Final 'X-Men: Days of Future Past' trailer is best yet

Posted Wednesday, April 16, 2014 at 3:20 PM Central

by John Couture

This is my biggest complaint with movie trailers. No one knows how to make a really good one. It's a dead art form and today we usually run into one of two extremes.

First, the studio gives away everything but the kitchen sink in the trailer leaving the film to be nothing more than a shell of what it could have been. All of the best jokes are in the trailer for comedies and there's no mystery left in crime suspense dramas. In other words, there's no need to see the film because all of the best parts and important beats are right there in the two minute trailer.

At the other end of the spectrum, they are too scared about giving away too much, to they just release a water-downed version of something resembling a trailer. More often than not, the viewer is left scratching their head trying to figure out what they just saw let alone having any desire to watch the entire movie.

The end result in both cases is the same: the viewer has little motivation to actually get up and go see the film. For those falling behind at home, this is exactly the antithesis of what a movie trailer should do.

A trailer should entice you to want to see the whole film. It should give you enough plot to give you a reasonable expectation of what the film will deliver. One of biggest pet peeves is the old bait and switch trailer where they cut together an awesome trailer that makes a film seem like a comedic romp when in actuality the film is a major downer in which the whole third act takes place in a funeral home.

I'll be honest, up to this point, Fox has completely dropped the ball on the trailer work for X-Men: Days of Future Past. They have been disjointed at best, a complete train-wreck at worst, but we continued to have faith because X-Men: First Class was so well done.

Thankfully, this final trailer nails it completely. In fact, I wish they would have simply just released this trailer and said, 'See ya on May 23.' It's that good. They provide just the right amount of exposition, thanks mostly to Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, a few quick glances at new characters Quicksilver and Blink and finally the biggest payoff of them all, Sentinels in action.

This is as close to a perfect trailer that you will see these days. Bravo!