My friends and family think I’m a weirdo, but honestly, I enjoy going to the theater to see the trailers almost as much as the actual movie. For a trailer-geek like me, 2014 had some really great ones (the recent Mad Max insanity certainly being among them), but this year has also seen more than a few fan-made efforts that rival the real thing.
Some of these edit together repurposed footage from older films, some of these shot their own original scenes, and a few aren’t even for movies at all. All of them are pretty awesome in their own way. Here are my 14 favorite fan trailers from 2014.
Header image created by fmirza95
1. Paczilla: Pacific Rim vs. Godzilla
Obvious? Sure. Epic? Definitely! This one combines footage from this the 2014 Godzilla movie with Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rimfor the ultimate Kaiju vs. Jaeger smackdown.
2. Suicide Squad
The actual Suicide Squad trailer might be a few years off, but this fan editor just couldn’t wait to see what that Deadshot, Harley Quinn, and the gang might look like in action. It unsurprisingly borrows pretty heavily from the Suicide Squad stuff from Arrow, but it also manages to incorporate Will Smith, Tom Hardy, and the rest of the announced cast in a pretty slick way.
3. Justice League
If 2016’s Batman v. Superman already feels like superhero-overload, I can’t imagine how the eventual Justice League movie is going to manage to juggle all of those costumed characters. If the action is anywhere near as awesome as this fan trailer though, I think we’re in for a treat. This fan editor decided to tap Braniac as the main villain of Justice League, and aside from recasting Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern, it even manages to sprinkle in some of the actual casting.
4. The Akira Project
This ambitious project is the result of a 2012 crowdfunding campaign to create a live-action trailer for the iconic manga/anime Akira. After two years of hard work between more than 40 artists in 12 different countries, it was finally released a few months ago. Worth the wait? I think so. It might not be the Akira movie we’re bound to eventually get, but holy Neo-Tokyo is it the one that this story deserves.
5. Captain America: The Winter Soldier as an 80s B-Movie Trailer
What if The Winter Soldier was released in the 80s? According to this trailer, it would’ve been pretty damn amazing. From the 4:3 aspect ratio to the VHS tracking lines, it’s just so perfect.
6. Five Nights at Freddy’s 3
Five Nights at Freddy’s might not be a blockbuster movie, but it’s certainly been something of a phenomenon in the gaming world. This fan trailer for a proposed third entry brings the series to an abandoned mall (as if managing a restaurant wasn’t hard enough), and was shot with original assets using Source Filmmaker.
It even proposes a few new gameplay features, including a free-roaming environment and using a phone to access security cameras. That’s way too spooky for me, but it does make for an awesome trailer.
7. Dredd 2
Can someone please just make this movie already? For a lack of actual Dredd footage to use, this one really manages to sell its premise, sending the Judge out of the city and into a world that’s somehow even more violent than Mega-City One.
8. Game of Thrones Season 4 Trailer
This one debuted online a few months before the Game of Thrones season 4 premiere earlier this year. It’s particularly notable to me because when I first saw it, I thought it was an official trailer (and my favorite official trailer at that). I hope that speaks towards how well-edited this spot is, and not how gullible I am.
9. Half-Life 3
Created using Source Filmmaker, this fantastic trailer is one tantalizing taste at a game we should’ve gotten, oh I don’t know, eight years ago? Someone get this guy in touch with Valve and let’s make this playable.
10. Doctor Who Season 8
Like the Game of Thrones one a little bit earlier on, I think this fan trailer for the eight season of Doctor Who is way better than any of the official promos. This editor took went way above and beyond the call of duty though, utilizing some impressive VFX wizardry to create original footage that’s equal parts stylish and breathtaking.
Watch the trailer, then check out the equally awesome effects breakdown.
11. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Trailer
We’ve gotten a TON of Batman v. Superman fan trailers over the past couple of years, but this one is my favorite so far. Maybe because it reminds me a lot of the trailer for Man of Steel (still one of my all-time favorite movie trailers). Or maybe because it manages to include Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor without me involuntarily cringing. Naw, it’s actually probably because it’s got Batman beating the tar out of Superman.
12. Marvel: Civil War
A Civil War movie is coming, but it’s not going to be quite as epic as this trailer promises. Here’s a tear shed for the Avengers, X-Men, Spider-Man crossover that we’ll never get to see.
13. Knight Rider
What would Knight Rider look like in the age of Fast and Furious? As cool as this one can hope. The trailer probably goes on a little longer than it should have, but I didn’t mind too much since I got to listen to a pretty sick remix of the original Knight Rider theme.
14. Lobo
Directed by stuntman Jesse V. Johnson, this fan trailer is a gleefully violent look at a character that’s probably going to be way too rated-R for the DC Cinematic Universe. Well, if Deadpool takes off, I guess you never know. Fingers crossed!
