As an arthouse snob/cineaste/film enthusiast/you name it, I should be able to resist these massive opening weekend blockbuster events, but the Anthropologist in me won't let me miss this once in a blue moon case study opportunity.
I don't read the books, and save the breath needed to tell me I should, because it only helps reinforce the fact that I won't do it under duress. An ex from high school nearly assaulted me when I told her it wasn't "my cup of tea, I prefer Oolong or Earl Grey". The audacity of enjoying science fiction and fantasy and not managing to like J.K. Rowling's pedagogic penchant for highlighting her foreshadowing with floodlights rather than flashlights! Unacceptable!
As a twentysomething looking for friendship as well as romantic companionship, I can forgive a whole lot in terms of taste, and will even pay to take a girl out to a movie I can smell from a thousand paces. I can shut off my critical allergy to bad movies and just enjoy schlock for schlock's sake. A girl doesn't need to know who Fellini or Anontioni are, much less Bresson or Peckinpah. I can deal with an inexperienced filmgoer whose idea of foreign films was shaped by Amelie and Y tu mama tambien and doesn't understand why foreign films can't just be overdubbed.
Women who are rabid about Potter are another story.
These ladies are like the majority of Austen and Wilde devotees before them: there is a certain way to appreciate the material (theirs) and virtually no other. I've rarely felt as physically threatened as when I disclose my personal misgivings about Rowling's writing style. I'm assaulted with everything from "you have no taste" to "you've no idea what you're missing" to "then what do you read?".
The movies are a different story for me, though. Better put, they've grown on me.
I refused to spend money to see Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets in theatres, I was so unimpressed with the first couple books (far as I got through the second one). Seeing them later on DVD, I felt the first two are a bit lumpy in places (more due to source material than Chris Columbus' directorial skills, in my opinion), but Cuaron's third installment got me onboard for the movies through the end. Mike Newell has kept me interested with the beefiest installment yet.
I honestly could have waited a week or a month, but I could feel something going on here, something bigger than other movies released this year.
Unlike the third movie, this one was going to be a full-on Event. This one was gonna be as big as Spider-Man, and bigger than the first flick. There just haven't been many major movies people have anticipating like this one in 2005. People are still looking for escapism just as much as they were three years ago (moreso, I'd wager), and almost no one has stepped up to the plate. Narnia and King Kong will change that, of course.
Potter fans number in the millions across the globe, and the fourth book's release marked the point of major crossover for the franchise. The first movie was coming out months later, and despite what people may tell you in polite conversation, that's when most people really jumped on the bandwagon. The movie was another big jump-on point, where folks would watch the movie and then go buy the books, skipping right on to book 2, "reading" the first one on-screen.
I found it humorous that, like a Jane Austen adaptation, this controversial (among ultra-purists) adaptation featured a big social dance scene. The band that plays in this scene is a very interesting cross-section of members of Radiohead and Pulp, and for the first time made me interested in listening to tracks on a Potter soundtrack.
Superfluity aside, the new Potter plays teen angst very well, and only has a few spots that made we want to shout the Python catchphrase "Get on with it!". Unneeded establishing shots and the terrificly anticlimactic tease of seeing four fights with dragons and only getting one stuck out, but there were surely a couple other things that made me audibly sigh.
Is Potter the end-all, be-all of modern fantasy? Of course not, but it's far from Dungeons & Dragons for sure, and manages to entertain on the screen very capably. The best thing the series has done is help push audience interest in fantasy material while at the same time improving mediocre fantasy fiction writing in its translation to the screen.
In other news, the series has caused a massive surge in sales of FSU scarves, which are garnet and gold, same color and style as Gryffindor/Hogwarts scarves.
The Trailer Hitch
Prior to every tentpole release, there's some sort of big-deal trailers that play. After the demise of the site's Trailer Trash column, I thought I might start running a recurring feature similar to Talking at the Movies, but about trailers seen theatrically and online. I'll throw down a couple sentences, perhaps a few notable quotables (forgive the cheap rhyme), and it'll be over before you notice.
In person, an audience gives you a great insight into how the unwashed hordes are reacting to what 90% of them (I'm assuming here) base their cinematic choices on week to week. This installment is broken down into sections, but future ones will be more singularly-focused.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Monster House
A CGI animated movie from Zemeckis and Spielberg (producing) about a man-eating house. Spooky but goofy and cutesy. Good crowd response, it'll sell some tickets.
Cheaper by the Dozen 2
Great job done here, in summarizing the entire plot in a matter of about three minutes. These are the movies Martin and Levy do so they can afford to do their Shopgirl's and A Might Wind's.
King Kong
"Yeah yeah, PJ!" and "Holy shit, that's gonna be awesome!" were overheard, and the trailer is also ill of Here's The Whole Damn Movie Disease. Looks sharp and gorgeous, and I've got faith.
