Micah’s Top 3 Favorite Movie Trailers of all Time
When the trailer is better than the movie
Ahh movie trailers. I absolutely love them. In fact, I often prefer the movie trailer to the actual film. A movie trailer is pure potential, pure hype. It has no obligation to deliver on its promises. Rather, it consists entirely of promises.
Here are my top 3 favorite movie trailers of all time:
In the number 3 spot is the perfect example of the perfect trailer. I enjoyed the full feature film when it eventually came out and I even read the book. But both are a slow burn that end with thought-provoking disappointment. Not so with the trailer! The music builds to such an extraordinary anticipation that this trailer makes you want to drop everything and tell the whole world about God’s Gospel in whatever way you can. I have watched these two minutes and 13 seconds over and over and have cried multiple times while watching it. The trailer has all of the hope, suffering, and perseverance that the film gives but, since it's a trailer, it is filled with mystery as well. It leaves you praying for the global church and longing for God himself. Now that’s a good trailer. Make sure to watch with volume up.
In the number 2 spot is my favorite example of the trailer (actually just teaser #2 in this case) far surpassing the movie. That’s because Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is, objectively, a pretty awful film (as well as a film which I am a proud owner of). When it eventually released, it was a total blockbuster bomb. In fact, the evidence of how average this movie actually is can already be found even in this teaser. Nothing in these 1 minute and 36 seconds would lead you to believe this is going to be anything other than a cringey sci-fi adventure with a lackluster story and forced romance. However, I absolutely adore this trailer for its sci-fi adventure vibe. The Beatles music is perfect here as it opens up a sci-fi world of infinite possibility. Before this was released, I had read the graphic novels of this series and found them to accurately bottle the feeling I had of moving to NYC with Leila. We were a couple, a team, boldly taking on the unknowns of adult life in a city of a thousand planets. As long as we had our trusty spaceship home to return to at the end of the night, we could do anything.
In the number 1 spot is a longer entry. In fact, I would suspect that just about everything this film has to offer, even in its story and ideas, is already present here. Dune part 2 has yet to be released, but I was inspired to create this list because of how much I already love its trailer #2. I enjoyed the first film and mildly enjoyed the book series when I read it. However, neither would make it on my favorites list. The trailer, however, brings incredible emotional weight: a palpable sense of ambition and struggle and victory and doubt and exuberance. I get goose bumps every time I watch it and, yes, I have cried to this one as well (when a 3 minute video can make you cry, you know it's doing something right). It's everything a good trailer can be: snippets of dialogue and action that promise something far greater than you or even it can yet imagine.
I think my love of trailers is rooted in the very foundations of the current human condition. We are a people who see glimpses of greatness, signs of hope and anticipation, without ever being able to fully realize them. We live off of the promises of God in the mystery of what might be. The movie trailer is the already/not yet in corporate marketing form and I find it inherently compelling.
What are your favorite movie trailers?