Trailers... please tease me to please me....

Why is it that the art of a good trailer is one that is dying? They are sometimes minutes, sometimes only seconds long, but they can make or break a movie in terms of box office success.

Many a time there is upon my TV (not at my invitation I might add) another teen American comedy movie trailer (or even worse - something starring Adam Sandler), which is being utilised to wet my appetite for what is clearly a terrible film. How do I know, because they stick a few gags on the advert that leave me wondering "is that the best of the film?", "is that what they think will sell it?". If they've carefully selected that handful of terrible scenes to draw in the crowds, how bad are the bits that didn't make the trailer cut?

But my real problem with trailers these days is not in a lack of quality, but a lack of restraint. I adore films (this should not be news), and I adore Formula 1 (this may be news). So when "Rush" crept onto the cinematic horizon it unsurprisingly caught my interest.

Recently I went to Elysium (Neil Blomkampf's follow up to District 9) at the cinema and was more than satisfied. It lost a sprinkling of the soul of District 9 but more than made up for it with wonderful plot, thought, action and acting (even if the camera was needlessly jittery at points). So yes, Elysium, well worth a go.

During the trailers preceding Elysium, there was one for Rush. And when I first spied the old fashioned formula one car I was drawn in by the premise, the world and the wonderful cinematography. But do I want to see the film now? No!

Why not? Because I basically already have. The plot not only showed the me the world and situation of the characters at the beginning of the film and hint at the first major plot point, it preceded to tell me everything that happened from then onwards, including the midpoint, the false victory, the great change in direction of the story, the low point, the final confrontation and pretty much everything else in between. It was a trailer containing masses of spoilers for the film it was trying to promote.

So trailer designers, please follow this simple formula:

Trailer = protagonist's starting world + plot point 1 + sequence of disjointed non-sequential scenes*

*preferably edited to fit music and not in any order that explains the sequence of events within the film - We like intrigue!