Spider-Man was officially revealed in the latest Civil War trailer and Doomsday was shown off in the second BvS:DoJ trailer.
These two character reveals have been met with quite a large amount of scepticism and the same question has been levied against both properties... Should they have kept the character reveals until bums are firmly in seats at the theatres?
It's a very good question and I think it speaks volumes as to how the movie industry works these days when compared to years ago.
People want to know as much about a movie as possible. It's almost as if they want the hype for the movie more than the movie itself.
Most pundits seem to be of the opinion that Batman Vs Superman should have kept Doomsday hidden until the movie released. Personally I agree. The trailer they released after the Doomsday one was much better and was clearly the one that got most people changing their opinions on the movie from negativity to vague optimism.
Meanwhile... the Spider-Man reveal.
Marvel/Disney announced they going to produce a movie called Civil War. Those who knew the source of that name and it's overall impact/importance on the Marvel superhero battlefield knew that there was one very big piece missing from the Marvel/Disney superhero cannon. Spider-Man. So how could they possibly make Civil War without Spidey?!
A fair question and one the company may have been forced to answer sooner than they really wanted thanks to the Sony hack.
Because "it" got out there that Sony had been talking to Disney about Spider-Man, the idea of Spider-Man coming to the MCU was about as good as only forbidden fruit can be. Sony were reeling and needed a win. Disney now have a very strong, proven success with their control of the MCU. The Spidey share was a win-win for all involved.
Then came the wait. Who would be Spidey? Would we see the character before the movie comes out? How much of a role will Spidey have?Tom Holland was cast and (from my recollection) people generally seemed OK with it. Some - myself included - did groan and wonder why we need a third iteration of Peter Parker. But it was generally well-received.
We then got the first trailer and there was no Spidey. This got people wondering if we'd have to wait until the movie to see the web-slinger.
Short answer: Nope. He finished the latest trailer of in typical Spidey fashion. Were people happy with the reveal? Mostly - this is the age of the vocal minority after all.
Would if have been better to not show Spidey until the movie?
Personally, I could have happily waited for the movie. (But I'm in the very small camp of people who still aren't sold on Civil War). Having Spidey in the trailer was purely to drive up hype.
This seems insane to me. It's a Marvel/Disney superhero movie featuring some of the most iconic pop culture characters of the last ten years. Plus the fact the MCU has not had a dud/flop. At all. Did they really need to drive up more hype for this movie?
Now on the opposite end of the scale, we have to go back a few years.
David Fincher's Se7en was and remains a true masterpiece of film. It also has one of the very best character reveals in any movie. Kevin Spacey is the killer?! Holy shit! It was a total secret and one that made the movie that much better. Not only did he absoluetly nail the character of John Doe, but we (as the audience) had no idea who was playing the villain. Someone people wondered if it would be a twist ending and Somerset might be the killer somehow. Others assumed it would be a more obvious character actor coming it to play the psycho (like Brad Dourif or Clancy Brown). But no, it was Kevin Spacey. An actor who had slowly been gathering a CV of quality films and roles, like Darrow and Glengarry Glen Ross and some smaller roles here and there. 1995 was a hell of a year for Spacey. He endeared and twisted us in knots as Verbal in The Usual Suspects, flirted with more Hollywood blockbuster fair in Outbreak and chilled us to the bone in Se7en.
My belief is that the impact of the killer's reveal and our relationship to that character would have been somewhat diminished if we have been teased with Spacey in the trailer ahead of time.
Thinking back, there was a secret addition in the MCU that was not trailer teased. Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury in Iron Man. Holy cow was that good casting for the role and kept as a wonderful secret.
Perhaps the main problem is that Hollywood is losing the ability to creat compelling trailers for their movies without giving away everything or just making bad trailers (I'm looking at you Ghostbusters) .
Hollywood wants more cinema cash return? Don't show the movie in the trailer! Tease and tantalise us with the trailer. It should be an entré whetting our appetite for the main course. Then surprise and delight us.
On that note I come to the final piece. Aquaman.
We have been told that he is going to appear in BvS and that Jason Moms is playing him (excellent casting by the way). But aside from an early teaser poster of his face and the words, "Unite the Seven", we haven't seen him in action.
I am totally fine with that! I'm not the biggest Aquaman fan, but it's so refreshing to know that there is something about BvS that I don't know and haven't seen already.
What do you think? Do we really need to further hype these sorts of movies? Should character be held back until the final film?
Tweet: @TheFriedBrain
or comment at www.facebook.com/groups/friedbrainproductions