Top 10 Movie Trailers That Made Fans Rage Quit

When the first teaser dropped for Aladdin, people were cautiously optimistic. Disney wasn’t giving much away, but the tone and beautiful settings seemed promising. Then we got a “special look” in early February of 2019, which finally gave the people what they wanted - a proper look at Will Smith as Genie. Suffice to say, it did NOT go over well. People smashed the dislike button on YouTube, reacting so badly that, quite frankly, some folks were ready to call this film “dead on arrival”. Disney has since dropped a proper trailer, and with a better look, many fans have come around on the genie issue. Of course, now everyone finds themselves distracted and confused by the young and noticeably HOT Jafar.

Film is a visual medium, but audio is an essential part of the puzzle - one that’s often underappreciated. The quickest way to make people take note of the sound editing, score or soundtrack though? Make a mistake. It was hard to fault the CGI on display in the Warcraft trailer, and the scale of the action looked appropriately epic. Sure, the story felt lacking, but that’s hardly enough to sink a film. So why were fans so pissed? The music! Who thought it was a good idea to pair this epic fantasy world with dubstep? To many fans, it was a slap in the face and a sign that someone wasn’t taking this film seriously.

Since we’re already on the subject of musical mistakes, let’s talk about the marketing blunder that was the trailer for “Star Trek Beyond”. Regardless of whether or not you appreciate his contributions to the genre, there’s no denying J. J. Abrams’ sci-fi cred. Justin Lin however, as an action director best known for his work in The Fast and the Furious franchise, had something to prove when he took the reins. And our first taste? A trailer that made the film look like The Fast and the Furious in space. The crew of the USS Enterprise were indeed venturing into a new frontier - it was just one that many did NOT want to see them explore.

The early 2000s was a confusing time for comic book movies. Spider-Man and the X-Men were doing incredible things on the big screen; unfortunately, it was also around this time that we got Daredevil, Elektra, and Fantastic Four. So yeah… a pretty mixed bag. While many of these films were venturing into uncharted territory, Catwoman had appeared on the big screen before - and left a lasting impression. So really… Catwoman starring Halle Berry - who as at the top of her game at the time - seemed like it had real potential. Unfortunately not! This trailer was as honest as they come; and by that we mean that it was woefully lackluster advertising for a similarly disappointing film.

What can we say… Warner Bros. and DC sure know how NOT to sell ‘em. A common complaint about trailers is that they often give too much away - sometimes major twists, or all the key plot points from A to Z. This is Zack Snyder we’re talking about, so naturally this trailer included plenty of epic moments and shots to get people pumped. Unfortunately, around the two minute mark, things took a sharp left turn into spoilertown. The media had a field day, accusing WB of giving away all the best and biggest surprises, including Doomsday. Of course, it didn’t help that many fans also found the design for Doomsday underwhelming.

While the original trilogy was critically-panned, it has an important place in the hearts of fans and pop culture history. As such, the news that the turtles were returning to the big screen had people feeling hopeful. That is until the trailers dropped. The first teaser hardly had any turtles in it, and when they did appear, the CGI and character design left much to be desired. Sadly, the more we saw of them, the worse it got. The Ninja Turtles have always been silly and over the top, but in these trailers, our adolescent crime fighters were downright grating. Armed with dated and awkward jokes that failed to generate laughs, these weren’t the turtles that fans were hoping for.

They say that video game adaptations are cursed, but live-action versions of animated series don’t fare much better. M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Last Airbender” is a classic case in point. One of the most glaring problems when the trailers dropped was the whitewashed cast. The tone was also off, and while worldbuilding and budget were there, the dialogue and acting were NOT. It felt like the movie was only capable of moving forward through the use of dramatic voice-over narration. Paramount kept hitting us with trailers, but each subsequent one just made the fan response worse. “Avatar: The Last Airbender” deserved better!

A third act villain like Doomsday is a twist best reserved for the theater. The titular character in costume however? That’s something that people expect to see in the very first teaser. Because “Eddie Brock, intrepid but troubled reporter on the run” does not make for a particularly interesting or compelling film. And yet that’s exactly what people got in the first trailer for “Venom”, which left it feeling like a half-baked action-thriller. As bad as the lack of symbiote was, fans soon found themselves almost wishing Sony would take the symbiote back after the next trailer. Venom looked great, but the pronunciation of the word “symbiote” was painful. Thankfully, Sony got the memo and fixed it.

On second thought, maybe we should stop complaining about the Doomsday spoiler. Because really, compared to this … it’s nothing! For the record, taking the savior of humanity and the main focus of a franchise and turning him into the enemy? That’s a bad idea in any franchise. People were always going to be pissed about what screenwriters Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier had cooked up for John Connor in this film. But taking that already upsetting bombshell of a twist and detonating it in the trailer? For many fans, it was enough to just skip seeing the movie altogether. “Terminator Genisys” was basically a crash course in how not to market a film.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few dishonorable mentions

“Batman and Robin” (1997)

“Jem and the Holograms” (2015)

“Hellboy” (2019)

“R.I.P.D.” (2013)

“Jonah Hex” (2010)

A vocal group of people wrote this film off as soon as it was revealed it would star an all-female cast. But there were much better, valid reasons to be disappointed by the trailer for 2016’s “Ghostbusters”. Even fans hoping to like the film commented that the comedy seemed formulaic and unworthy of the original. Given the talented cast, and high expectations for director Paul Feig after “Bridesmaids” knocked it out of the park, the disappointment was especially sharp. The trailer also blurred the lines between reboot and sequel, making the film’s identity come across as unfocused, and fuelling the argument that it just a cash-grab.