FLIGHT

The trailer opens with the intro to the song, "Feelin' Alright" by Joe Cocker and proceeds with "Gimme Shelter" by the Rolling Stones. That is to say that it had me at both "hello" and "good-bye."

I think we may have a potential nominee for a 2013 Beerbohm Award for Best Music in a trailer.

The trailer for Flight does give away much of the story.  It shows a pilot's skills saving the lives of his passengers during a crash.  It shows that he is, rightfully, a hero.  It shows that alcohol is discovered in his blood stream and that the hero is now fallen.  Regardless of the alcohol content, his skills as a pilot saved many lives, but did the alcohol cause the error in the first place?

While the trailer showed the depth to which the hero falls, it built up to one question: Is he still a hero because this hero is on trial?

Despite giving away everything but the ending, which we can probably figure out anyway, this was a good trailer.  Yes, it was longer than 2 minutes and could easily have been shorter.  Yet, it was engaging and interesting and posed the hero question often.  It created sympathy and compassion towards the characters affected by the crash and especially  the pilot's (Denzel) plight.  It created frustration with the legal system and mistrust of those entrusted to help.  In short, this trailer created emotion, which in turn created interest, which in turn created a desire to see the film.

Nice.