FEATURE FRIDAY: Marketing, Movies and Me

You know that feeling you get in the cinema when you realise the film you're watching isn't everything you had hoped it would be? It's an uncomfortable feeling, in the pit of your stomach. You're not quite sure whether you want to continue watching the screen in front of you. If you do, it's going to turn out badly, you can feel the decline coming already, the moment where this movie loses you and you suddenly become acutely aware of your surroundings; there's a guy in front of you mindlessly crunching popcorn a little too loudly, the temperature is a couple of degrees out from where you want it to be and the chair beneath you has suddenly turned to the density of concrete. There the film is, playing out in front of you, dashing your expectations with a line or a few frames. And then it has lost you.

In the current movie marketing climate, films come with a high degree of expectation, particularly for blockbuster season and it is something that is cultivated fiercely by film-makers. J.J. Abrams is one such figure, using his now-famous mystery box to ramp up excitement and speculation for his films. He's also guilty of directing one of my biggest disappointments in recent years in Star Trek Into Darkness. Now, given that the film has largely received a positive reaction, I can't quite lay this sense of disappointment solely at the feet of the unholy trinity of Orci, Kurtzman and Lindelof nor can I solely blame Abrams. I don't absolve them of responsibility completely as it is their work that forms the basis of my resentment, but I also acknowledge that I have my own part to play when it comes to this film and others that have not met my expectations.


Film as an art form will always be subjective; each audience member brings their own unique experience into the cinema with them, their own hopes for the film, their own ideas of how it should play out. As I said before, I went into STID with a very clear idea of what I wanted from it and it didn't deliver for a combination of reasons. I actively participated in the hype and speculation surrounding the Star Trek sequel; I devoured every piece of news I could find, I followed the ongoing developments, rumours, theories, straw-grasping and logic-defying conclusions that appeared online. I even came up with a few theories myself and actively selected the character that I wanted the villain to be (they totally should have gone for Gary Mitchell). I was already riding high on enthusiasm months before the film's release. In short, I was ready for a spectacular crash, which of course it turned out to be. I knew exactly when the film lost me. Though I must be fair to Abrams et.al, it happened a lot later than say, the nuclear bomb defying fridge. But how far are we all just actually victims to the afore-mentioned big movie marketing machine?

Abrams' mystery box is one of the worst culprits in this way; the speculation surrounding the movie villain has been going on for four years, pretty much since the sequel was announced. Marketing campaigns have become almost an event in themselves now with studios seizing upon the potential to capture audiences in a way that has rarely been seen before. The internet has helped hugely in this respect with trailers and news available almost instantaneously when it is released. One of the best is the campaign behind The Dark Knight which unleashed Heath Ledger's Joker on the world and slowly built up anticipation to the film's release, utilising the new trend for viral marketing. Teasing the audience in such a way as to introduce them slowly to the world of the film, rather than the film proper, has become the new way in which to capture your audiences, building in the anticipation a long way in advance.

With The Dark Knight, this was a huge success. It naturally helped that it was an excellent film. Of course, there also those campaigns that ramp up the anticipation without the film to follow it and my case in point is Prometheus. I reacted to Prometheus in a similar way to Star Trek Into Darkness; it was that same sinking feeling, that same sudden awareness that this was not going to end well for me and my expectations. Now Prometheus had an exhaustive marketing process, beginning with some really amazing viral videos before descending into trailer after trailer after trailer after trailer... Well, you get my drift. The viral videos however, were mini-triumphs, particularly Guy Pearce as Peter Weyland in his TED talk announcing his plans to colonise the stars. It was spine-tinglingly good. Once again though, the speculation, the awe-inspiring start and intense fan anticipation was not matched by the final product. That and the overwhelming amount of trailers just put people off.

But I think these disappointments are, in their own slightly torturous way, necessary to enhance our cinematic experience elsewhere. It's the lows that make the highs so good after all. Whether the film itself is objectively good or not, there is honestly nothing better for me than watching something in the cinema and having exactly the opposite reaction to the one I described in the opening paragraph. The moment you fall completely headlong into the movie in front of you, losing any awareness you have of the outside world. You don't care that the man in front is anti-socially crunching popcorn because you can't hear it, the temperature of the room doesn't matter because you're not there anymore, you're on the edge of your seat so it doesn't matter that it's not all that comfortable. It's quite simply the best feeling to be so surprised by what is unfolding in front of you, that everything else falls away.

Without the odd disappointment, slight or crushing, that feeling wouldn't be quite so special when it happens. You feel like you've just discovered the best kind of surprise, the one that no one saw coming and instead of feeling like someone wacked you over the head with a big plank of stupid, you feel elated, like you've discovered something really special. Last year, it was 21 Jump Street that shocked me in this way when I realised, halfway through the film, I was laughing like a drain and really enjoying myself.  Iron Man 3 is the most recent movie to have taken me completely by surprise and I have to say, the marketing for that film is largely responsible for this. I knew I was looking forward to it, but I wasn't so intensely wrapped up in the speculation, precisely because I didn't think there was anything else to speculate about. 

Though I wouldn't say that either of these films were under-marketed, they simply didn't play their hand too early in the advertising, particularly IM3. Likewise, a smaller hit like Cabin in the Woods benefitted from not revealing too much in the trailers beforehand - though of course this had to tread the fine line of not looking too derivative. Now there is of course the option to opt out of the marketing, to ignore whatever trailer is out there next and this is something that I do try to stick to. If I really want to go into a movie without knowing anything, as I did with Trance most recently, then I will simply avoid the marketing. It's tough but it is possible.

