Midnight Movie Premieres

The 00’s became the time where midnight movie premieres became huge! Rather than just wait for the actual day that the movie came out and go enjoy it with your friends many fans have chosen to watch the movie at the stroke of midnight the night before the day of the actual premiere. Over the years this has become increasingly popular with huge movie franchises such as “Lord of the Rings,” “Harry Potter,” “Twilight,” and “The Fast and Furious.” These midnight premieres have provided huge revenues for these franchises and created strong fanbases that unite millions worldwide.
Now what’s the difference between a midnight premiere and a regular movie premiere you may ask? The whole experience! Midnight premieres stand out from the regular movie premieres thanks to the huge fanbases that make the midnight premieres one of a kind. There will be people dressed up as the characters, huge groups of friends that attend midnight premieres to bond and there will be huge lines you wait in. Maria Orduno, a huge fan of midnight premieres explained them like this, “You will literally be the first person to watch the movie and get that advantage over the rest of your friends.”
Midnight premieres are great for those who simply can no longer wait for the movie they’ve been waiting to see for over a year. Araceli De La O, another fan of midnight premieres said “After being hyped up for such a long time for a movie I’d rather wait the two/three hours in line to be one of the first people to watch a new movie then wait any longer.” Some people have even been known to camp out outside movie theaters in order to make sure they are one of the first people in the theater as the movie begins.
Most of the people attending the midnight premieres all share the same passion and excitement for the movie they are waiting to watch at midnight that the movie viewing experience is different than a regular day at the movies. For one, we have fans dressed up like the characters or even reenacting scenes from the previous movies or books if the move was based off a book. Once the fans are let into the theater to watch the movie there is so much anticipation in the theater for the movie to start playing. From personal experience, every midnight premiere that I’ve attended has had audience members saying jokes about the film loudly for the whole theater to enjoy and we would all laugh, cry, get angry and get shocked at the film together. Really making you feel like you are part of a community while watching the film instead of just watching a movie with a room full of strangers.
“The fact that everyone in the room are all experiencing the same emotions together and getting immersed into the world of the movie together is a one of a kind experience that is heightened at midnight premieres,” said De La O. “You see who the most involved fans are at midnight premieres compared to people who were simply just interested in the movie.”
For movie theaters and the studios that make and produce these movies, a midnight premiere can help make or break a movie during its opening weekend. “I think the reason why they [midnight premieres] are more popular for people to attend is so that they can be one of the first people to watch the movie and they can use the rest of their weekend for other things,” said Orduno. With many flocking to see a movie at midnight it gives studios a good idea whether the movie will make it or break it at box offices. Successful midnight premieres for new movies or sequels to huge movie franchises usually spike the interests for other people to want to go see the said movie sometime over the weekend.
Midnight premieres are definitely an experience any movie goer needs to go through at least one or two times in their lifetime. With the high amount of anticipation and excitement that accompanies a movie at its midnight premiere nothing else could compare. Whether you are a veteran of the midnight premieres and have gone all out with outfits, a set of friends to go with a the willingness to wait in lines for long hours at a time or you’re new to the midnight premiere scene and are a little hesitant to go I would recommend everyone to go! With summer right around the corner and many huge blockbusters coming out the summer is a perfect time to attend a midnight premiere.

Areli Enriquez

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A Wave of Biblical Films

There is no doubt that the trends of film change over the years. Five years ago it was the super hero craze that got moviegoers flocking to local theaters to see the latest well-known superhero face his mortal enemy. However, within the last year, the trend has shifted to a series of films based on the action-packed stories of both the Old, and New Testaments of The Bible.

The trend seemed to have begun in 2004 with the premiere of The Passion of The Christ, which was extremely successful in theaters. The trend then seemed to have subsided until this year, when two films have been released within months of each other, chronicling two separate Biblical stories. The first was The Son of God, which highlighted stories from the New Testament and followed Jesus Christ to His death and resurrection. The second being Noah, telling the story taken from the Old Testament of the man chosen by God to build an ark to save two of each animal before a great flood.

These films have so far held their own in the box office. Noah has so far received mixed reviews. The most criticized aspect of the film is the presence of sea monsters chronicled at one point in the film. This strays heavily from the traditional Bible story and is a prime example of Hollywood’s hand in the storyline. Some audience members have really liked the change, where others would have preferred the film without. “I think some aspects of the movie were far-fetched, and that was distracting for me.” Said one audience member Lauren Byrne. “I’m really familiar with the original story, so the changes really threw me off.”

