If yesterday’s post picking the Best Trailers of Trailers of 2012 felt — appropriately enough — like a big ol’ tease, don’t worry, we’ve got all the full-length trailers from 2012 that made getting to the movies early worth your while.
Some of this year’s most compelling trailers tantalized us with sweeping scores and songs (has the Les Misérables show stopper “I Dreamed a Dream” ever sounded so good?), memorable one-liners (or, in the case of The Master, ones that don’t even appear in the actual movie), and things that make us go “Hmmm” in the best way possible.
A great trailer can, and should, play like a mini-movie and sometimes can be infinitely more entertaining in two minutes than an entire feature and the previews in 2012 were no exception. We laughed, we cried, we still can’t figure out what Bane was saying in The Dark Knight Rises trailer.
Sit back, relax, grab some popcorn before the line gets too long, and relive the best trailers of 2012:
The Dark Knight Rises: “The Star-Spangled Banner” has never sounded so haunting as it did for the crowd-silencing trailer for The Dark Knight Rises. The entire two-plus minute trailer is heart-pounding anticipation, from Anne Hathaway’s chilling warning that “a storm is coming” to that jaw-dropping football stadium sequence. This one had us chanting along from the moment we saw it.
Les Misérables: Okay, Hathaway, you win. You totally killed it in trailers this year. First you got our hearts racing in TDKR trailer and then you gave us goosebumps in the sweeping Les Misérables trailer. Broadway fanboys and girls lost it the minute they heard the actress’ take on the iconic number “I Dreamed A Dream”. Sorry Susan Boyle, this one takes the cake. (Well, the bread.)
Cloud Atlas: Oddly enough, the most musically satisfying trailer of 2012 wasn’t Les Misérables, but the five-plus minute opus for Cloud Atlas. Using electro-rock band M83 to set the epic tone, the eye-popping preview for Tom Tykwer’s and the Wachowski‘s ambitious adaptation of David Mitchell‘s beloved bestseller, it felt more like a thrilling, bizarro music video (especially when Tom Hanks looks like this) than a trailer, but it worked. Even after nearly six minutes we wanted more.
Life of Pi: Much like Cloud Atlas, fans of Yann Martel‘s majestic Life of Pi wondered how on Earth this could possibly work as a movie. As soon as they witnessed the awe-inspiring trailer (seriously, when was the last time a preview made you say “wow” out loud as much as this one?) it was apparent the material had gotten into the right hands: Ang Lee‘s.
Magic Mike: Steven Soderbergh‘s Magic Mike may have been an unconventional drama about chasing the American dream (in a G-string) but the Brits had it right when they made a redband trailer for the male stripper drama. Sure, the U.S. trailer had that catchy Rihanna tune, Matthew McConaughey‘s swagger, and a glimpse of Channing Tatum‘s sweet dance moves, but there was one key ingredient missing: butts! Butts everywhere.
The Master: Perhaps the best example of a trailer that was better than the movie in 2012 (no matter what your feelings of The Master wound up being). When we first saw it we had a ton of questions. What the hell is this all about? Why is Joaquin Phoenix so upset with Philip Seymour Hoffman? Wait, is this the movie about Scientology? Okay, the preview and the movie never really answer any of those questions, but we’re still talking about it, aren’t we?
Beasts of the Southern Wild: In a million years, when kids go to school, they’re gonna know, once there was a Hushpuppy (played by the unbelievable, talented well beyond her years newcomer Quvenzhané Wallis) who narrated the beautiful, soaring trailer for indie masterpiece.
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The Perks of Being a Wallflower: There were plenty of movies that effectively used indie rock songs in their trailers (Celeste and Jesse Forever with Porcelain Raft‘s “Drifting In And Out” and Silver Linings Playbook‘s well-timed use of The Lumineers‘ “Ho Hey”) but when Imagine Dragons‘ “It’s Time” starts up in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, we wanted to roll down the windows and scream along on the way to the theater. Nothing below average about this trailer or this movie.
The Impossible: The impossible is making it through the heart-stopping, lump-in-your-throat trailer for the movie about the inspiring true life story of a family who, against all odds, survived the devastating 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia. If they gave Oscars based on trailers alone, stars Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts would already have them. Knowing what the film is about should make you cry in and of itself, but once Damien Rice‘s cover of U2‘s “One” begins, it’s all over.
The Great Gatsby: Perhaps the most divisive trailer of 2012, Baz Luhrmann‘s flashy (3D?!) imagining of the literary classic thrilled some with its stylized vision of F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s world, and angered others who consider it sacred text. (What in the world is a Jay-Z and Kanye West collaboration doing in the 1920s?) Still, looks pretty great to us. Just too bad we’ll have to wait until May 2013 to put on our beautiful shirts and see what else is in store.
[Photo credit: Warner Bros.]
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