I want to - when a longer INDIANA JONES trailer comes out, I’m going to avoid it like the plague.

What do you guys think? Do you feel trailers give away too much of the film’s plot these days? Do you still go to see those films, or feel your interest suddenly killed on the spot? Any trailers in particular that actually ruined a movie for you or that let you guess a critical plot element?