G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

[helen]

Saw G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra at the Ward Theater this afternoon. I was a casual fan of the cartoon series back in the mid-80's, felt that this movie was more an origin story for Cobra than anything else.

[pzarquon]

Re: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

I'm aware of this film only insofar as it's described as one of those "critic-proof" Hollywood extravaganzas, hoping to be as successful as fellow Hasbro toy-themed "Transformers 2" (despite the cruel pounding it took from reviewers).

There were no preview screenings for critics, early screenings were held outside the usual cities, and the hope is simple word of mouth will drive traffic sales.

Sure enough, it has a 39% or "rotten" grade on RottenTomatoes.com. But it was the No. 1 movie this weekend, ostensibly proving again that critics don't matter.

[scrivener]

Re: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

The previews for this thing made it look so bad that I almost walked out on the TRAILER.

[Konaguy]

Re: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

The movie rocked big time. The action scenes were spectacular, lots of humor and there was some hot chicks (Scarlett and the Baroness). Me and my girlfriend are planning on seeing it again this coming up weekend.

[Nords]

Re: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Made me curious, so I looked it up.

Here's the complete list of the movies I've watched at theaters for a bit more than the past two years:
Transformers II
Wolverine
Star Trek
Quantum of Solace
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Hitman
Transformers.

All action-adventure, all full of CGI and other special effects, all loaded down with combat, ordnance, gore, and excessive violence. You could argue that "plot" and "character development" are very small parts of the whole package... perhaps even irrelevant.

I've paid no attention to my movie-viewing before this. Every individual viewing decision was driven by my Pavlovian reflexes to advertising. I've actually ramped up my theater spending from 1-2x/year before then. I'm not working; I have plenty of time and entertainment budget to go to movies. I just don't bother unless it's one I really want (or feel obligated) to see.

However the theater has a screen and a sound system that I'd never be able to duplicate at home, let alone be able to modulate for neighbor harmony. Unlike most other movie genres, while action-adventure flicks can be enjoyed on home theater, they're so much better on a big screen. Apparently for the last two years I've been using my wallet to tell the theaters exactly what kind of movies I want them to show me. And it ain't Harry Potter or anything involving Meryl Streep.

Otherwise I avoid megaplexes. They're not cheap enough to be an inconsequential spending decision. The food & beverages lack value (both financial & nutritional). The "dark, quiet theater" is long gone-- you're assaulted by commercials the moment you step into one until the actual feature presentation begins. I can hardly believe that five years ago I actually used to arrive early with a book to get a good seat, or to have a nice quiet pre-movie conversation with my spouse/kid. Today I don't even queue up for a ticket until the start time and sometimes 10 minutes later the trailers are barely half over.

Perhaps the theaters are responding to the only critics they care about: ticket sales. If everyone else is watching Netflix or Hulu at home and not going to a box office, then the remaining small niche audience is getting a disproportionate share of the vote. And the theater's satisfiers are barely enough to outweigh the dissatisfiers for only the most "compelling" releases.

It'd be interesting to see a breakdown of ticket & DVD sales and rentals by age groups, testosterone poisoning, genders, and movie types. I wonder if the theater chains share enough data with each other to realize what's happening.