French Trailer for 'Ironclad' -- Better Than Ours

I'm used to seeing Euro/international posters for US/Hollywood movies that are better than the domestic counterparts. That's actually more or less normal these days -- here's a good example. But now, international trailers are getting better than the domestic ones. We just got an international trailer for '30 Minutes or Less' that was cut just a bit differently than the one for US consumption, but it was enough to make it substantially better.

Now, here's this French trailer for 'Ironclad' that makes the movie look like an Oscar contender. Does not even look like the same flick advertised in domestic trailers. The edit draws you in better, tension builds better, and it moves with more energy.

Compare theirs to ours:



Theirs has an epic and historical sweep, lingers on shots of landscape, creates a better sense of medieval setting -- ours is battle-centric and treats setting in an off-hand way. Theirs is atmospheric and creates a good sense of mood -- ours is frenetic. Theirs has a grandeur -- ours has an MTV quick-cut superficiality. Theirs has a smooth edit that pulls you into the story -- ours has a much rougher edit that almost pushes the viewer away. Theirs actually trims the fat, cutting fractions of seconds where not needed, tightening the flow, producing a stronger forward motion -- ours lingers too long, even with the quick cuts, and comes off jangly. In theirs, the narrative throughline is easy to follow -- in ours it's confusing, even stagnate at times, with more than one visual non sequitur. Theirs is poetic, powerful, and deeply dramatic -- ours is muscular, tries too hard, seems stagy or histrionic by comparison, and is unconvincing.

I was planning on seeing 'Ironclad' but am more enthusiastic since seeing this (French) trailer. It's not hard to imagine there are people out there who have no intention of seeing the movie but would if they saw the French cut (in English).

What's going on? Why are Americans consistently unable (or unwilling) to put together proper promo materials for our own movies? Okay, I'll put it another way: Why are Euro/international posters and trailers so consistently better than their domestic versions?

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