This is a post I've been meaning to write for a while. I've been watching the "How it Should Have Ended" shorts and ScreenJunkies' "Honest Trailers" for years now. I've watched them morph from rudimentary viral videos into some of the most widely watched and referenced pieces of movie-related media on the internet. I mean, it's gotten to the point where the United States Army is sponsoring "Honest Trailers." And like everything that becomes mainstream and popular, these series have been weathering a fair amount of criticism. So I thought I'd dig into this a bit today.
First off, it's no mystery why these videos are popular. There's something very satisfying about seeing recent blockbusters being called out for their sillier notions by small time, independent content creators. "How it Should Have Ended" is largely still designed and animated by two people, Daniel Baxter and Tina Alexander, though Starz handles the distribution. The videos have gotten more polished over the years, but are still appealingly rough around the edges. "Honest Trailers" only has a slightly larger crew, and leans heavily on recut clips and the efforts of a faux-serious deep-voiced narrator. The humor is broad and playfully cynical.
The primary complaint I've heard levied at both series is that the commentary offered by these videos is too nitpicky and shallow. And of course it is, because the primary aim of these videos isn't to provide real criticism, but to get a laugh and entertain. "How it Should Have Ended" and "Honest Trailers" also tend to get lumped in with the "Everything Wrong With…" series created by CinemaSins, a similar comedy show which often does put itself out there as legitimate criticism, and is notoriously bad at it. "How it Should Have Ended" and "Honest Trailers" rely more on parody elements, which involve a great deal more creativity and originality. Not all the jokes and observations work, but I like that they come off more as earnestly questioning the logic and choices of the filmmakers, rather than simply slamming dubious minutiae as "sins."
Another criticism is that both series are extremely formulaic. "How it Should Have Ended" recreates a handful of scenes from each film with goofy animation and then has them play out differently. Most installments also end with a quick sketch involving Batman and Superman to offer more meta commentary. "Honest Trailers" creates a fake trailer for each movie, where a narrator delivers a snarky rundown of the major characters and plot before reading out a pun-filled credits roll. And yes, that is where the "Deadpool" credits gag came from. These formats are both flexible enough to accommodate pretty much any movie you could name. "Honest Trailers" has also taken aim at television and other specials - there's a yearly Oscar edition - while "How it Should Have Ended" regularly produces bonus material and spin-off shorts.
Frankly, at this point the formula is part of the charm. Both series are designed for quick and easy consumption, and their repetitive nature helps the effectiveness of the jokes and humor. One of the reasons I think that both series have survived for so long is that they're very short, simple, and to-the-point. They're also very accessible for newcomers. Frequently, the only thing being referenced is the specific movie that is being made fun of, and the humor is fairly gentle and good-natured. As a counter-example, consider the "I'm a Marvel... and I'm a DC" parody shorts. I used to love these when they first started out, but over time they became much more self-referential and sort of wandered off into complicated ongoing storylines. The series is still going, but I've completely lost track of it.
Finally, I've heard the claim that the degree of success enjoyed by "How it Should Have Ended" and "Honest Trailers" is somehow undeserved because they're derivative of the media that they're lampooning. There's nothing wrong with derivative media, though. You see plenty of bad examples, because it's notoriously hard to do well. And it really takes some effort to do it well with any consistency. Frankly, I also like having these series around to point to as examples of how to do parody/satire/commentary of existing media right. You can't just have a good gimmick, but also need the knowhow to execute it properly over and over again.
"How it Should Have Ended" and "Honest Trailers" are far from great in any sense, but they fill a niche and they do it well. I don't watch either of them with much regularity, but I've enjoyed many of their installments over the years and I root for their continued survival.
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