Movie trailers don't always do a great job showing off the films they're meant to advertise, with many brilliant movies being hamstrung by terrible trailers that betray their actual quality. The best movie trailers are able to drum up excitement and intrigue for their films without giving away too much of the plot. Sadly, in some cases, a trailer can actually hurt the public perception of a film, leading to many audiences not giving a chance to a genuinely great movie thanks to a lackluster trailer.
There are several big mistakes some trailers make when it comes to advertising. A trailer can sometimes give away far too much information regarding the story of the film in it's advertising, essentially ruining the movie experience, while others misconstrue the genre or tone of a film in an attempt to "trick" audiences into seeing it, not adequately portraying the intended story. Even if some trailers are better than the movies they advertise, the opposite rings true far too often.
10 Drive
Failed to sell Ryan Gosling as an action star

One of the all-time greatest performances by industry darling Ryan Gosling, Drive is a venerated, contemplative character study that has been lauded as a perfect encapsulation of modern masculinity, male loneliness, and atmospheric bliss. The story posits Ryan Gosling as a nameless man who works as a Hollywood stunt driver by day and a criminal getaway driver by night. When he wishes to leave behind his dangerous life to pursue an idyllic love interest, he has to weaponize his violent side.
Drive is a masterclass in arthouse action in which the chases and fight scenes are still playing second-fiddle to the character development and poignant romance. However, the trailer didn't understand how to get this across, marketing the movie as a Fast & Furious rip-off starring Gosling, who was best known at the time as the lead of The Notebook. The trailer's odd editing choices and tonal dissonance from the actual meat of Drive was a huge letdown.
9 Fight Club
A difficult-to-sell premise based on a bizarre book

If there's one trailer that can almost be forgiven for how terribly it let down the movie it was meant to advertise, it has to be that of Fight Club. Based on the cult classic novel of the same name, Fight Club is admittedly a hard sell for general audiences, presenting the tale of another nameless protagonist whose life is changed when he meets the chaotic Tyler Durden, inspiring the creation of the titular underground brawling ring. From there, Tyler's ambitions become greater and more chaotic as his group's frustration with modern living boils over.
The trailers painted Fight Club as more of a quirky, off-beat comedy that highlighted the objectively humorous chemistry between Edward Norton and Brad Pitt. While the film is funny, to be sure, the trailers totally missed the more disturbing, dramatic, and downright nonsensical aspects of the story, likely in an attempt to sand off the rougher edges of the film for a broader appeal. Luckily, word of mouth ensured that Fight Club went down as a cinematic classic that actually manages to outdo the book it's based on by the author's own admission.
8 Edge Of Tomorrow
Was far more than a generic sci-fi action movie

Tom Cruise is as reliable of a Hollywood star as they come, having heralded thrilling action blockbusters like Mission Impossible and Top Gun for years leading up to the release of Edge of Tomorrow. The trailers painted the film as a by-the-numbers science fiction action movie derivative of Independence Day, with a mechsuit-equipped Cruise battling generic CGI aliens. Shockingly, the advertising also omitted the fact that Edge of Tomorrow was actually based on a ground-breaking Japanese light novel, the excellently-titled All You Need Is Kill.
Those that actually gave the film a try despite the lackluster trailer would go on to find one of Cruise's most underrated movies yet, a clever time loop action movie with some genuinely fantastic battle sequences that feel like a live-action anime. Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt's shocking amount of chemistry is given no quarter by the terrible trailer, which didn't do enough to sell the concept of a Groundhog's Day war against aliens featuring some incredibly cool worldbuilding and special effects. Because of the trailer, Edge of Tomorrow remains criminally underseen to this day.
7 Smile
Far better than a rip-off of a worse horror movie

Advertising horror movies is usually fairly straightforward, with a couple of key scares, a creepy backing track, and the gradual tease of a terrifying climax being all that's needed to get horror fans mobilized. Yet sometimes, a trailer simply can't convey how truly terrifying a given horror flick can be, with Smile being a huge victim of horror movie advertising. The trailer for Smile made it seem like a run-of-the-mill supernatural horror story, overusing jumpscares in order to draw out a reaction.
Worse still, the trailer's explanation of the film's plot of a curse that spreads and makes its victims smile made it seem derivative of far worse movies, such as Truth or Dare. The trailer simply failed to capture just how unnerving and unpleasant many of the smiles featured within could truly be in context, a difficult task to accomplish in 2 minutes or less. The true horror of Smile, especially its pulse-pounding ending, simply was nowhere to be seen in the promotional materials.
6 Transformers One
Utterly let down by its deceitful advertising

