Of Trailers and movie themes

As a non-repentant movie hound I take in more than my share of movies. I watch all sorts of movies and enjoy them. I like everything from Westerns...in fact, last week I watched the classic Gary Cooper Academy Award winning High Noon and did not regret a moment of the experience...when as a general rule the words "Academy Award" go side by side with "Drew did not see" or "Drew hated it". But on point, I like Westerns, the so-called "chick flicks", comedy, action-adventure, suspense, super-hero flicks, war movies, drama, animated...I am all over the board.
With the vast number of movies I see you can pretty much assume if there is a trailer out...I have seen it. And that is something that, quite frankly, most people can not say. At least, I assume they can't. Let's take a look at recent movie-going experiences:
A while ago I went to see Cars, the fun little animated feature that was entertaining, well drawn, just all around good times. One of the previews had me all but ready to stand on my feet and cheer wildly. It had a penguin singing "I did it my way" in Spanish with 3 or 4 other penguins doing background. Ever since I read "Mr. Popper's Penguins" about 8 times in 4 years in my youth I have loved penguins. So of course I want to see it. Here is the problem; it took me months to see another preview.
As I saw "The Devil Wears Prada", Superman, The Wicker Man, Talladega Nights, The DaVinci Code, Crank, Step Up, and probably a dozen others I saw lots of pre-views. The Grudge II was at Superman, The Wicker Man and Crank if I recall correctly, but not at the others.
Why am I pigeon-holed like that? Why do the preview arrangers assume that if I want to see The Wicker Man that I am interested in The Grudge but not Happy Feet? (Happy Feet is the name of the Penguin story) Conversely, just because I went to see Talladega Nights does not mean I am uninterested in...say...Crank, the adrenaline-fueled action spectacular.
I really think the steretypes they fit the movie goiers into based on just one movie robs them of potential audience. I know action movie fans who have not heard of Crank because they have not been to the right movies...once you get out of the loop of a particular genre it is hard to get back into it because they won't show you those pre-views. And heaven forgive you if you miss one...for instance, I thought The Ant Bully looked like a sub-par offering so did not go see it. Lo and behold, I missed all the previews for other animated features even though it was a genre I love. Fortunately I DID go to see The Barnyard which, itself, turned out to be fairly pedestrian...there were a few laughs but it was no Ice Age II...so I got to see the pre-view of Happy Feet and get an idea for when it would arrive.
So to the people who decide what pre-views we are going to see: spread the love. If I go to the Wicker Man (an abomination of a movie that I regret), don't take away the opportunity to preview stuff "outside" the genre.

1 comment:

Riot Kitty said...

I will go see the penguin movie with you!