There are always going to be those films that grab your attention more than others for whatever reason. Star Trek got me because I loved what they did with the reboot and I'm a massive Trek fan, have been for years. I was always going to be fervently awaiting its release and I didn't temper my expectations until the very last minute when reports started appearing from people on Twitter whose opinions I value. Then again, would it have been the same if there hadn't been the general speculation cultivated by Abrams? 

That feeling of surprised glee or creeping disappointment is always going to happen in certain films; it's inevitable that something will exceed or fail to meet your expectations as its the very nature of the beast when it comes to cinema. I just think that it is important to not get too swept up in those big blockbuster marketing campaigns that are designed to do just that, let you get carried away and book your ticket months in advance. It's a delicate balance that must be struck and I think, increasingly, it becomes the responsibility of the audience member to try and achieve that. After all, the marketing behemoths just want to get you into the cinema. 

- Becky

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FILM REVIEW: 21 Jump Street

Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill star as two under-achieving cops who are sent to Jump Street, a revival of an 80s programme which saw young-looking police officers infiltrate high schools in order to crack down on youth crime. The original series is perhaps more famous for giving a certain Johnny Depp his first break and was high on dramatic action, rather than comedy. Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller adopted a very different approach for this particular revival, aiming for comedy and thankfully, it succeeds.


I don't want to give away too many of the jokes here so I'm going to remain deliberately vague as to even know some of the build-up to the punchlines would give it away. As with all adult comedies, crude humour and profanity are utilised throughout, but not to the extent that they overshadow the humour and rarely get in the way of a clever joke. Safe to say though that the quickfire gag rate means that the few jokes that don't work are quickly replaced by a dozen or so that do.


The film's strength lies in its self-deprecating quality and there's a sense of knowing that permeates throughout, starting with the captain's rant about how all anyone ever seems to be doing is reviving old 80s programmes and hoping no one notices. How very meta. In some cases, this could get tired; a film that's clever enough to know it's unoriginal can sometimes go past being suitably amusing to ever so slightly pretentious. 21 Jump Street treads a fine line but it never tips over into the latter, and knowing that's a big cliche is probably one of the high points of the film.

By combining the buddy cop and high school film genres, it gives the film plenty of targets to spoof and it does so with aplomb. Right from the off, with the Eminem intro and the police academy training montage, the film starts building up the cliches; we get mismatched cops, the angry black captain, a car chase, a high school hierarchy and even a slow-motion entrance to some cool music. Rather than just present the cliches however, Lord and Miller build them up only to knock them down again. Never taking itself too seriously, the film revels in the audience's expectations; we see a car chase, we know something is going to explode. Rather than going for the cheap spectacle though, it's built into an extended joke with a very funny punchline. This is the same for the high school cliches, cleverly observing that school has changed from the regimented hierarchy it used to be to a place where the popular kids are environmentally conscious, gay and drug dealers. Jenko's theory as to why this is the case is perhaps my favourite joke of the entire film. And, as with all good high school films, it ends at the prom. Though it's probably not any prom you'd like to attend.

Performance wise, the central duo are perfect in their respective roles. I'm not the biggest fan of Jonah Hill because in every film I've seen him in, he plays... well, Jonah Hill. His character Schmidt is your typical nerd in high school, unable to ask a girl to the prom or run 100 yards particularly quickly. His character arc is actually quite sweet given that he's able to relive his high school years only this time on the popular side of the crowd. This helps to overlook the slightly weird romantic subplot with Molly (Brie Larson), a high school senior. The real revelation in this film though has to be Channing Tatum in his first real comic role. Previously seen glowering in either romantic dramas or explodey-actioners, Tatum has rarely been given a chance to present anything other than an overhanging forehead macho character. Jenko could have just been another dumb jock, seen in countless other films, but instead, Tatum gives the role depth, combining the dumb jock with the kid who just wanted to be popular in high school. He also demonstrates great comic timing and is trusted with a lot of the best lines in the film. Plus, he mimes a mean lightsaber battle.

Elsewhere, Ice Cube puts in a great performance, nearly stealing the show with his 'angry black captain' speech. Dave Franco, younger brother of James, as main drug dealer Eric sends up the popular kid stereotype brilliantly and I don't think it will be long before we see much more of him. Then of course, there's the cameos. We knew from the start that Johnny Depp had agreed to cameo and, though a long time coming, it's well worth the wait. When he does appear, alongside fellow Jump Street alumnus Peter Deluise, it's one of the most hilariously meta gags in the whole film, ushering in the new Jump Street era with some knowing references.


As with all comedies, Jump Street falls apart slightly when it comes to the plot. Although the central plot of infiltrating the high school drugs ring works and the ultimate reveal of the dealer is suitably surprising, the film does have a couple of pacing issues. Because of the melding of action and comedy, it was always going to be a struggle to make sure the story held up all the way through the film. The plot inevitably gets in the way of the fast-paced gag rate and everything slows down as a result. Thankfully, the entrance to the prom reinvigorates it all and instead of a limp third act that could have reduced the film to mediocre, we get a suitably hilarious finish to a great comedy.


If you're in need of a hearty giggle or craving a spoof of several genres all at once, 21 Jump Street makes for a very funny evening and, if you've already seen it and want more, be comforted to know that the inevitable cash-in sequel is most definitely on the way.


****


- Becky