Paranormal Activity – Brilliant Marketing

As some of you may have already seen, I posted a Trailer Watch article for the film Paranormal Activity. From what I hear, it looks like we have a new Blair Witch Project on our hands. The big difference, you know EXACTLY what you are walking into and this should prove to be ten times more terrifying. 

I got very excited for the limited release that was supposed to happen today… but I found myself to be extremely disappointed and surprised. 

I have a co-worker that attended the midnight showing of the film last night. He called into the office and relayed this to me: 

“Tell him that I’m running a little late. It’s because my alarm didn’t go off this morning and not because I had to sleep with every single light on in the house.”

According to my co-worker, you could feel the tension in the room when the film switched to night-time footage. People would shift in their seats and prepare themselves for an attack. 

Sounds like my kind movie!

So, being me, I hop online to find local show times. Thank goodness I live in Los Angeles, where limited release films are always sure to surface. However, my location didn’t help me at all! The movie isn’t showing ANYWHERE!

Turns out the films got a limited release in theaters across America for a midnight showing ONLY.

If you were one of the lucky and privileged few, now is the time to be VERY thankful. 

Paranormal Activity has had a hell of a time getting a theatrical release of any kind. Even though Paramount agreed to do it (and they did for the limited midnight showings) it would appear that they are reluctant to take it a step further.

Or are they?

This may be one of the most genius moves I’ve seen in a long time. The word of mouth on this film was already getting around, now there is even more to talk about. Viral marketing at it’s best my friends. I may not be able to see the movie now, but I think it is only a matter of time before it hit theaters nation wide. It took The Blair Witch Project awhile before it got its wide distribution. 

Keep your eyes pealed for this one.

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And the sequels just keep on coming!

Do original ideas exist anymore? Granted, I don’t believe there is such thing as an original stories anymore, juts different and creative ways of telling them. Film is an enjoyable art form as well as a great source of entertainment to us all. Regardless of that, at the end of the day Hollywood is nothing more than a money making machine. If something worked once, why not try it again?

As a result we have a brash of sequels on their way. Not that this is surprising, but it seems like film franchises are bigger than they ever were when I was growing up. 

Terminator 5 – It looks like the most recent venture by director McG with Terminator: Salvation did well enough to give it another go. The film is set for a release date of 2011 and Christian Bale and McG are slated to return. I would really appreciate it if they got back to their roots a little bit on this one. A little bit of time travel wouldn’t hurt, you know?

Underworld 4 – Why can’t Vampire and Lycans just get along? So another one of these are headed our way. As cheese-like as these films are, there is something about the characters and mythology that I really enjoy. They have no story details yet. The real question is, will this be a prequel piece like Rise of the Lycans or a continuation of Selene and Michael? This is also set of a 2011 release date. 

Saw VI – It’s hard to imagine a Halloween without the newest Saw flick hitting theaters. These movies cost almost nothing to make and they bank at the box office. Honestly, they should ride this train as far as it can take them. When was the last time that we had a massive and original horror franchise like this? The Rob Zombie remakes of Halloween don’t count. 

Transformers 3 – Apparently Revenge of the Fallen wasn’t bad enough. Seriously, this is beating a dead horse. 

This is just a small list that I can only imagine will grow within the months to come.

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James Cameron’s Avatar

Comic Con Avatar banner

This is probably one of the biggest films to come out of the Hollywood machine in a long time. There are numerous reports that the budget of the film exceeded $300 million. James Cameron doesn’t do anything small. Considering that Titanic was one of the biggest films ever made for it’s time, it’s quite obvious that Cameron is moving on to bigger things. 

I was one of the fortunates that got to see 25 minutes of footage screened at Comic Con 2009 in San Diego, California. Like most of the people/geeks there, I was super excited to see what Cameron was bringing to us. 

The movie is filled with an all-star cast and extreme detail was taken to create the fictional planet and culture of Pandora, where the majority of the film takes place. Everyone worked super hard on the film and it was an undertaking that was 10 years in the making. It’s filled with the cutting edge of CGI technology, blah, blah, blah. 

After watching the footage, the crowd was in an uproar of excitement. I sat there completely perplexed because I nearly fell asleep during the 25 minutes of CGI 3D footage. 

This movement in Hollywood to use CGI and 3D is getting very tired very fast. Technology is a great thing, don’t get me wrong. It’s these computer generated images that bring places and creatures to life that could only exist in our imaginations. However, they should be used to supplement the story. At the end of the day, if you don’t have a strong story you don’t have anything at all. George Lucas is more guilty of this than anyone. He over saturated the new Star Wars films with all of the pretty things he could do with his computers and completely neglected the characters and the story. 

