Previewing the Trailer Previews, Oh My!

Hollywood long ago made the preview into an art form unto itself. It is now the case that the preview often surpasses the film in quality, even as it entices so many to go see said film. There are heartwrenching tales of loss, heartwarming tales of triumph, silly stories of love, lust, failure and friendship and funny films with scenes producers know will then get the biggest laughs. These previews make most films seem like "must see's" and it is only the truly awful preview that fails to niggle at our emotional ADD at least a little. The formula varies little -- there is the comedy that usually starts with the set-up, then the conflict intertwined with some quirky music and some inspirational end (to the preview that is), followed by a quick reminder that it is, in fact, a comedy; there is the horror film that has the scary scenes and some interesting character narrative; there is the inspirational story that includes music that crescendoes into a tale that we know will make us feel better for a couple of hours and on and on.

Last year, Hollywood decided that they had so perfected the trailer that they could include a preview of the trailer for big budget films to get you excited to actually watch the commercial (sort of like the geniuses behind the Super Bowl advertising made the big game about the spaces in between actually playing it). But the movie industry has decided that the preview of previews aren't grabbing us as fully as they should. So they are introducing an exciting new advertising strategy to get us excited and our mouths watering for the cardboardy popcorn we will wolf down with our $7 drinks. Welcome to the preview to the preview to the preview! Yes that's right, we now have sneak peaks of trailers of trailers: The Wolverine. And why not? People are looking for any way to waste their time online these days, why not add previews of previews to the list. And when you are making a sequel to a film as bad as Wolverine, you really do need to heed H.L. Mencken's advice that "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."