As you’ll probably be aware by now, no film is off limits when it comes to misjudged trailers that cheaply give its content away. It’s perhaps even the classics that suffer from this spoiler syndrome the most, out of a forced, concerned overexposure to please fans and say, ‘see, it is good, honest’. This is no truer than when famous and/or beloved novel adaptations are released.

Sure, there’s a preexisting audience of (in some cases) millions of die hard fans (see Harry Potter and Twilight for example (actually, don’t see the latter as it’ll burn your retinas)), and these trailers therefore merely serve as  reassurance. Some will point out that if it’s already a book, how can we not know what already happens in them? Do we have a right for age-old stories like The Lord Of The Rings to remain spoiler-free for new audiences? The answer, I firmly believe, is yes.

Synopsis

The middle entry to the trilogy is where the fellowship divides. On one hand Frodo and Sam split off to make their way to Mordor to destroy the ring, whilst the remaining warriors do battle with Saruman and his army at Isengard defending Helms Deep. Essentially it is a film documenting the enormous battle that ensues, and is the action meat in the proverbial sandwich of its journey.

Trailer

*If you’ve not seen the film then the analysis that follows contains spoilers*

What the trailer reveals

The fact that a lot of people and potential viewers of this film will already know the story is, for me, irrelevant. It shouldn’t feel justified to reveal anything whatsoever. However, the key thing is does reveal — which is the single biggest issue with the trailer — is that a) Galdalf is not dead as previously insinuated, and b) that he is this mysterious White Wizard that, in the film, tries to build up suspense as to who it may be.

No question that both the trailer and subsequent film are on a scale of epic proportions, but did we really need to be told right at the end that Gandalf lives and who he is in this film? It’s implied in the first that he dies or is at least lost in the bowels of Middle Earth, but might have been nice if the surprise was left for us to discover for ourselves at the cinema. Plus there is an ambiguous build up to eventually revealing that he is indeed Gandalf the White, which renders the impact a little disappointing and flat.

Spoiler rating: 6/10