Weekly Box Office and Film Discussion Thread

[Drtooth]

So, you wanna know about Smurfs 2, huh?

You aren't going to believe me, but this second installment is leaps and bounds better than the last cacophonous kiddy film. For one thing, we have a solid and coherent plot! Where as the last film was all "Hey! Look at THESE guys, kids. Aren't they crazy?" this film gave us a story that seems lifted from the original comics/cartoon series (minus the bits where they're still in the real world). Heck, this SHOULD have been an episode. It was actually a pretty good character piece for Smurfette that referenced her dark past. I've never seen it actually haunt her in the TV series. GASP! THE movie added MORE DEPTH to Smurfette!! I think I gotta lie down.

In fact, the Smurf's personalities in general greatly improved. They were all really flat, except maybe Papa and Clumsy last time... this time they took less Smurfs with them, and that gave each character a moment to shine. I'm disappointed they didn't use Brainy much. They actually remembered to make him insufferable! The sequence at the opening with him and Jokey was classic.

Think of it this way. I reluctantly enjoyed the first one in a "it wasn't as terrible as my exceedingly low standards/at least it wasn't Yogi Bear" way. This one I genuinely had some actual enjoyment over. I mean, it's not great... but by all means this is the movie the first one should have been.

 

[jvcarroll]

Smurfs 2 has fizzled domestically with an $18 million weekend take. That's half of what the first one made. However, it's Wednesday jump helped it gain a total of $27 million in the US. The worldwide box office remains strong with $52 million. It seems that setting this film in Paris helped out a lot. (Such globalization is a smart move that I hope will help next year's Muppets Most Wanted.)

I read an interview with the film's director before the release and he doesn't really seem to get it. He is under the delusion that people saw the first one because it was a well-told, heartwarming story. It was a mess. People saw it because of the brand.

The third installment is set to come out in two years. These films are basically just the modern-day Chipmunks flicks with the Smurfs swapped-in. I'm glad that people have noticed. There was a lost opportunity to simply make a good Smurfs film. They need to get a new team of creative people and go back to what made the Smurfs magical in the first place. Their world is infinitely more interesting than our modern one.

I think they should disregard the films that came before and make a stand-alone movie set in the Smurf village. Alter the designs to better fit the traditional design without making their world look too cartoony. I'd love to see more of their environment and ecosystem. Keep Azaria as Gargamel in some form.

Also, flesh-colored Smurfs are not appealing! Featuring them so heavily in the ads was not a good idea.

 

[Drtooth]

I hate how the "Weekend Take" is like Friday up until the first half of Saturday. There's still the entire day of Sunday to get through. Many an upset has come out of Sunday, where the projected front running film gets trampled by the predicted second runner. It may not make the money the first one did, but hey... the first one wasn't released the last day of August.

As I've said before, I'm really disappointed Paramount never made their Smurf film. They planned to use the original character designs and give sort of a Gargamel Rising plotline as far as the first one went. Then they lost the rights, Sony picked them up, and clumsily threw together a script.

The last film was a mess because they treated the Smurfs as catchphrases and gags. They made a typical children's film with the Smurfs pasted on, running amok in New York. There was hardly any plot, the B story was pointless... it was hardly the worst film like that I've seen, but it could have been much better. I didn't think it would be that good, since they took them out of their environment, specifically because they wanted it to be like the Chipmunk films.

But that's not to say this film wasn't a complete improvement. It wasn't by any means great, but they managed to do a more respectable job by focusing on the mythos of Smurfette, and expanding on it in a way that the cartoons never did. Plus, the running around the city was actually taken to a merciful minimum.

As for the clay Smurfs... there's totally a reason why they're ghastly grey... changing just one slight effect in the Smurfette origin story, when Gargamel made her, instead of automatically turning blue, that was one of the effects of Papa's magic to turn her into a good guy. It becomes a very important plot point as Gargamel only made the two "naughties" to turn into Smurfs when he had the potion (why he kidnapped Smurfette in this film) to steal their essence, then using that magic to make more Smurfs to basically conquer the world and then destroy the Smurf village. A far far more Gargamel-ish story than the first.

Of course, I completely agree that in both movies the Smurf Villaige was underutilized, and it would be great if the next film actually took place there... of course, there's hope because Gargamel and Azrael were transported back to their own time at the end of the film.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I'm surprised Red 2 didn't do better, I just saw it today and it was very funny, the audience seemed to enjoy it. John Malkovich pretty much stole the movie, lol.

 

[jvcarroll]

I'm surprised Red 2 didn't do better, I just saw it today and it was very funny, the audience seemed to enjoy it. John Malkovich pretty much stole the movie, lol.

I haven't gotten around to seeing it yet, however I did see the press on it and Bruce Willis behaved horribly during interviews. I don't expect stars to be as they are on screen, but it's hard for me to support his endeavors these days. He was booted off the Expendables as well. He whined about his salary of $3 million for 4 days of work so they replaced him with Harrison Ford. Ha! I wasn't going to see that particular film anyway. I'll still see RED2 for Helen Mirren and Mary Louise Parker.

Pacific Rim had no bankable American stars and it's probably the best film of the summer. The funny thing is that it's not doing quite as well in the US. That's probably why. Well, maybe people thought it was going to be a CG garbage fest like the Transformers films. It's not. Great film!