Superman Returns
"Oh my God, are you kidding?" "Have they completely run out of ideas?" "Bo-ring" (as said by Homer Simpson) "Poor Christopher Reeve, why won't they leave him alone". Not a good trailer for this at all, and not even on-par with Batman Begins's teaser. The Superman logo looks more plastic-y and Disney-esque than ever. Tease with an image of Kate Bosworth for the girlies and Spacey for everyone on earth that'll have an aneurysm when they find out he's playing Luthor. Take this thing back to the drawing board, even though the voiceover is a good touch, trash the rest. How do you make an audience full of people unenthusiastic about one of the biggest, most adored superheroes ever? This trailer is a great roadmap.
Lady in the Water
Shyamalan's return was greeted with groans and cheers, but more groans. "A Bedtime Story"? Are we serious here? I'm one of the minority who really liked Unbreakable, so here's hoping we don't get another movie that's based on one twist we expect coming from the trailer. Signs creeped me out, even with its corny trimmings in places. I'm gonna hold out hope for this one.
Happy Feet
Return of the Penguins, for the love of...you've gotta be kidding me. Robin Williams and surely a bunch of other celebs voice on this thing, which will certainly make a ton of money. Kids don't see stuff like Zathura, but all of them will see this...shoot me now.
Over the Hedge
This looks bloody horrible. Good voice matches to animals, but that doesn't make this a reason to sit in a cinema for an hour point five.
The Shaggy Dog
"So Disney needs to make a new version of all their tired old ideas for each generation now?"
-Eric Hurst (Artistic Director, Theatre a la Carte)
That says it all, except for the fact that this trailer also suffers from Whole Damn Movie Disease.
At Walk the Line
Casanova
I just hope the swordplay makes this worth it. This is definitely not the award contender starring Heath Ledger, just something released to get women in seats while on holidays.
Munich
Eric Bana, Daniel Craig (the new James Bond), Geoffrey Rush, and Stephen Spielberg's names will be on everyone's lips come the end of the year. This movie is gonna end up being a big deal, no matter how good or bad people say it is. The middle-agers and up, who have been drawn out by Good Night, and Good Luck. as well as Capote in their limited releases will go out in droves to see something they were "there for", even though for almost all of them, it was by way of TV. Tony Kushner's name on it seals the deal for me, and just reminds me of how much I wish they'd released Angels in America theatrically before HBO-ing it.
Recent Apple Trailers
The Break Up
Affair buzz will lead this one to a higher take than it probably deserves, but at least we didn't see all the jokes in the trailer, just one reasonably flat one.
Hostel
Just watching this trailer makes me writhe in my seat. Eli Roth getting a chance to go as grotesque and grimy as Saw intrigues me, but the general public will see "Saw clone", but maybe they'll give it a chance while waiting to waste money on Saw III.
The World's Fastest Indian
Anthony Hopkins plays a man from New Zealand with a wickedly fast motorbike. For once, he isn't "the professor" or "the guide" or "the wise one"! Cheers for movies based on remarkable true events. Let's hope it's as good as the trailer allows us to believe.
Mrs. Henderson Presents
As fluffy as this looks, it'll entertain and play well to a wartime (though that isn't how it feels day in day out, eh?) audience. Every mom will take her daughter over the holidays while father takes son to the strip club.
Bloodrayne
According to people I know have watched it, on the House of the Dead DVD commentary track, director Uwe Boll compares his seminal Trash Epic to cinema classics such as Gone With the Wind and...Schindler's List. Why are people giving this guy multiple tens of millions to make terrible junk and skittish about giving Chris Columbus (or anyone for that matter) as much as they need to make Rent? Answer: the world isn't fair.
Duane Hopwood
David Schwimmer is Ross from Friends, but is a drunk with a kid. I'd like to see him do something new, and I think America agrees.
First Descent
For once, an extreme sports movie trailer makes me interested to see it. Drop the best snowboarders in the world in dangerous, uncharted snowboarding territory, and show one of them snowboarding through an avalanche, and you have my attention. This'll catch people on ESPN, but I don't see it making a lot at the box office.
Ellie Parker
Struggling Actress: The Movie. In a world...where the movie is shot on DV, and the trailer looks like it's a fourth-generation bootleg off a VHS tape, it still looks like a movie it's easy to pass on.
The Libertine
Johnny Depp. Sex. Period costumes. Controversy. Every Depp-lusting fanatic in the states only needed the first two to advance their heart rate, but the last two make it even better.
The Fountain
Wow, that was fast. That's really all one can say, yes?
Grandma's Boy
What the hell is this mess supposed to be about, exactly? Videogames and a guy pretending that he's sleeping with a trio of old ladies doth not a compelling concept make. To 3am on HBO with you!
Big Momma's House 2
We don't need this. I can't believe I watched it.