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Forum namePass The Popcorn Archives
Topic subjectThat rationale doesn't seem to fit
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=23&topic_id=108486&mesg_id=108527
108527, That rationale doesn't seem to fit
Posted by SoulHonky, Sun Apr-15-12 12:54 PM
" If that were true, there wouldn't be so many movies based on other sources, and when a minor change happens that we don't like, we throw a hissy fit. Remember the fuss over LORD OF THE RINGS when fans of the books didn't get their Tom Bombadil in the movie? All these superhero movies where the casting isn't just right? Hell, there were people who didn't like THE MUPPETS because the filmmakers couldn't somehow bring Jim Henson back from the dead. "

Whedon said that this was a "loving hate letter to horror movies" and NONE of those above examples are horror movies. In fact, horror movies are quite the opposite, almost never coming from source material. This article is arguing that the film is actually against all fanboy culture, not horror movies. (Also, most of those complaints come from when a source material is BETTER than the newer version. If changes are made for the better, usually the complaints are few and far between.)

Also, the idea that people rage because they don't get what they want and what they want is the exact same formula isn't congruous with the fanboy focus. If anything, it's the non-fanboys/avid filmgoers who prefer the formulas. The die hard cinema fans are always looking for something new or something fresh and if they don't get it, the film is knocked by being called derivative. (Hell, even some critics of this film say it's a differently clever twist on the same meta approach.)

In the end, what this review does (and to a certain extent the film) is give audiences the same lack of respect that studio execs do. Stupid movies get made, not because that's what the audience wants, but that's because how lowly studio execs think of their audience. The pandering comes because, when it comes to spending tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars on a film, studios want to appeal to everyone and shooting for the lowest common denominator via a well worn trope is better than trying something new that might not work.