Rockin’ movie trailers

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I love a good movie trailer. A good trailer can send me to stratospheric levels of “Squee” about a film I previously only had a mild curiosity about, or a bucket full of reservations. Now of course a trailer can completely mislead you about the quality of the finished film. There’s been MANY a case of a teaser being much better than the movie it’s advertising – and I admit you’ll see a couple of examples of that below.

The point of this blog post is to highlight the power of music when it comes to editing together trailers. Music choice is a vital component because the right accompanying track can really “make” a trailer. Particularly if the sampled song features lyrics or a tone that perfectly suits the movie – even when you only realise this after a little research.

Now evidently Zack Snyder - a former TV commercials director - is a helmer who has a large say when trailers are made for his films because the teasers are consistently outstanding in terms of their music use. When combined with his stylish visuals, the effect is a coolness factor through the roof! It’s little surprise then that several of Snyder’s films feature below in the list of my personal favourite, chill-inducing “rock song” trailers of recent years. All are for fantasy action films with geek appeal.

Now of course this list is not exhaustive. It’s been compiled off the top of my head. So I open the floor to you: are there any other unforgettable trailers (musically) from the past half decade or so that I’ve forgotten?

Watchmen – Trailer featuring The Smashing Pumpkins’ The Beginning is the End is the Beginning. Equally awesome second trailer features The Philip Glass Ensemble – Pruit Igoe & Prophecies, and Muse – Take a Bow.



300 – Trailer featuring Nine Inch Nails’ Just Like You Imagined.



Sucker Punch – Trailer featuring Lords of Acid’s The Crab Louse.



Hellboy II: The Golden Army – Trailer featuring Rammstein’s Mein Herz Brennt (My Heart Burns).



Clash of the Titans 2010 – Trailer featuring The Used’s The Bird and the Worm.



Resident Evil: Afterlife – Trailer featuring A Perfect Circle’s The Outsider (Apocalypse mix).



Max Payne – Trailer featuring Marilyn Manson’s If I Was Your Vampire.



Iron Man – Trailer featuring AC/DC’s Back in Black, Audioslave’s Cochise, and Black Sabbath’s Iron Man.

Comments

Alistair said…
The ability of a cunning edit of video and good song choice to change your view on something is something I've also noticed.

Movie trailers are a common example, but another place you see the effect is in some Anime Music Videos (AMVs) which are fan-made collections of clips from an anime with appropriate music selection. A good AMV can make any anime seem like a must-watch; I've repeatedly looked into an anime based on a AMV I watched, only for it to be below-average.
10:03 AM
Cleric said…
Hell yeah! When I first saw that Trailer of Watchmen, I fell in love with that song all over again :)

The other trailers are also awesome. The song choice and what's shown in a trailer, and to make the footage and the song work together is a tricky thing, but done right, it gives me goosepimpels :P
12:06 PM
Pfangirl said…
Thanks for commenting guys. It's strange how the combination of good music and exciting visuals can really hook you emotionally - giving you goose pimples and often completely deceiving you as to how good something is.
11:17 AM
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