Theatrical trailers are supposed to entice viewers to want to see an upcoming film, but lately, they’ve become a little annoying.

It seems that a few problems plague these promo pieces – not only do they show the viewer most of the film, but they also show scenes that end up on the cutting room floor or, most annoyingly, dialogue out of context.

I understand how these problems can happen. A lot of times, promotional materials such as trailers have to be ready long before the movie itself is, meaning that sometimes stuff slips in that isn’t actually in the movie.

But even though I understand why, I still find it annoying. Today, trailers aren’t just on the big screen; they’re also on videotape and
now Digital Video Discs (which almost always have them as an extra feature).

Recently, I watched “Varsity Blues” on DVD. The disc, like most, had the trailer included. Several times, it showed a scene where James Van Der Beek and his girlfriend (Amy Smart) are talking about football in what looks to be in a forest on top of a parked car. It really looked interesting and made me wish briefly that there was a “Varsity Blues” director’s cut or something similar.

In a different “Varsity Blues” trailer, shown on television mainly, a high school girl asks for an autograph on her body during a pep rally. This didn’t end up in the film, either, although the pep rally was present. If the film was running a little long, it’s disappointing that the filmmakers considered this a place to make up some time.

The first time I noticed this phenomenon of seeing things not in the movie was when “Hot Shots!” came out in 1991. There was a part where Cary Elwes is shooting pool, and he does a trick shot where the cue ball ends up landing in his front pants pocket. Later, there’s the cliched line about, “Is that a (fill in the appropriate object here) in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?”

The scene in which this happens is still in the movie, but this actual part never made it to the theater, just like the “Varsity Blues” autograph scene.

Another problem that plagues trailers is that they exploit every good scene and/or joke in the movie. But now that I think about it, maybe that’s saying less about the film than the trailer. Regardless of the quality of the movie, I feel cheated when I come out of a movie, realizing that I had already seen the movie through a combination of theater and television promotional spots.

The third and most annoying problem with trailers is one that can be avoided. It really doesn’t matter how bad a film is or what ends up in the final cut of the movie. I despise previews that take dialogue or action out of context. Often, I’ve seen where one actor’s reaction or dialogue is spliced after another’s, yet the scenes are spliced from scenes that are 40 minutes apart. Usually, the only damage is a puzzled look on my face when I see the movie and realize that things were taken out of context, but sometimes these splices can really misrepresent a film and its premise.

None of these problems are the end of the world, but they are annoying and it seems that a lot of the incidents could be avoided easily with a little planning and a just a bit of common sense.

Originally posted at NandoNext.