Trailers Weekly: Top 10 Movie Trailers Of 2014

Trailers Weekly is something I enjoy writing immensely. For the past 52 weeks or so, I’ve seen many movie trailers, good and bad. Movie trailers are a vital part to movie marketing. Essentially, these movie trailers are the basic forms of a viral marketing campaign. So now that we are at the end of the year, it’s about that time we narrow down all of those movie trailers to the ten best of the year.

A lot of these movie trailers are for movies we haven’t even seen yet, but the way they were cut put them on our most anticipated films of 2015 list. There are a few however that were for films released this year. Of course for those films that were released, some of them were liked and a few of them were not. Whatever the case may be, these are the definitions of a trailer, and the way there were cut gave us a reason to see these films at full length. Hit the jump to see the top 10 trailers of 2014.

10 – Avengers: Age Of Ultron
This trailer wasn’t originally suppose to make it on the list, but the way Disney and Marvel handled the leak was spectacular. Disney and Marvel responded by releasing the trailer only a few hours after, and in HD. But much of what we saw was already seen at San Diego Comic-Con, which is pretty much the way these trailers are cut. Between the Hulkbuster, Ultron’s large stature, and Andy Serkis’ mysterious role, there is a lot to look forward to.

9 – Guardians of the Galaxy
Now this goes to the teaser. It was the teaser that got us hooked on a feeling that this film would be really good. Think of the Guardians of the Galaxy teaser as the Avengers headcount, where a Nova core officer lists the various crimes these self-proclaimed Guardians of the Galaxy have committed. The James Gunn-directed film was seen as a huge gamble, but if anything, the trailer told us that this gamble would pay off, and in spades.

8 – Knight of Cups
Splendid, artistic, and beautiful all rolled into one. Knight of Cups has Terrance Malick written all over it. The trailer tells us that the film will center on the world of celebrity excess, and dangers of losing sight of self and humility. I’m not really one for Malick films, but the lack of cornfields in the landscape has got me interested.

7 – Tomorrowland
Speaking of cornfields, the teaser for Brad Bird’s Tomorrowland has plenty of it. But it also has a bit of wonder and mystery. A young girl (Britt Robertson) just being released from prison is given back her possessions, only to see that a Disney pin that she never owned came with it. Simply touching it takes her to that Terrance Malick world of cornfields with a sophisticated technological center in the distance. The trailer then cuts to George Clooney, whose speech leads us to believe that this will be one of the most exciting and most original films of 2015.

6 – Nightcrawler
In news media, if it bleeds it leads. The trailer for Nightcrawler doesn’t run at an average trailer length, but it does provide plenty of reasons to see Jake Gyllenhaal as Lou Bloom, a nightcrawler himself who believes if you if you want to win the lottery, you have to make the money to buy a ticket. The trailer is a montage of him saying that line, but also a progression of his character learning about the world of nightcrawling to his rage boiling over revealing a dangerous character.

5 – Interstellar
Despite the numerous plotholes, issues with sound, and the idea that “love transcends gravity, time and space, there is a beauty to the way the Interstellar trailer was cut. With breathtaking shots of space, and suspenseful shots of trucks racing through cornfields, the thing that clinched it was the touching relationship between Matthew McConaughey’s Coop and Mackenzie Foy’s Murph. The trailer also showed us that the film would be an amalgam of science fiction, family bonds, and Christopher Nolan’s love of 35mm. With a sneak peek of Hans Zimmer score looming in the background, the third trailer for Interstellar is still has it’s breathtaking moments and is very exciting to watch.

4 – Gone Girl
David Fincher’s adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl proved to be much more than an average of murder mystery involving husband and wife. The inclusion of a cover of “She” by the Psychedelic Furs’ Richard Butler was the perfect way to set the tone of what would be expected from the film. The trailer was frighteningly chilling, and made a point of making Ben Affleck look like a criminal. But by having Rosamund Pike read her diary and by keeping her in the background, the trailer felt like Fincher was holding something back, which would be an incentive for those who have not read the book to go an see how twisted this movie could really be.

3 – Inherent Vice
This trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson‘s Inherent Vice is so wonderfully dark and funny it almost seems as if it plays like an episode of Archer, especially with the music, racist overtones, and just batshit crazy fun everyone seems like they are having. There is an electric feel to it with choice of music begin played, the dark humor, and the neon lit titles. I still haven’t gotten a chance to see the film yet, but if anything, with the way the trailer has been cut, I cannot wait to see it in its full length.

2 – Star Wars: The Force Awakens
From that moment a sweaty and heaving breathing John Boyega rises onto the desert screen, John Williams powerful signature score soars, and the audience knew that they were about to watch something really special. Star Wars: The Force Awakens looks to be a welcome return to the franchise. From Daisy Ridley racing off on her speeder, to Oscar Issac about to take off in his X-Wing, there was a lot to geek out about. But the one thing that had us sold was when the Millennium Falcon looped and flew straight into the direction of two Tie Fighters, with the signature Star Wars theme playing in the background. The new bold ideas, the use of themes that made the original film so great, practical effects, and the fact that it ignores the prequels, there is a lot to get excited over, and the teaser for Star Wars: The Force Awakens sets the bar pretty high.

1 – Mad Max: Fury Road
Compared to the trailer that debuted at comic-con, the second trailer asks the question: how in the world did this movie get made in the first place? And I say that as a good thing. Sure there are the things we love about the Mad Max films: the desert landscapes, the cars, the crashes. But really none of that compares to how the trailer puts the film on everyone’s most anticipated list of 2015. This is how a trailer for an action movie shoud be cut. Charlize Theron falling to her knees as Mascgani’s “Regina Coeli” only to hear Yuri Temirkanov’s “Dies Irae” to crescendo as Tom Hardy rises from the sand – mirroring the possible rise of the franchise -, which immediately cuts to a montage of absolute insanity is just amazing to watch. That quick shot of Hardy holding on to a pole as it circles from one end of the screen to the other while cars are exploding in the background, and Nicholas Hoult’s look of lunacy and madness is even more of a reason to put this trailer at number one.

There were many other trailers under consideration. White God, Birdman, Jurassic World, Under The Skin just to name a few. Chappie, American Sniper, Whiplash, and even Top Five were quite enjoyable to watch. So did we forget to mention any others? Trailers Weekly will be off next week for the winter break. We look forward to provide you some get movie trailer coverage next year!