These Are the Greatest Trailers Ever for Bad Movies

Sometimes, great trailers come out of terrible movies. It’s not wizardry how this happens: even the most abysmal movie can look appealing with just the right editing or condensing. Detached from a greater context (where inescapable flaws like dismal editing or larger narrative shortcomings manifest), these trailers can promise audiences a good time that, alas, will never manifest. Even when the movie underwhelms, though, these trailers endure.

Sometimes, the earlier superior trailers are good enough (or evoke enough of a distinctive atmosphere) to thrive as standalone art even while the movies they’re promoting garner increasingly hostile pop culture reputations. These examples of horrible movies getting awesome trailers reflect that reality. They should also give one pause the next time they assume a great trailer means the final film can’t miss artistically (even something like 28 Years Later could eventually prove worthy of this list).

Battle: Los Angeles

The Battle: Los Angeles teaser begins with stock images of purported alien sightings from throughout history. There is a history of aliens and human beings fleetingly meeting. Now, within this disaster war move, these two entities will collide to vicious results. From there, the trailer features a montage of footage depicting Los Angeles crumbling under alien invaders set to an electronic version of Johann Johannsson’s “The Sun’s Gone Dim.” It’s a perfectly haunting needle drop accentuating an apocalyptic air to everything unfolding in the trailer. A final chaotic montage of intense images culminating in just a release date drop (not even a title card here) solidifies the Battle: Los Angeles teaser as iconic. A shame the final movie was an unholy disaster awash in shaky-cam and terrible performances.

Godzilla (1998)

Once people actually saw the 1998 American Godzilla remake, the Roland Emmerich directorial effort would forever be known for including lots of rain, a terrible Godzilla design, and lines like “that’s a lot of fish.” But in 1997, nearly a year before its release, this feature launched its marketing campaign with a special teaser (exclusively focused on footage not shot for the final film) where a museum tour is interrupted by Godzilla stomping on a T-Rex skeleton. It was a big, bold swing at that summer’s major new blockbuster (The Lost World: Jurassic Park) and a teaser that benefited mightily from a stirring sense of build-up. Also, keeping that hideous Zilla design off-screen didn’t hurt.

Man of Steel

In hindsight, maybe the best thing to come out of the entire DC Extended Universe was Man of Steel’s third trailer. A lengthy three-minute dive into this franchise’s inaugural title, the trailer starts out with a beautifully melancholy depiction of Krypton’s destruction. Immediately, an awe-inspiring sense of majesty is instilled into every fiber of this trailer. The drum-heavy music from Hans Zimmer, the mythic voice-over work from Russell Crowe, the perfectly timed bits of pathos (like Kevin Costner’s uttering of “You are my son!”) turn middling moments from the final film into tremendously impactful segments devoid of context. For just one moment, this third Man of Steel trailer suggested a version of Superman infused with hope and gravitas.

Star Wars – Episode II: Attack of the Clones

The worst Star Wars movie (exempting The Clone Wars or feature-length oddities like that Holiday Special) remains Star Wars: Attack of the Clones even in a post-“somehow, Palpatine has returned” world. Also enduring, though, is the awesomeness of that first Attack of the Clones teaser trailer. This teaser is set to Darth Vader’s breathing, with each new huff from this off-screen villain inspiring a new image from Clones. It’s an inspired way to guide the cuts of this teaser, with Anakin’s inevitable descent into evil hovering over images of blossoming love. Plus, the sparse soundtrack lends a greater sense of grandeur to the various Attack of the Clones shots. Hinting at returning characters and ships (was that Slave I? Silver C-3PO?) proves quite fun in this rapid-fire context compared to the final product, which suffers from seriously drawn-out pacing problems. Clones was the nadir of Star Wars cinema, but at least it inspired an all-time great teaser. 

[Related: Sorry Superman, Marvel Still Has the Best Superhero Movie Teaser Trailer]

Dinosaur

Dinosaur wasn’t just set to be the first Walt Disney Animation Studios release of the 21st century, it would also be the first project in the Disney Animation canon realized primarily through computer animation. To commemorate the occasion, Dinosaur’s dialogue-free opening sequence was released as a teaser, mirroring The Lion King’s first teaser being that “Circle of Life” opening sequence. That Dinosaur teaser remains a tour de force of visual storytelling and James Newton Howard’s sweeping score hasn’t lessened in its power over the course of 25 years. The final Dinosaur film would bombard audiences with gratingly cutesy dialogue about “the love monkey,” but this teaser trailer offered a glimpse at an alternate version of Dinosaur that emphasized sumptuous imagery above all else.  

Gemini

Nearly seven years after its release, Gemini has been entirely forgotten, unless you’re a John Cho or Zoe Kravitz completist. Those who saw the Gemini trailer back in 2017, though, know very well all the potential this movie left on the table. This trailer just oozes uneasy intensity, complete with a recurring chilling sound effect that sounds like an electronic low rumble. Gemini’s trailer, especially on a sonic level, promised something rife with unpredictability and eerie twists. Tragically, the final film was such a whiff that it’s not even memorably bad enough to endure in the cultural consciousness.

Mulan

Before it became a (very understandable) pop culture punching bag with its PVOD premiere in September 2020, Disney’s 2020 live-action Mulan remake was a highly anticipated movie. Never forget, it was once tracking to open to $85+ million alone domestically. Much of that initial anticipation could be traced back to great pieces of marketing like Mulan’s big, flashy official trailer, which promised a soaring spectacle set to a stirring orchestral rendition of “Reflection.” This memorable Mulan trailer would be, alas, one of the few widely praised elements to emerge from this creative boondoggle.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

The MonsterVerse is always cooking when it comes to movie trailers. Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a prime example of this, thanks to marketing materials like an initial teaser set to Debussy’s “Clair de Lune.” Nothing beats the final King of the Monsters trailer, though, masterfully edited to an orchestral version of “Over the Rainbow.” The images chosen for this trailer convey a staggering tone, the majesty of those Titans is truly felt in every shot. A closing montage that ramps up the intensity of “Rainbow” as the Kaiju carnages also increases in ferocity, meanwhile, holds up to endless rewatches.

As a movie, King of the Monsters hampered its grandiose ambitions with too much quippy dialogue, awkward editing, and filmmaking that made it hard to appreciate the monstrous bouts. In this final trailer, however, all of this Godzilla feature’s potential was richly realized.

Suicide Squad

Suicide Squad’s first proper trailer (that wasn’t just a Comic-Con sneak peek) immediately began with the opening words of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Instantly, viewers were thrust into a distinctive needle drop that guided every cut and movement of this trailer. This precise editing made for an incredibly fun trailer, especially when the tune and frantic mayhem paused for a fun gag involving Captain Boomerang opening up a can of beer and slurping on the beverage.

This exquisite trailer exuded anarchic energy mixed with caked-in angst that the final film couldn’t hope to even somewhat match. As a movie, Suicide Squad was plagued with an inconsistent tone and an erratic soundtrack seemingly desperate to please all moviegoers. This teaser, meanwhile, was a much more confident creation, right down to understanding the unyielding power of Freddie Mercury’s vocals.