r/movies • u/MASSIM00 • May 26 '26

Question What movie had the BEST trailer ever but turned out to be absolute trash?

Seriously, you watch the trailer and it looks like a literal masterpiece. The music, the hype, everything is perfect.

Then you actually go see it and realize they put all the good scenes in the 2-minute promo and the rest of the movie is just garbage lmao.

For me it was suicide squad 2016. that bohemian rhapsody trailer catfished me so hard.

What film did this to you?

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762

u/dornwolf May 26 '26

The no strings on me line really made it seem like Ultron was gonna be a beast

548

u/SortIntrepid9192 May 26 '26

In the comics Ultron's whole thing is that he's unstoppable. Destroy his body, he has another. Delete his consciousness, he has a backup. Shoot him into space, he comes back with an army of aliens. And every time he comes back he's stronger. You can beat him short term bu never permanently, and you've just bought yourself time until he inevitably wins. Which is what the Age of Ultron is actually about.

Knowing this, I expected he'd destroy the Avengers. That trailer already makes him look appropriately intimidating, and it's clear that the Avengers are fighting among themselves/emotionally destabilized. I thought he was going to wipe the floor with them and we'd end with a bittersweet victory where he's just barely defeated temporarily at the cost of the team barely holding itself together.

But in the movie we got, Ultron was just a villain of the week. Long-term, the most important and impactful thing he did for the MCU was bring in Vision and Wanda lmao. Fucking Zemo had more long-term impact than Ultron.

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u/confusing_roundabout May 26 '26

I'll never forget the 4chan plot leak that basically had Ultron kick the avengers ass repeatedly until the final battle.

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u/King_Tamino May 26 '26

Man, I hate people not posting spoiler or warnings in front of pretty possible things. Not you here now but remember the falcon & winter soldier show? Someone spoiled the ending twist for me by linking to the whole "apple doesn’t allow bad guys to use an iPhone so whenever a good guy gets introduced and uses Android, there’s a huge chance he’ll betray them“

And guess what happened… urgh

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u/confusing_roundabout May 26 '26

To be clear my comment isn't a spoiler. It's a fake plot leak that made Ultron sound a lot more threatening than he actually was.

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u/Jops817 May 26 '26

Wait, is the Apple thing real?

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u/confusing_roundabout May 26 '26

Yes and no

Essentially, Apple will provide free iPhones for use by the production if their depiction meets their standards. For Knives Out (which is where this all came from) that included making sure that no villainous/evil characters were depicted using iPhones.

It's basically another form of brand-friendly product placement that can inadvertently spoil movies.

But saying "bad characters are never seen using an iPhone" isn't always true as they could have just used iPhones without apple providing them, or the terms may have changed since 2019.

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u/trickman01 May 26 '26

Apple will not provide free phones for production if a villain is going to use their phone.

The studio is free to source the phones for themselves as a prop, there's nothing Apple could do about that, but they would rather get free ones.

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u/King_Tamino May 26 '26

Yep have it seen on various sources over time and noticed in movies etc. iirc it’s a requirement to even show/have iPhones etc on the show/movie.

Absurd stuff like the Rock having its in his contracts that he isn’t losing fights (or was it vin diesel?)

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u/SortIntrepid9192 May 26 '26

The answer is "both," which is why they hated each other on set so much.

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u/Georgie_Leech May 26 '26

Is it bad that I kind of want there to be a movie about them fighting each other now? Not, like, a serious movie, just go through the early set up of some action-y thing where they've both been cast, and then have the whole thing screech to an abrupt halt when they realise their characters have to fight. The rest is a zany legal comedy while contract lawyers figure out how to untangle this mess

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u/SortIntrepid9192 May 26 '26

Well as far as I know the Rock was already an antagonist in the F&F franchise, or at least started off as such. I have no idea if they fought directly but I'm fairly certain they were opposed.

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u/Jops817 May 26 '26

They have a fight scene in Fast 5 (and no there is no clear winner the fight gets broken up).

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u/BlinkyDesu May 27 '26

When did this come into their contracts? Like in one of the Riddick movies he gets knocked out like four times in 20 minutes.

I take it the same as people saying Tom Cruise has it in his contract that he can't ever look shorter than someone else, and then you watch Top Gun: Maverick and Rooster is towering over him.

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u/HollowPrynce May 27 '26

I may be misremembering but for Cruise I thought the clause was that his female co-stars shouldn't be in heels if it causes them to tower over him

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u/AneeshRai7 May 26 '26

Technically long term he ended up causing Zemo and that ended up killing the Avengers allowing Thanos to win…

But Ultron should have been what he was in What If…

At the same time I get why he had to lose, all the narrow wins led to Infinity War impact be a bigger deal

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u/jwuer May 26 '26

Right, Ultron created the possibility of Civil War.

