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I’ll be honest, Overthinkers, it feels like a slow week for pop. Last night saw the So You Think You Can Dance season finale, with some lady named “Melanie” being voted America’s favorite. George Lopez’s talk show was canceled. Justin Lin, director of Fast Five, confirmed there will be a Fast Six. There are some movies coming out this weekend, but aside from Glee 3D, are we expecting anything noteworthy?
“You’re killing me, Perich,” you’re saying right now. “Any good news?” As a matter of fact, NO. So we made some news ourselves!
We’re hosting our first OTI meetup! New York Area Overthinkers: Save the date of Wednesday, August 24 to meet OTI writers Wrather, Lee, Belinkie, Stokes, and others at Tribeca Tavern & Cafe. We’ll roll up by 9pm. RSVP on the Facebook Event if you want to come.
That’s better.
Comment of the Week: there was some HEAVY competition in Wrather’s return to posting with “Thursday Grammar: Impostrophe,” but the winner by a nose is STH with a piercing Well, Actually:
Well actually … this is a post about orthography, not grammar. But it’s still appreciated.
And we appreciate you, STH. Don’t ever leave us.
(On a brief and serious note: our thoughts are with any of our London fans who are affected by the unrest in the streets. Stay safe, Overthinkers.)
If I broke off from this Open Thread to address our NYC meetup, praising its geographic location and democratic accessibility, would you understand what rhetorical device I was talking about? Or is there something we missed? Sound off in the comments, for this is your … Open Thread.
It really doesn’t surprise me that there’s going to be a Fast Six since at the end of the main credit sequence there was a scene that was essentially a set up with the Rock and another character from another movie.
The article about Fast Six mentioned a ‘Terminator’ revival and I slightly winced after reading that, I feel that lots of people will be hesitant to see the movie (if it ever gets made) since the most recent one was so bad…
We finally saw ‘Super 8’ this week. I was expecting it to be a gritty reboot of ‘ET’ but it actually had more of a ‘Goonies’ feel, especially through the first half. That sparked an interesting discussion with my wife: if it was like ‘Goonies’, then who was the Sloth character? I thought it was the pot-smoking camera store guy, while she argued that it was the alien itself, but neither of us was really satisfied with our answers.
I’ll toss in a vote for the alien as Sloth. Both were scary monsters that turned out to be pretty cool dudes. Based on their matching members only jackets and horn-dogness camera store guy relates more to Mouth. How did you equate the camera store guy to Sloth?
The way I see it camera store guy never has a big heroic moment, he didn’t have a nemesis to overcome like the alien and Sloth did. He’s really sort of an anti-hero, the closest he has to a nemesis is getting high and he losses without a fight. He fumbles helping even in his small role where Sloth exceeds expectations. Camera store guy’s story is and ends on failure and weakness, where Sloth’s is the strength of compassion- much like the alien in Super 8.
The alien didn’t do much for the kids in Super 8 either, “Hey you guys! I lost your dog, ate your neighbors, and burned all your houses down. …You’re Welcome!” Is the opposite of what Sloth does, but still the kid has compassion for it and the alien chills out and builds his water spaceship.
The most exciting pop-culture-ee thing I saw this week was leaked footage of JGL on the set of The Dark Knight Rises. It was just him walking back and forth in some snow, carrying a gas can. But still- multiple reasons for fangirlage were triggered. But I feel like there has been a lot more stuff leaked of this one than the other two Nolan Batman movies. I’m curious as to why, though- is Nolan doing this to help the hype live up to that of the last installment? Since that one was so good, maybe he/his crew are trying to get opening weekend surges to make up for what they are afraid may be later losses because this one won’t live up to the last one. Not that I don’t think it will, but rather they may be worried it won’t. (I really hope that makes sense.) Although, it could just be the fact that they’re filming in PA this time, and in public places where they can’t, technically, ban people from snapping pics and making videos- but that’s too boring and underthought, after all.
