Top 10 Favorite Movie Trailers
Part of the excitement for movies is from all of the marketing. Sitting down in a theater and watching a trailer and when it’s done go “I want to see that”. Or waiting for the trailer for the next big movie of the year. Today I’m sharing my picks for my 10 favorite movie trailers of all time. Let’s get started!
The Lion King (2019) (Teaser Trailer): And this is one of the coolest ways that I’ve ever watched a trailer. So the trailer dropped in November 2018, and never got around to watching it. And the first time I watched it was when I went to go see Mary Poppins Returns, and that was a packed audience and once the trailer started and people started to figure out what trailer this was you could fear the excitement starting to build. And when Circle of Life started to play it just evoked a lot of emotions, I had a big smile on my face. And to see this type of trailer for the first time on the big screen is really incredible. And the movie itself is fine, it’s not as good as the trailer was. But man…this trailer got my hyped for this movie. This is one that I love rewatching because it was so special to experience it on the big screen.
Mission Impossible: Fallout (Official Trailer 1): And this is when the franchise was just on a hot streak. They were coming off of the wild success of Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation. And this trailer played during The Super Bowl and they delivered a trailer. Where we got to see what crazy stunts Tom Cruise was going to be doing, what dangerous situations Ethan Hunt was going to get into this time. And having the song Friction but Imagine Dragons play in the background is great, that’s a great song to put into this type of movie. And this is one of those movies that would play constantly whenever I went to the movies in the first half of 2018, and every single time I would get more and more excited for this movie.
The Dark Knight (Official Trailer 1): Now when this movie came out in July 2008 I wasn’t even four years old. So I wasn’t a part of the marketing campaign for this movie, and I didn’t see this movie until several years later. But I did hear enough positive reviews about the trailer for this movie, and I watched it and it’s awesome. I can see why all of the hype and anticipation was building up just from this trailer. And the trailer was awesome and the movie awesome. It’s kind of crazy that one of the best movies of all time also had one of the best trailers of all time. And this gave us our tease of Heath Ledger’s Joker, where at the time we didn’t know how legendary this performance was going to be. So I wasn’t originally going to watch this trailer but I’m so glad we did because it truly was awesome.
Avengers: Age of Ultron (Teaser Trailer): Now this is a movie that is widely regarded as the worst of the Avengers movies. And one of the most disappointing MCU movies out there, I would agree with both of those statements but it’s still a good movie. But with all that said, I think part of the frustration came from how good the trailers were. Where they promised a darker movie, with Ultron being a bigger and better villain. Where when Ultron says “there are no strings on me” at the end, it just sends chills down your spine. You saw Captain America’s shield broken in half, that just raised the stakes and this movie looked like it was going to be much darker then the first movie. The movie has great moments, it’s still watchable but it’s not as good as the trailers promised. And I think the teaser trailer for this movie is one of the best MCU trailers out there.
Suicide Squad (2016) (Offical Trailer 1): Now since this is a movie that has a bad reputation and not regarded as a good movie. But some of the trailers made for this movie are pretty fantastic. The one where Bohemian Rhapsody plays in the background is fantastic, that is such a fun trailer that got me and millions of fans really really excited for this movie. And I rewatched this trailer just last week and it still holds up. It might also help that Bohemian Rhapsody is one of the best songs ever made in my mind. Now it’s not just the trailer that is great but all of them great. The one they released at San Diego Comic Con in 2015 with a darker tone that didn’t have any jokes is also great. So this is a perfect example of a not so good movie with great trailers.
Avengers Infinity War and Endgame (All Trailers): Now I decided to cheat on this one because I wanted both of these movies to be on here but I would essentially say that same thing about both sets of trailers. Both of these sets of trailers did a great job of getting me extremely excited for this movie. Where with Infinity War it was just really cool to see the first footage of Iron Man and Doctor Strange teaming-up as well as Thor and The Guardians of the Galaxy. Plus mixed with the score and tone just promised a great movie that was going to live up the hype. And then Endgame did a great job of getting us excited by not giving away any of the plot and only showing footage from the first 20-30 minutes of the movie. So both of these trailers are pretty fantastic and got me extremely excited for both of these movies. And the movies themselves lived up the hype.
Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (All Trailers):The hype going into The Force Awakens was unreal. It’d been 10 years since Revenge of the Sith and people were beyond excited for this film. And I was about 9-10 years old when they really started the marketing for the film, so I was with the hype of the film but not the way others were. But I remember watching these trailers and being so happy that we were getting new Star Wars, that saw the return of Han Solo, Chewie, Leia, and Luke it was so epic and awesome. I believe at the end of the second trailer we got our first look at Han Solo and Chewie with Han Solo saying “Chewie, we’re home” it’s such a great moment to put into a trailer. Honestly, I think the marketing for this entire trilogy was really really good. Both The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker had great trailers, some of those movies maybe weren’t as good as others. But the trailers did a solid job of building hype for the movies.
Knives Out (Teaser Trailer): This is a trailer that sort of came out of nowhere for me. I was scrolling through YouTube and saw the thumbnail for the trailer with a picture of Chris Evans on it. And I was curious to check it out, so I did and I loved it. I didn’t know what this movie was, I hadn’t heard about it before. But I thoroughly enjoyed this trailer and was instantly so excited to watch this film. I loved the way it was edited mixed with the music and just showcased this great style to the film, a great murder mystery with an all-star cast. This is a trailer that I watched for the first time and rewatched it so many times after that, it’s one of the most rewatchable trailers in my mind. And part of the reason why it’s so fun to me is because it was surprising. I didn’t know this movie was a thing until after the trailer. I hadn’t heard any casting, plot, or even a title prior to this trailer dropping. Glass Onion also had great marketing, Rian Johnson’s marketing team did something really special here.
Spider-Man: No Way Home (All Trailers): The way the hype was there for The Phantom Menace back in 1999 can easily be applied to the hype for this movie in 2021. Because this was an event that people went to see, everybody was excited for it. They promoted the film on the fact that past Spider-Man villains from Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s eras were coming back, and the trailers built the hype and the movie delivered on the hype. This movie was projected to have a big $200-$250 million opening, I think it made closer to $270 million. The hype was there because of great trailers that sold the movie but also hinted at Maguire and Garfield coming back. They didn’t put a second, a shot, a scene of them in the marketing. If they did that, the ticket sales would have been thrown off the roof and even bigger than they already were. I wish we could go back to August 2021-December 2021 when the hype was real for the film, because the trailers did a great job at that.
The Batman (DC Fandome 2020 Trailer): This was another trailer that totally surprised me, when the DC Fandome was happening in 2020 production on everything was shut down. They only filmed 25% of the film prior to COVID so I wasn’t expecting a full length trailer and we did and it was awesome. Early on you understood the tone and vibe they were going for, it was taking inspiration from David Fincher’s Se7en. That made the trailer (and movie) stand out amongst other comic book movies. Something in the Way by Nirvana was used perfectly in the film, it was the right song for this trailer. And then we get the moment at the end of the trailer where Robert Pattinson’s Batman walks out of the shadows to face these goons and starts beating the living sh*t out of a goon and then says “I’m vengeance”. That was the moment that made me go “yup, you sold me. I don’t need to see anything about this movie”. I remember watching this trailer for the first time and I had a big grin on my face.
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