As we come to the end of the year, let’s take a look back at the top 10 best movie trailers of 2015.
10. The Secret Life Of Pets – Trailer #1 – Watch here
Okay, the film itself doesn’t look like it’ll be that good, but as a three-minute sketch, the premise for The Secret Life Of Pets is pretty entertaining.
It’s made by the people who did Despicable Me, and it’s all about the eternal question of what your pets really get up to when you go out. The trailer shows all sorts of animals getting into a lot of trouble, and it sets up what could still be a fun family comedy, even though it doesn’t seem like a concept that will be able to hold up for a full 90 minutes or so.
9. Pixels – Official Trailer – Watch here
Admit it, when you first saw the trailer for Pixels in the early spring, you thought that Adam Sandler might finally have a winner on his hands.
That’s because it shows the extreme destruction of cities around the world by retro 80s arcade game characters. The special effects look cool, it’s a pretty interesting premise with the potential for good entertainment, so we were all feeling oddly optimistic for this one.
And although the finished product was further proof that Adam Sandler and co. are almost incapable of making a good movie at the moment, the fact that this trailer managed to disguise the boring garbage that the film was is pretty impressive.
8. Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Teaser #2 – Watch here
We got a thrilling teaser in December 2014 for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but it only showed us snapshots of the main characters, without giving any real sense of what this movie was going to be like.
However, at the Star Wars Celebration in April this year, we got a new teaser for the highly-anticipated franchise reboot, and it delighted fans across the globe. With some astonishing landscape shots of the new worlds in the film, a greater insight into the action, and a very mysterious narration taken from Return Of The Jedi, this trailer got everyone even more hyped for Episode VII, and although we still didn’t have the atmosphere or plot framework clear, it was a great trailer to watch over and over and over again.
7. Joy – Teaser Trailer – Watch here
David O. Russell’s third collaboration with Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro is Joy, released at the end of 2015.
We’ve had a full trailer for the film now, but it still doesn’t hold up to the brilliantly bizarre and massively entertaining teaser. It gives us a sense of the main character, Joy, and how much of a badass she seems to be, even though you don’t have much of an idea of the plot apart from the fact that it’s her life story.
What’s more is the music playing in the background, a boy choir’s rendition of The Rolling Stones’ ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’, creates a seriously weird atmosphere that looks to emulate the fantastic bizarreness of Russell’s previous films such as Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle.
6. The Lobster – Trailer #1 – Watch here
Speaking of weird, here is the trailer for the weirdest film of the year, possibly of the decade: The Lobster.
It’s a fast-paced trailer that’s set to an energetic orchestral theme, which is weird enough in itself when you hear it, but what really shines through here is the extreme uniqueness that the film has to offer. In the trailer, it’s basically a series of random scenes all put together that still don’t seem to make any sense, apart from the fact that people are apparently turned into animals if they don’t find a partner within 44 days, but that makes you so intrigued in the concept that you can’t help but wonder about what the film would be like.
Believe me, it’s extremely odd, but not enough people have seen it, so I recommend you seek it out soon.
5. Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice – Comic-Con Trailer – Watch here
Returning to big franchises now, and it’s the first full trailer for the upcoming opener to the full DC Cinematic Universe (as they attempt to catch Marvel), Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice.
The first teaser trailer gave a small sense of the battle between two of the most iconic superheroes of all time, but it’s this 3 minute-long one that shows off how amazing this film could be. It shows us few key plot points, but it immediately recognises the issues with the disappointing Man Of Steel movie, and uses them to great effect in the story, following Bruce Wayne as he was affected by the destruction of Metropolis.
So, it seems that it’s actually an intelligent take on the superhero genre, whilst it also gives off an impressively gloomy and dark atmosphere that is fascinating to say the least. People generally didn’t like the more depressing Superman, but this film seems to have an air of extreme world significance to it that a bit of doom and gloom might actually work perfectly.
4. Suicide Squad – Comic-Con First Look – Watch here
Another trailer from the DC panel at Comic-Con this year was for Suicide Squad, released in August 2016.
Suicide Squad is a team of nine supervillains from DC Comics, and although that may seem like a bit of a handful for one movie, this trailer seems to show that it could be a very, very good film. On the one hand, it has a pretty dark atmosphere to it, to complement Dawn Of Justice, but it also seems like a very quirky take on the superhero genre.
The nine villains, forced to save the world by the authorities, all seem a little crazy, and that promises to offset the typical tropes of the great heroes that we’re constantly fed by Marvel at the moment, so this trailer has really shown Suicide Squad to be a new great in this decade’s superhero extravaganza.
3. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation – Official Trailer – Watch here
Yes, the plane stunt is seriously cool, especially when you remember that Tom Cruise actually did hang on to a plane as it took off, but the main trailer for the fifth Mission: Impossible film, Rogue Nation, is an all-round great ride.
With a really catchy backing song, the trailer shows off the multitude of epic action sequences and stunts that this edition of the series has to offer, as well as introducing us to the plot surrounding the IMF’s impending closure and Ethan Hunt’s escape from the CIA’s pursuit as he searches for the rogue organisation known as the Syndicate.
The film itself turned out to be really good, but the beauty of the trailer was that it spoilt absolutely nothing. The plane stunt, which was shoved down our throats during marketing, was the perfect choice for the main part of the trailer, because it didn’t take away from the excitement of seeing what was actually happening on the big screen, and that’s a technique that needs to be recognised and commended, because it happens so rarely, and when it does, it’s beautiful.
2. Mad Max: Fury Road – Trailer #1 – Watch here
Almost everybody loved the return of Mad Max to the big screen in this summer’s smash hit: Mad Max: Fury Road.
No-one saw the incredible action ride that was coming, but it proved a big hit at the box office and with critics, and a lot of credit for that has to go to the epic trailer. It doesn’t show off anything about the plot (although the film itself doesn’t have a particularly complex one), but instead assaults your eyes with a symphony of incredible action.
That was the main takeaway from the actual movie, that the action was mind-blowing, but there are few trailers as breathless and exhilarating as this one. With the backing music of a high-stakes operatic theme, and the huge amount of fast cuts and quick shots of explosions and car crashes, this trailer managed to fascinate so many people into going to see a film that, at first, didn’t seem to have a lot of support.
1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Trailer (Official) – Watch here
To be honest, what else could it be? When you’ve got a trailer that had fanboys staying up through an American football match, and was then rewatched about 10 million times in the following 24 hours, you know it’s really good.
And that’s what the ‘final’ trailer for this winter’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens did. It caused a ripple across the world like no other trailer, providing its anticipating crowd with just a few more morsels of information about the main characters, appearance and mysterious atmosphere of the seventh instalment in the saga.
But what it has been acclaimed for so many times over is the fact that it tells you absolutely nothing whatsoever about the plot. The marketing team have done an incredible job at stirring hype to melting point, but have been patient and intelligent enough to reveal nothing about what’s actually going to happen in the plot, which will make the eventual cinematic experience oh so sweet, something we really have to appreciate and praise.