Oh, and preseason football started. No Favre- thank goodness.
Also, I don’t know why you all haven’t made a group trip to Vegas yet. Seriously, why not? ;) (Although, to be fair, I’m actually in the pseudo-midwest now.)
I’m glad that football started up! I was actually talking with my dad about the upcoming season and how in theory all the teams have a good chance of having a good season but then it just ends up being the “usual suspects” that have the downward spirl. That being said, since all the players from the Packers that were hurt are now back in the saddle I’m hoping they have a good season and claim another SB title (and yes I am a cheesehead).
The Packers shall have to deal with the mighty Detroit Lions. Tremble in fear, Green Bay! Seriously though, I think the Packers will repeat. Also, I went to high school with a player whose on the Packers. That doesn’t really mean anything or what have you. It’s just odd to have known somebody on the public stage “back in the day” as it were.
Oh noes, I’m a Bears fan. We must needs settle this in the arena!
it seems that we must! ;) I’m actually the only Packer’s fan in the family, the rest are either Bears/Raiders fans or don’t care about the sport. I’m also the only Cubs fan in a house full of Sox fans, but I still make the jokes.
Half the stuff with The Dark Knight Rises is tagged as “bad” or “lame.” Idk that’s just to get hits for blogs or a deliberate push of marketing from the producers, either way it serves the need of many people to lower expectations to some reasonable level, which hopefully prevents backlash when the movie comes out and is “only as good” as TDK.
Maybe Nolan, whose typically a nut for secrecy, purposely kept the set open to get some fan-sourced hype but it also seems to play into the theme of the movie with the “official leak” of Bane’s cult video which seems partly a response to the Joker’s handycam and his out of movie real life cult influence. There’s a fan vid of Bane giving a speech and saying Gotham should taking up a “tool of liberation” which we can’t see in the video but I’m guessing it’s a discount coupon for an internet service subscription- printed on black leather with spikes on it!
Well, the Bane cult video runs along the same lines of the viral campaigning last time. Remember the websites devoted to Harvey Dent’s campaign for D.A., or the Joker hunt stuff, or the website for Gotham’s paper with articles about the poisonous gas leak from the first movie (and how you could see said paper in mint condition and then all messed up by the Joker)? Those are totally manufactured by the marketing campaigns, paid for by studio funds. That’s a different technique entirely from making it easier for people to take snapshots and videos.
What I don’t get is why everyone is labeling the stuff as lamesauce in the first place. I’m not saying it’s perfect, but it’s also unfinished, and I think that says more about the fickle nature of fandom and the impatience of society- evaluating a production still with the same criteria as a finished film is like saying an uncooked pasta dish is going to taste bad because one of the spices going into the sauce tastes bad by itself. And note, I didn’t mean to sound like I thought the video of JGL looked stupid- hence why I “fangirled” on multiple levels. I wouldn’t expect much more from a sneak-shot of a scene being filmed, after all.
What I’m getting at now, I suppose, is that perhaps these minimal sneak peaks are backfiring a little, as in instead of creating curiosity and getting people antsy with anticipation (like they are for me, agh!), the majority of the audience is SO desperate that they’re becoming impatient and dissatisfied. They want the whole pie, not a bite, and the bite is just pissing them off. (Food metaphors, I must be hungry.)
I do also like your theory that they’re TRYING to send out “lame” stuff, so that expectations are lowered for the actual release (for the potential for pondering, not necessarily the implications in themselves). Ethics are always involved in ads (since one can cynically say that an ad is an attempt to trick someone into consuming something), but I think this raises more ethical questions than getting people excited about a movie. It’s almost lying, and it’s the exact opposite of traditional ad campaigns (which aim to make the consumer think the product is made of awesome, not lamesauce). But I suppose hyping positively is almost lying, too. Perhaps this bothers me more because it’s more like covering your bases as opposed to believing in what you’re selling.