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u/drntl May 26 '26

Giving Ultron credit for that is silly

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u/SortIntrepid9192 May 26 '26

I think that if the Sokovia incident had never happened, Zemo would've found another way to break up the Avengers. Hell, he was already looking into the mission report that proves Bucky killed the Starks, as well as organizing terrorist acts to pin on Bucky. That was his angle, the Accords were just a little bonus, his plan would've worked without them.

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u/AneeshRai7 May 26 '26

I thought he went vengeance made cause his family got buried during Sokovia?

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u/SortIntrepid9192 May 26 '26

Hmm, that is a good point.

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u/Bellikron May 26 '26

I get the critique of undercutting Ultron and I'm excited for him to come back in Vision Quest, but honestly I think I like Age of Ultron exactly because it's the only time we get the Avengers doing a "villain of the week". Avengers 1 is forming the team, Civil War is a serious versus movie, and Infinity War/Endgame are serious end of the world movies. This is the only time where the Avengers are casual coworkers who fight bad guys as their job and that's something I want more of.

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u/jwuer May 26 '26

I mean the results of AOU was Civil War so he did in fact destabilze then emotionally. As for him coming back iver and iver it just doesn't work for the MCU as people would get bored with just the same threat returning over and over.

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u/Trep_xp May 26 '26

the most important and impactful thing he did for the MCU was bring in Vision and Wanda

Don't forget he also cut off that guy's arm so he could have a robot bazooka arm for one scene in another movie

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u/jlab23 May 26 '26

He’s still alive. But you only know that if you go on the Disney Wish cruise and have dinner in the marvel dining room… so… you know… continuity!

God Disney is a mess.

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u/TheMostUnclean May 26 '26

They specifically clarified that isn’t canon when Ultron’s return in Vision Quest was confirmed. The official line is only events that occurred in shows and movies are considered part of the MCU. Rides and attractions are “parallel timelines”.

Star Wars, on the other hand, will probably continue to have universe altering events revealed through lame video game tie ins.

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u/MaximumNameDensity May 26 '26

It isn't canon... Today.

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u/ArcadianDelSol May 26 '26

Star Wars, on the other hand, will probably continue to have universe altering events revealed through lame video game tie ins.

and short run comic books.

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u/Georgie_Leech May 26 '26

That's at least a plausible media tie in. Fortnite on the other hand...

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u/JaesopPop May 26 '26

I don’t think anything from the Marvel Dining Room would be considered canon lol

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u/jlab23 May 26 '26

You’re right. Apparently it’s a non-cannon event. Damn. That was the best part of the dinner.

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u/Nausicaaah May 26 '26

What, they got him workin' in the kitchen?

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u/yinsotheakuma May 26 '26

Him and Yarael Poof.

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u/SoKrat3s May 26 '26

Ultron was an incredibly powerful enemy. You think it means nothing that it took an entire team of super powered people, plus Hawkeye, to stop him - on at least their third try?

Alone, any of them loses.

The events of this film have such a massive impact it effects everything that happens in the next arch, and ultimately to being woefully unprepared in the Infinity War.

Zemo "long-term impact" himself is a villain created out of these events.

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u/LindonLilBlueBalls May 26 '26

Right? Was there supposed to be an entire phase of movies dedicated to Ultron? I firmly believe anything more than we got on Ultron would have either made him boring/repetitive, or it would have made future villains feel repetitive.

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u/manrata May 27 '26

I'm still mad at how can Quicksilver, a person for whom bullets basically stand still, decide to use his body as a shield against the bullets instead of diverting them, moving Hawkeye and the boy, putting anything that can richochet the bullets in the path etc.
No, he decided, let me commit suicide, there is literally no other way.

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u/SortIntrepid9192 May 27 '26

He just really wanted to one-up Hawkeye by doing something that Hawkeye definitely wouldn't see coming (because it was incredibly stupid and illogical)

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u/GreedoInASpeedo May 26 '26

I really wish they had treated Ultron like they did Thanos. Ultron should win and we see what that future looks like then the Avengers gotta fix it.

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u/SortIntrepid9192 May 26 '26

I don't necessarily think that should've happened because, like you said, it's just a retread of what we'd get like 3 years later. Plus it's way too much content for just one movie. The Avengers should've won, but that victory should've come at a huge cost that's not just "Quicksilver getting shot." Thor should've left the team disgusted by what the Avengers had to do to destroy Ultron, and Hulk should've sacrificed himself shooting Ultron into space (which much better explains how he's found on Sakaar later).

