For a movie with no stars and no built-in audience, Neill Blomkatt’s District 9 is buzzing incredibly well. Sure, the Peter Jackson connection may have something to do with the interest and excitement, but I’d bet a lot of the traffic and talk being devoted to the film today is more due to how awesome it looks. And how well it’s being marketed, of course. But with the latest trailer, which arrived online yesterday, heating up the exposure and anticipation so immensely so quickly, could there be room for overkill? I actually don’t think so. This won’t be another disappointment a la Snakes on a Plane or Cloverfield, because it’s a more interesting premise, not just some cheap genre pic with heavy viral promotion.
Maybe I’m just allowing my expectations to get higher than usual, but I’m truly optimistic that this will actually be good. It’s dangerous territory for me to be getting in, and the film and its campaign are probably going to blow up in my face like that “can” of toxic material in the trailer. Oh well, what else do I have to look forward to next month? G.I. Joe? Inglourious Basterds? I gave up on my excitement for both of those long ago, and I want to be surprised by something out of nowhere. Unfortunately, modern movie distribution doesn’t allow for such complete surprises anymore, so this may be the closest thing I’ve got.
Let’s see what kind of buzz or buzzkill the blogs are inciting after the jump:
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Neither of the two firings getting a rise out of film bloggers this week appears to be of any concern. According to Movieline, Andrew Sarris will still be contributing, as a freelancer, to the movies section of the New York Observer, and Stephen Sommers will still be contributing, as a director, to the shittiness of G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra. While the first of these supposed dismissals probably isn’t (unfortunately) of interest to most readers out there, I’m going to take a look at the progression of commentary related to the latter story. I’d actually prefer to ignore the rumor-turned-non-story the way that Kris Tapley at In Contention has chosen to, but despite this being one of those “*chirp* *chirp*” slow news days, I have to devote this post to some hot film story of the day.
So here goes:
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