BIG YEAR Trailer Forgets The Point Of The Movie

The Big Year tells the story of three men who spend a year traveling the world in an effort to spot as many different species of birds as humanly possible.

Somehow the birds got left out of the trailer:

I get the urge to focus on each guy's individual journey and their personal development over the course of the year, but how do you cut a trailer about questing birders (I swear, that's the correct word) and only use the word "bird" once (in a lame apocalypse joke no less) and never actually show a bird that's closer than a football field away from the camera?  Without properly defining a "big year", it looks like these guys are competing to see who can put together a better travel slide show.  This premise is incredibly straightforward, so I'm mystified as to why the trailer is so damn vague.  I think it's telling that the funniest part is Steve Martin's introduction.

I read this script a long time ago, and while the characters are all perfectly likable, the story is exactly as bland as it appears.  I found myself struggling to care about guys who spend piles of money to spot birds.  It's not as if they're trying to study or discover rare birds, thus contributing to a scientific community.  Hell, according to the rules they establish, they don't have to photograph the birds or even SEE them, as simply hearing a bird's call is considered sufficient. They're just checking birds off a list, so even if one of them wins all they can say at the end is, "LOOK AT ALL THE BIRDS I WAS NEAR! AREN'T YOU IMPRESSED WITH ME?"

No.  No I'm not.