I fear that Avatar may fall victim to the same fate. The movie is 40% live action and 60% photo-realistic CGI. Please bare in mind, there is never going to be a moment in the film where you are tricked in believing that it is “real” and NOT computer generated. Yes, the effects look great, but you’ll never forget that it’s CGI.

James Cameron

There is seems to be a lot of care that went into the creation of the world and the technology that is applied, but nothing to the characters or the story. The only thing they mention about this story is the plot to save and destroy Pandora. I just hope that the movie has a strong emotional kick to it that makes it worth watching, because based on the footage I saw there is nothing engrossing or interesting about the characters.

This is what seriously worries me about the project. Cameron is planning on releasing footage to theaters across the country in 3D is help “raise awareness” of the film. These mini screenings will even be free of charge. Honestly, this sounds like  BIG RED FLAG. It appears the studio is nervous about the film and are afraid people won’t know about it. Massive buzz is already surrounding the movie. If you have a movie on your hands that’s directed by one of the biggest names in Hollywood and it’s as amazing as you claim it to be, what are you raising awareness for? It’s called advertising. Cut together a good trailer. Everyone and their mother will see this movie and anyone who misses it on opening weekend will see it after word of mouth gets around that it is so great. Not to mention, the true die hards will return for multiple viewings. The mini screenings feel like a bad publicity stunt and I think that this movie could turn out to be a huge flop.

I’d love for this movie to be amazing, but based on the footage I’ve seen I’ve been left with nothing but skepticism. I will keep an open mind as there may be more to this than meets the eye.

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DC Film Franchise Expands! Can they make it work?

DC is jumping on the film franchise bandwagon. Well, why wouldn’t they, right? They’ve sat by while their rival Marvel is banking big off of a number of their properties: X-Men, Spider-man, Hulk, Iron Man, and Thor. The fact that DC hasn’t expanded beyond titles like Batman and Superman is completely beyond me.

Ryan Reynolds

Word on the street is that there is an Aquaman movie in development right now and Leonardo DiCaprio is slated to produce. This is added to the list of Green Lantern, starring Ryan Reynolds as well as the Flash movie that is also in the works.

There are a fair amount of people in this world that wouldn’t be able to tell you the difference between a DC and a Marvel superhero. There is a distinctive difference when it comes to the kind of characters that these publishing companies offer. In general, DC has characters that are more iconic. Characters like, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and the Flash are heroes that are placed on a pedestal and treated almost like Greek Gods. They have alter egos and function in a separate reality. One the other hand Marvel offers characters that are regular Joes while superhuman abilities; they live in real cities, and often don’t bother with a secret identity. Marvel characters seem to be more accessible to someone as the characters deal with problems and issues that aren’t just relegated to fighting villains.

Demon in a Bottle

Tony Stark, Iron Man, infamously dealt with issues of alcoholism for many years. What is the biggest issue that Superman has ever faced?  

With that being said, it’s no wonder that Marvel is having such great success with the expansion of their character library into the film world. Although the characters are extremely relatable, DC does have a leg up in some ways. Because of the iconic status of their characters, they are living in marketing heaven. A new Batman, Superman, or Wonder Woman project hits people already have a pretty good idea of what it is. Prior to Iron Man’s introduction into films, most people weren’t aware of this hero in the same way.

DC has these iconic characters, too bad they don’t seem to know what to do with them. It has great marketability; the problem is the characters themselves seem to be very flat. Batman is the only character that has real depth, but prior to the Christopher Nolan, the Batman films weren’t anything to really write home about. Superman Returns was a desperate attempt to revive the dead franchise, which turned into a grave-digging venture.

Marvel is now making their entire universe known by making separate characters films and loosely tying them all together. I will admit that for the most part Marvel Studios does have their crap together. DC has been attached to Warner Brothers Studios for years. You think they would’ve already got it together by now! Granted, making a good superhero movie didn’t seem possible until the first X-Men film hit theaters. It wasn’t the greatest movie ever but it did pave the way for Spider-man, and the film industry hasn’t been the same since.

DC really needs to start putting more attention into their characters as people first and heroes second. To struggle with relationships, what it means to be a super hero, making choices, consequences of their actions.

I really feel that DC has something real to build on. The point is, times are changing. The way that we view super heroes is changing as well. If DC plays their cards right they have a chance to blow Marvel out of the water.

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