These two films are not the end of the Biblical film trend. Many more films are expected to be released within the next 5 years. One of the films following the iconic story of the Virgin Mary, showing her early life as well as her journey to Bethlehem and the birth of Jesus. This film is supposed to serve as the prequel to The Passion of The Christ and meld seamlessly to the beginning of that film.

Another profiling the life of Moses, his rise to a prophet and savior of the Israelites as well as his pilgrimage to the promise land. Iconic director Steven Spielberg proposed this film stating that many “glossy” versions of Moses’s story have been released. But this film will be “gritty” and will serve as an accurate, raw portrayal of the hardships and drive of the warrior that saved the Israelites from Egyptian slavery (IMDB).

A non-confirmed film rumored to be in the works is the story of David and Goliath. This film would follow the story of the shepherd David and his battle with the feared Goliath. Confirmation of the film is still awaited, but I personally can definitely see the potential of this story-line for a successful movie.

It will be interesting to see how these stories are understood and brought to life by Hollywood. Because they are so traditional and well-known, it will also be interesting to see how the public accepts these films and the discrepancies that are bound to happen through the screen-writing and reinterpretation of the stories.

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Draft Day movie review

I recently went and saw the new sports movie Draft Day. It was hailed by critics as the next best thing in sports movies and was compared to 2011’s Moneyball. There was a lot of hype surrounding this movie leading up to the release as they were doing promos on all the sports networks and having the stars of the movies appears on shows such as Sportscenter or NFL Total Access. Being a huge sports fan, and the movie being about football, I myself was really excited for this movie….and I was a bit let down. Jeff Collier, my director of the sports show that I produce here on campus said “I was fully expecting it to be terrible, and well, it wasn’t terrible but it wasnt the best either.”
The movie had a great cast lineup with Kevin Costner as the lead man playing the general manager of the Cleveland Browns, Jennifer Gardner who plays his secret girlfriend who is also the salary cap manager, Denis Leary who plays an egotistical coach who clashes with Costner’s character Sonny Weaver Jr. There were also many cameos from football TV shows and analysts such as Mike Mayock, Chris Berman, Deion Sanders, and even current Houston Texans running back Arian Foster had semi-main role in the movie. Over all, I thought the acting in this movie was actually really good. They got across the emotion, grittiness, tension and every other emotion that comes with the craziness that is draft day.
As good as the acting was, I felt the story was a little wonky. Being a major football fan, where football takes up about 95% of my life, I kind of know and understand how the front offices of NFL teams work coming up on draft day. There is a lot of preparation that goes into scouting; GM’s and head coaches have draft boards with six or seven players at each position. Through out the movie it seemed as if the coach and general manager only had scouting reports on 3 players. Another issue I had was the fact that the head coach and general manager and owner were never on the same page. In real life in the NFL, those three, or more specifically the head coach and GM are on the same page so close together that their words intertwine together because they are so close. There was also no panic from anybody in the war room. The movie start with 12 hours till the draft starts and the coach is just chillin at home, getting gas at the gas station, dealing with his mom, taking trips out to the practice field, taking breaks in a room to talk to his girlfriend, and so many other things. In the real world head coaches and GM’s are sleeping in the war room, if they sleep at all. There is another scene where some of the assistants are just messing around looking at a player’s Facebook and pictures. That doesn’t happen either.
As far as production quality, I thought it was just mediocre. They used a lot of really simple transition wipes, when they split screens with two people on the phone, you could tell they used some green screen and it was not very well edited. And finally they filmed a lot of footage from the actual draft last year to get the cameos and the real life setting which I thought was a great idea but there were a few scenes where, for instance the draft hadn’t started yet and they were showing potential draftees in the back waiting for their name to be called and in the background you can see the draft on TV and on that screen you can see that the actual real life draft was already in progress and a trade was being made and there was a ticker at the bottom with players that had already been picked. There were a lot of these minor things that could have been cleaned up in post-production.
Over all I thought Draft Day was a pretty solid movie. It was not the best football or sports movie I’ve ever seen but it was pretty good. Jeff Collier said “it was a good movie for football fans, but the actions of characters and some of the events that happened were too unbelievable for the average person. It’s also not a movie for just football fans. It’s simplified enough that anybody can follow and understand the movie. Although it is a bit predictable towards the end, I did enjoy how they pulled everything together for the climax. I would give Draft Day a solid B+.

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