 

[CensoredAlso]

I haven't gotten around to seeing it yet, however I did see the press on it and Bruce Willis behaved horribly during interviews. I don't expect stars to be as they are on screen, but it's hard for me to support his endeavors these days. He was booted off the Expendables as well. He whined about his salary of $3 million for 4 days of work so they replaced him with Harrison Ford. Ha! I wasn't going to see that particular film anyway. I'll still see RED2 for Helen Mirren and Mary Louise Parker.

I get you, I just don't think my $15 matters too much to him, hehe. I would see it for Helen Mirren and Mary Louise Parker, they added a lot to the film.

 

[Muppet fan 123]

I just wanted to share a quick thought on The Wolverine. I hate to complain, but I have no choice.

After seeing the film, I understand why it was dumped in the month of August.
The film isn't terrible, but it feels unneccesary, and doesn't live up to any of the previous X-Men films.

The movie doesn't even have any connection to next year's X-Men: Days of Future Past! The film really serves no purpose in the X-Men franchise. It would've been nice if it actually had a tie-in with the next movie.
It was probably more enjoyable than X-Men Origins: Wolverine but, for some reason, movies solely featuring Logan don't stand up.
I guess he's kinda like the Hulk of the X-Men. (For some reason, a good Hulk movie just can't seem to be made.)

On the bright side, it's a slower paced super hero movie, with a lot more story and some good action. Not much comedy in this one.
It was handled well for the most part, (besides the fact of it not even remotely connecting to the other movies).

I truthfully don't actually have too many complaints about the film (although this post might make it seem that I completley hated it). I would rate the movie a B+.

EDIT: If you see it, stay in your seats for an incredible additional scene, which ties into Days of Future Past. The scene is incredible and if you're an X-Men fan, you'll be squealing with delight by the sight of it. Totally worth the price of admission.

 

[CensoredAlso]

It was probably more enjoyable than X-Men Origins: Wolverine but, for some reason, movies solely featuring Logan don't stand up.

The thing is in the original X-men films Wolverine's humor mainly came from what a contrast he was from all the goody goody characters. He needed them to bounce off of.

It's a common mistake in Hollywood to think audiences only loved one character when really what audiences loved was how all the characters related to each other.

 

[jvcarroll]

I just wanted to share a quick thought on The Wolverine. I hate to complain, but I have no choice.

After seeing the film, I understand why it was dumped in the month of August.
The film isn't terrible, but it feels unneccesary, and doesn't live up to any of the previous X-Men films.

The movie doesn't even have any connection to next year's X-Men: Days of Future Past! The film really serves no purpose in the X-Men franchise. It would've been nice if it actually had a tie-in with the next movie.
It was probably more enjoyable than X-Men Origins: Wolverine but, for some reason, movies solely featuring Logan don't stand up.
I guess he's kinda like the Hulk of the X-Men. (For some reason, a good Hulk movie just can't seem to be made.)

On the bright side, it's a slower paced super hero movie, with a lot more story and some good action. Not much comedy in this one.
It was handled well for the most part, (besides the fact of it not even remotely connecting to the other movies).

I truthfully don't actually have too many complaints about the film (although this post might make it seem that I completley hated it). I would rate the movie a B+.

EDIT: If you see it, stay in your seats for an incredible additional scene, which ties into Days of Future Past. The scene is incredible and if you're an X-Men fan, you'll be squealing with delight by the sight of it. Totally worth the price of admission.

I liked that it wasn't trying to be the greatest superhero movie of all time. I consider this the third good X-Men movie along side the first two. The third installment was terrible, the first Wolverine film was a mess and First Class not only went against the history of the comics, they didn't seem to watch the movies that they tried to tie-into. I guess you either like Jackman's Logan or not. It comes down to that. I see him as the Christopher Reeve of the Marvel world. Perfect casting and a wonderful character. I'd like to see more movies like the last one. But, to each their own.

 

[Drtooth]

Pacific Rim had no bankable American stars and it's probably the best film of the summer. The funny thing is that it's not doing quite as well in the US. That's probably why. Well, maybe people thought it was going to be a CG garbage fest like the Transformers films. It's not. Great film!

Yeah, but the CG garbage fest Transformers don't actually turn anyone away. For all the crap (well deserved) these films get, people keep pouring in, and they're a hit overseas. A lot of fans of the Transformers movie didn't see it (or hated it) because Pacific Rim wasn't the Transformer movies.

It isn't so much about the stars, so much as Pacific Rim is a very niche picture. The film owes itself to pretty obscure (stateside) mech based anime (Mazinger Z for example), and more popular things like Sentai/Tokusatsu (Power Rangers/Godzilla). That's something that has a cult fanbase over here. And, like I said, that cult is nothing compared to the general public who would rather see Adam Sandler as an aging Man-child doing his dying schtick. That somehow has a broader appeal.

As I said before, as soon as July hit, there was a massive blockbuster fatigue going on. Despicable Me 2 was probably the only hit of the month, because it was a calmer CGI family film that has a huge following since the first one. Somehow, Iron Man 3 feels like it was a year ago, and Man of Steel seems almost that far back.