Pre-release hype in films is an interesting tool. Its use in the trade has become almost more important than the actual quality of the movie, as most blockbuster releases attempt to build up anticipation to fill as many seats in a theater as possible on opening weekend. The Avengers films, as well as most Marvel movies, rely almost entirely on pre-release hype and buzz as a way to draw in movie-goers, with the most common tactics involving teases of potential sequels and spinoffs, and the combination of flagship heroes from Iron Man to Thor to Captain America, not to mention so many others. While hype can help films with their box office gross and create a demand for a sequel, hype can also hurt films in ways that many do not necessarily expect.

“The Avengers” by marvelousRoland is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

There are three types of hype that movies can generate. The first is “Positive Buzz,” which happens when every bit of news coming out a specific production receives a positive response from fans, as well as the masses in general. This can include concept art, promotional pictures, tweets from the cast and crew, and trailers, among other things. Two recent trailers that have impressed with the look, feel, and tone are Marvel’s Deadpool and the Leonardo DiCaprio revenge western The Revenant. Both films are hotly anticipated for completely different reasons.

          Deadpool is a film that many comic book fans have been waiting to see since the character was misrepresented in the first Wolverine movie. The Revenant on the other hand has gained a good amount of awards season hype since the cast, director, and story synopsis were made official. Both resonated with audiences in vastly different ways. Deadpool features R-rated mischief and mayhem that has many fans of the character eager for the film to be released next February, and talk of a sequel has already begun.

           The Revenant features intense footage and very little dialogue, combined with beautiful visuals composed by Oscar winning director Alejandro G. Inarritu and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki. Along with the inclusion of Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, the film is already looking to be a western epic that could bring home Oscar glory and become a new classic.

The second type of hype is negative buzz, or “Anti-Hype” as one prominent YouTube critic called it. This is where almost all of the news coming out of a production is negative and not well received by fans or the public. The best example of this is the recently released (and critically savaged) Fantastic Four movie. Just about every aspect of this film was analyzed to death from an increasingly negative perspective. This included the early rumors of Michael B. Jordan being offered the role of the Human Torch (originally a Caucasian character) to the official casting announcement that confirmed Jordan as the Human Torch, as well as the various stories of troubled production (none of which were really confirmed or denied (Ed. Note: I think we can safely say those were more than just rumors)). The trailers did little, if anything, to quell these doubts or create positive reactions. A cynical minded person could easily construe these “leaked” stories as being a ploy by 20th Century Fox, the distributor of the film, to try and get a response from fans. The basic concept is that the buzz would be so bad that fans and moviegoers would have no choice but to see if the buzz was true, and how bad the film would actually be. As evidenced by the box-office performance of Fantastic Four, such an approach can often fail.

“Fantastic Four” by Day Donaldson is licensed under CC BY 2.0

The third type of hype comes almost exclusively from the Internet. This type is the “Calm Your Enthusiasm” type of buzz, and is usually released by a third party after the release of a trailer or casting announcement. Recently, this manner of hype has been advertised using click bait titles like “Why The (insert movie title here) Trailer Should Worry You” or “Six Reasons Why (insert movie title here) Is Going to Suck”; something like that. This is by far the most annoying part of any hype that generates from movie productions, and is often disproven almost immediately after the film is released in the theaters. There are countless articles all over the Internet explaining why Batman v. Superman is going to be terrible, along with in-depth analysis about how The Suicide Squad trailer is nothing but terrible news for fans of DC movies and the characters being portrayed.

This goes beyond trailers and into casting announcements. The chief example of this is the reaction to the casting of Heath Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight. Lots of fans were up in arms, declaring that any good will Batman Begins had generated toward the franchise and character was gone. Some even went so far as to say that the film would be worse than Batman & Robin, one of the most hated comic book movies of all time and the reason the Batman franchise needed to be rebooted in the first place. Hindsight being 20/20, Ledger’s performance as the Joker won him a posthumous Oscar and is widely considered to be one of the best, if not the all-time best, portrayals of the character.

The first picture of Evan Peters as Quicksilver in X-Men: Days of Future Past was panned as looking silly and campy, indicating that the character was not being handled with respect. However, once the film was released, Peters’ Quicksilver was featured in a sequence that many consider to be the best part of the film; even better than the version that Marvel Studios released a year later in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

“Quicksilver” by screen relish is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

The gut reaction to hate on anything coming out of major blockbuster and superhero movies has resulted in a mass outcry over material very few people have actually seen in context of the final film. Jared Leto’s Joker may pale in comparison to Ledger’s or Jack Nicholson’s, but the general audience has seen less than thirty seconds of him and heard him say two lines; hardly a sufficient example of his performance, his take on the character, or even his role in the film. Deadpool may not end up being some huge disaster, neither funny, nor clever, but again, we’ve only seen about three minutes of what is going to be in the film. Combine that with the fact that we almost certainly have not seen the best jokes or the coolest action scenes, there is still room to surprise either way. Additionally, while the initial reaction to the look of Oscar Isaac’s Apocalypse in X-Men: Apocalypse was mostly negative, it’s entirely possible that this interpretation of the character will go down as one of the best movie villains of all time.

We’ll just have to wait and see.