What's the point of cliff-notes trailers???

Rating: Null/10 (1 January 2001)

Why, oh why did they give the whole movie away in the trailers and TV commercials? What could possibly have been the point? To get us to see it? I didn't need that. I was going to see it after viewing the first trailer months ago...you know the one where he lands on the island and yells "Hello,...anybody!!" and then it fades to black. That's all I needed. I was hooked right there. Yeah, Tom Hanks was great. Yeah, it was a good story, so what.
My whole experience of this movie was a big let down, because I knew what was going to happen. I'm sure others who say they didn't really enjoy the movie are feeling the disappointment stemming from this knowledge, as well. The only thing I didn't know for sure was what was going to happen after he got back to civilization...but I had a pretty good idea, and I was right, which was another disappointment. Predictability kills a movie for me. I don't want to know what's going to happen before I see it, and I certainly don't want the whole movie laid out for me in the trailer, as this one was...ridiculous.
I still can't believe it. If you've seen all the trailers for this movie, as I did, there was really no reason to see the movie in the theatre...because you've already seen it, in condensed form. Of course, by just seeing the trailers you don't get the full range and impact of emotion and the subtle nuances that drive the plot forward, and of course you miss the cinematography that makes the movie great to look at, as well as the remarkable physical transformation of Tom Hanks' character, but if you want to know what this movie is all about, and I do mean "all about", then the trailers are all you need.
I kept waiting for something to happen...some twist in the plot. Maybe he would come back and be unable to re-acclimate himself to civilization, or something...anything. But from the moment he came back, the movie sank into dismal predictability, heart-wrenching, yes, but predictable, just the same.
This seems to be a nasty trend in trailers, lately. Perhaps the rationale is the more they show in the trailer, the more will come to see the movie. Faulty logic, if you ask me. Once you have the fish on the hook, you don't keep throwing bait at it.