Picture this: massive explosions, cities destroyed and threats to humanity. Does this sound like an action movie trailer you’ve seen recently? Try all of them. Check out this fan-made video that proves every action trailer is pretty much the same.
In the video recently posted on YouTube by RedLetterMedia, an extremely talented fan sets out to prove that all action trailers are constructed using the same formula, and the result is cinematic genius. Using trailers from many of the high grossing action movies released within the past 10 years, the video montage is a nearly perfect amalgamation of all things action in less than 10 minutes. As it turns out, no matter what the movie is about, your favorite action movie trailers from movies like Thor, Thor: The Dark World, Iron Man 3, Divergent, Oblivion, Captain America, Man of Steel and Avengers: Age of Ultron are all about the same thing.
For starters, they have to hook us right? Cue the widescreen shots of the city—any city—just before the destruction begins as some narrator delivers mysterious, cryptic and vague lines. Lines, that no doubt paint a rather bleak picture of what’s to come if some "savior" doesn’t’ show up and stop the "evil doer." Suddenly, we’re invested, all within a matter of minutes. We care about what is happening and we want the "good guys" to come in and save the day. Enter the hero or heroes.
Every action movie trailer has a moment in the trailer where it breaks from all the shots of destruction and explosions to showcase the "savior," and it is always awesome. Making the characters look cool is an essential part of hooking us all in, particularly the heroes. Although, truth be told, the villains always look awesome too, albeit foreboding and all. It’s the heroes, however that we’re all rooting for. Then, after a build up to silence, they hit us with loud dramatic music to signify that it is officially on. By this point in the trailer, we’re all so pumped to see whatever movie the trailer is for that we have lost our minds. The next few shots of the epic battles and the "good guys" saving the day are just toying with us; they already had us at hello.
As fun as this video is to watch, we all can’t help but acknowledge the truth in the sentiment behind it. Movie studios have all us trained by now, we don’t even notice that every single action movie trailer is the exact same one each and every year. But then again, another way of looking at it could be that if it’s not broke, then don’t fix it, right?