Another more recent example of a film that was totally misconstrued by its trailer was Transformers One. As the latest entry in the long-reviled Transformers movie franchise, Transformers One had a lot of negative press to overcome in order to convince general audiences to come out for the latest take on the Autobot and Decepticon war. A prequel set on Cybertron, Transformers One explores Optimus Prime and Megatron's early friendship and eventual schism back when they were still known as Orion Pax and D-16.
Sadly, the trailers failed to convey the tragic bromance and ideological divide that Transformers One revels in. Instead, much of the advertising focused on the quippy jokes and comedic antics of Keegan-Michael Key's Bumblebee or Chris Hemsworth's MCU-esque delivery. By playing it safe, the terrible advertisement ironically resulted in a terrible box office take for the excellent animated film, proving the negative effects a bad trailer can have.
5 How To Train Your Dragon
Is so much more than a run-of-the-mill Dreamworks flick

Transformers One is far from the first animated film to fall prey to a bad trailer, with Dreamworks' How to Train Your Dragon being another family-friendly picture to be misrepresented in advertising. Dreamworks in general has a difficult time advertising their films, with Kung Fu Panda being another noticeable example of a trailer that fails to do the brilliance of the actual movie justice. How to Train Your Dragon's trailer is even more egregious, making the high-flying tale of animal companionship seem tired and cliché.
The trailer overly focused on snappy banter between Hiccup and his band of viking friends, making no effort to show any of the nuance in his efforts to heal viking and dragon relations. Hiccup flailing around during the training process of riding Toothless for the first time may have also lingered on a bit too much, making the trailer dense with quirky screaming and yelps of "Whoa!" that contributed to a generic surface appearance. The true depth and complexity of How to Train Your Dragon was totally absent in the trailer.
4 The Martian
Essentially told the entire story start to finish

Sometimes a trailer can be bad not because it inaccurately portrays the movie it's advertising, but because it portrays it altogether too well. The Martian is the latest in a long list of movies centered around saving Matt Damon, based on the hard science fiction novel of the same name. Astronaut Mark Watney is stranded on Mars after a mission gone wrong, and must find a way to survive the lengthy wait for a rescue while somehow contacting NASA back on Earth. The film goes to great lengths to maintain realism, making for a thrilling castaway story.
The problem with The Martian's trailer is that it essentially gives away the entire plot beat for beat, making watching the movie seem unnecessary. From the initial accident that strands Mark on the red planet to the way he figures out how to grow food to his crew's off-the-books rescue mission that goes against the face of NASA authority, every important beat is more or less spoiled. If anything, it's a testament to The Martian's quality that the whole film can basically be parsed down to two minutes so succinctly.
3 Everest
More of a character drama than a disaster movie

It seems like movies centered on astonishing tales of survival have a particularly hard time with advertising, as proven by both The Martian and more terrestrial adventure stories like Everest. Based on the real 1996 Mount Everest disaster, Everest weaves together the tales of two rival expeditions that have to work together in the wake of dangerous medical and weather conditions striking simultaneously. Despite the bombastic setting, Everest is quite a restrained and tasteful survival story that centers more on the relationships between the characters than the mountain itself.
Sadly, it seems as though the advertising department for the film couldn't let such an intimate story stand on its own legs. The trailer misconstrues Everest into a big-budget 3D event movie, a disaster blockbuster more along the lines of something like San Andreas or Twister. In an effort to give the film a broader appeal, Everest was fashioned into a far more generic film than it actually is thanks to the trailer.
2 The Grey
Another rich character study reduced to a simple man vs. nature plot

Yet another example of a survival film that was misrepresented in advertising, Liam Neeson's The Grey was advertised quite inaccurately by its trailer. The quiet, contemplative film stars Neeson as a suicidal sharpshooter who works at a remote Alaskan oil rig protecting his coworkers from frequent grey wolf attacks. When his plane back home crashes unexpectedly, he ends up leading a group of survivors to safety as far as he can, fending off attacks from yet more ferocious wolves along the way.
True to its name, The Grey is quite a bleak film that shows off Liam Neeson's acting ability as he and his crew navigate depression, nihilism, and apathy that strikes just as ferociously as the wolves themselves. Yet the trailers painted the film as a simple action flick pitting Neeson against hordes of wolves, taking them out with his improvised knuckleduster. In reality, such a moment only happens towards the very last few seconds of the film, and is far more grim in context.
1 In Bruges
A brilliant black comedy with abysmal advertising

Though they received critical acclaim for their joint performances in The Banshees of Inisherin, the Academy Award-winning film was far from Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson's first collaboration. Enter In Bruges, a black comedy also by director Martin McDonagh, which starred the two as a pair of hitmen stranded in the boring historical town of Bruges on an assignment. The movie is a bittersweet but hilarious examination of the human condition by way of Irish assassins, a premise that advertising seemed to struggle with.
The trailer for In Bruges made the film out to be a low-brow action comedy that doesn't address the truly heartbreaking beats of the actual narrative. While In Bruges is indeed a funny film, the humor is much drier and wittier than the rushed trailer edit set to upbeat guitar music makes it out to be, sanitizing the uniquely dreary Irish drama for a worldwide release. Few movies have had a bigger gulf in quality between themselves and their trailers as In Bruges.