Movie Trailers Done Well

I love movie trailers.  It follows, then, that I would appreciate movie trailers that are well made.  My definition of a well made movie trailer is:

-One that does not give away the ending of the movie. 

-One that does not assassinate the plot or any key story lines before I've even seen the film.

-One that does not set up unrealistic or misleading expectations. (To this day I am convinced this is why M. Night Shyamalan's The Village did poorly at the box office.  The movie is brilliant, but poor advertising made audiences expect a horror/thriller flick, and were therefore confused and annoyed when they got a love story.  Never mind that it's the greatest love story since Romeo and Juliet.) 

-One that does all the above and still manages to show why this movie is different from every other movie ever made (read: why I should see this rom com instead of the 83460879074 other rom coms being released this year.  Without revealing the ending.)

I think this is actually harder than it sounds.  Movie trailer creators have to cram an entire movie's themes, energy, mood, and conflict into a couple of minutes, maximum.  And yet, some really pull it off.  Great movie trailers are their own stand-alone versions of entertainment, not just advertisements.  Which is why I like them.   

So what movie trailers rock?  Well, the brand new Hunger Games trailer sure does:

And, just for fun, here are some of my other favorite movie trailers.  Enjoy.

(What?  you thought I'd get through an entire post without referencing Harry Potter?  Pssshhh.)