Disclosure Day (Steven Spielberg, 2026)

[Finch]

I've got no interest in this particular film but even with films that I do want to see I pretty much abstain from watching more than a teaser. Especially knowing that too many trailers give too much away and even use the same standard music cues.

Even in the cases of Neon and A24 whose marketing tends to be better, particularly Neon's, I avoided second trailers or teasers. The marketing for Longlegs and Hokum was good but in both cases, I had seen enough with the teasers. I've already seen Neon's preview of Hope and that's all I'm going to check out before the film opens.

[Lowry_Sam]

But in a theater, avoiding trailers is rather difficult, particularly since the chains are playing any range of length of trailers before a film, but 20 minutes isn't uncommon. I don't go to Spielberg movies & this trailer campaign ensured I will not go to see this one, so it had the exact opposite effect that it's supposed to. The campaign probably started a year ago & it's relentless pursuit of trying to draw in interest by dropping more & more info with each successive trailer before every single film I've seen at a chain theater is just so off-putting. Besides the oversaturation, there is also the complete undermining of any element of mystery that may have existed after the first trailer. This is such a different experience now than it was before I stopped going to see releases in the theater a decade ago when seeing some trailers before a film was still an enjoyable experience.

[Finch]

No, you're right about the difficulty of avoiding trailers that show too much when you're in the theater but that's why I don't show up for a screening until 20 mins after the start.

[Lowry_Sam]

Last 2 times I went to theater the previews only lasted 5 minutes, so you can't necessarily depend on that either.

[Michael Kerpan]

Just fiddle with your phone until it is time for the feature to start.

[Lowry_Sam]

That is what I do, but trailers are so loud and obnoxious now it's really difficult blocking them from your conciousness while trying to focus on something else...which I think is intentional. Hollywood can't come up with original trailers that would draw your attention away from your phone, so they just assault your senses.

[beamish14]

No, you're right about the difficulty of avoiding trailers that show too much when you're in the theater but that's why I don't show up for a screening until 20 mins after the start.

I only go to multiplexes if they’re screening something in 70mm, and those screenings naturally don’t have many trailers attached to them.

It’s not the trailers that I really mind, though. It’s the awful television ads which remind me why I don’t watch American television anymore

[bdsweeney]

Just fiddle with your phone until it is time for the feature to start.

This, but I’ve also been known to childishly close my eyes and hum to myself.

[Finch]

I do what Michael K mentioned, focusing on my phone that is, and that helps me to block out the trailer noise. I'd say 95% of the time the previews are for things that I never intend to watch anyway. At the screenings I go to, it's usually 20 mins of ads and trailers.

[Noiretirc]

Really, it's the OP that turns me off here. Yet more Williams schlock?

(And that Spielberg is the most over-rated Director ever. But I digress.)

[Matt]

Thanks to this thread, I just watched the "extended trailer" that came out a month ago. It seems like a Spielberg highlight reel, shots that look like they came right out of War of the Worlds, Minority Report, A.I., Close Encounters, Janusz Kaminski trotting out the tried-and-true lens flares and blown-out white backlighting. Probably good news for Spielberg Stans who were put off by West Side Story and The Fabelmans, but I can't muster up an ounce of enthusiasm for him dipping back into the aliens/sci-fi well once again.

[Aspect]

I feel like I need to stick up for The Beard here. While I’m a bit concerned about the script due to it being written by the very hit or miss David Koepp, Disclosure Day is easily the Hollywood movie I’m looking forward to the most this year for the simple reason that Spielberg is the best stager, blocker, and framer in the business, and has been for the last four or five decades.

The composition of his images and the way he moves the camera within scenes to create constantly innovative, expert framings using foreground and background elements (always in service of the story) is second to none. He’s the last bastion of old school Hollywood craftsmanship there is, and when he’s gone, man, that’s it. We need to appreciate him while we have him.

[Monterey Jack]

Really, it's the OP that turns me off here. Yet more Williams schlock?

[jazzo]

I’m with you, Aspect. Even Spielberg’s pictures that are, in my mind, ultimately failures, always have an innovative technical feat or piece of craft that I find fascinating and well worth the unsuccessful parts.

That being said, the failures (again, for me), are almost always related to story or tone, not so much his direction, although I guess one could argue that's exactly what tone is in a film.

I'm very confused a lot of the time.

[Lowry_Sam]

Another day, another disclosure

[therewillbeblus]

I almost always wind up appreciating the product Spielberg delivers when in sci-fi mode, so I'm still in despite trailers looking meh

[The Curious Sofa]

I hope the enthusiastic early reactions will be reflected in the reviews, but they suggest that the trailers reveal little about the film itself.

[aox]

the trailers reveal little about the film itself.

This is where I am at. I'll still see it (someday), but I just don't like Spielberg's Sci-Fi sensibilities at all. Finch mentioned above about not liking trailers because they give too much away.

That is not a problem here. The trailer is almost nonsensical.

[The Curious Sofa]

I like Spielberg's sci-fi sensibilities, it's his prestige sensibilities I often have a problem with. Close Encounters is my ultimate comfort movie and this appears to be in a similar vein, so I'm hopeful. The review embargo will be lifted early next week, then we'll know more.