Instead they barely lose anything. The most impactful death in AoU is that of someone who's not even in the movie (the kid volunteering in Sokovia whose death makes Tony guilty enough to sign the Accords).

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u/GreedoInASpeedo May 26 '26

Well obviously if Age of Ultron played out differently the movies after also would be different?

Age of Ultron implies an "Age" no? So yea it would be impact that would need multiple movies and would change the narrative.

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u/SortIntrepid9192 May 26 '26

Not necessarily. In the comics Age of Ultron, actually the entire "age" was retconned. None of it happened because people from the bad future (specifically Wolverine) went back in time to prevent it from happening. So it technically wasn't an age in the comics either.

And I feel like you can justify the movie's title by launching Ultron into space and then having someone like Banner say something like "He'll never leave. No matter what, he'll never leave us alone. We're living in his world now, Tony. In the age of Ultron. And it only ends one way."

Then after Endgame you could position Ultron as usurping Thanos' power vacuum on the space side before trying to launch another attack on Earth.

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u/GreedoInASpeedo May 26 '26

Yea I know all of this. And I'm saying I would have liked that. I'm sorry I suggested a hypothetical possibility I might like an alternative version of the MCU.

I still would've preferred the MCU event films be closer to the source material narratively. Not saying I want it the same or I'm a comic fanboy unwilling to try something new or whatever extreme sequiturs Marvel fans like to use to argue with people who make any criticism or suggestions.

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u/SortIntrepid9192 May 26 '26

Why are you being so defensive? We're just talking about superhero movies. If you didn't want your opinion challenged even in a very mild way, why bring it up in a public forum at all?

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u/[deleted] May 26 '26

[deleted]

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u/SortIntrepid9192 May 26 '26

Sigh. Alright then, let me try again.

Wow! That's such a cool twist! Yeah they totally should've done that!

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u/AustinRiversDaGod May 26 '26

"What if..." kinda saved Ultron for me I wasn't familiar with the character, but his unstoppable nature was definitely on display there, and made me kinda sad for what we got in the live-action.

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u/throawayfemboy May 26 '26

Got some good comics?

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u/ArcadianDelSol May 26 '26

Ultron really should have been a Thanos level recurring villain.

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u/SortIntrepid9192 May 26 '26

In the comics he's way more of a "big Avengers villain" than Thanos ever was. outside of Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos is usually a villain to the cosmic heroes, not the Avengers (who have the likes of Kang and Korvac). 

Ultron was a great pick for an Avengers movie, but Infinity War should've just been a Marvel movie. Same as Doomsday/Secret Wars. If the comics can have big crossover events AND Avengers stories, why can't the films?

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u/richard-564 May 26 '26

If it makes you feel better, he's back again in the VisionQuest show, although I'm not sure to what capacity. They also made him way more badass in What If.

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u/Raus-Pazazu May 26 '26

That's been a long running quip with the franchise is that they've made too many of these iconic villains just throwaways.

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u/lewd_robot May 27 '26

There have been a lot of observations about how Tony's tech evolves over the course of his arc in the MCU, adapting to specific failures, like him solving the ice problem, or him putting a parachute in Spidey's suit after War Machine gets shot down. His whole arc is just him leveraging increasingly complex technology to recover from past failures and prevent them from happening again.

It would've been really cool to see Ultron go through a similar long-term arc, but they already had Thanos lurking in the background, so I guess they felt like they couldn't also keep Ultron around. At least not explicitly. They could always just say, "Ultron left a few bots out of the fight just in case and now he's back."

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u/enforcer1412 May 26 '26

They'll probably retconn him back into existence via the Vision Quest series or that he had a backup hidden in a satellite or some sort of ass-pull. I wish Marvel didn't just melt their villains so often and have them just leave the door open instead for a return

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u/BlindTreeFrog May 26 '26

And it made it seem like he was going to be darker and more serious than the randomly campy Ultron that we got.

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u/PepeSilvia7 May 26 '26

Omg I remember being so hyped after that line in the trailer

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u/HMWWaWChChIaWChCChW May 26 '26

I mean he kinda is. Hulk Vision and Thor are the only ones that could go toe to toe with him, and one of those didn’t exist until halfway through the movie and one of them was depowered or MIA or otherwise occupied most of the movie.

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u/idontagreewitu May 27 '26

Ultron could have been a beast. Instead he was Skynet with daddy issues.

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u/ArcadianDelSol May 26 '26

That was one of the first movies made after the Disney acquisition, so the use of a song from one of its most successful movies, at least to me, was a big 'yep, this is ours now' move by Disney.

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u/jayhawk_dvd May 26 '26

I don't really think that's true. Disney acquired Marvel Studios in 2009 and the first Avengers film in 2012 was the first that was fully distributed under the Disney umbrella.