Friday Box-Office: Teen Weepie Crushes Cruise

Random Argument Man

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Ryan Hughes said:

vid87 said:
His novels Looking for Alaska and Paper towns are mostly deconstruction of the "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" tropes. An abundance of Katherines was very insightful about what it's like to be a teenage prodigy who has weird conceptions of life.

Basically, when you're reading a John Green novel, you expect deconstructions of tropes, deadpan snarking and a different look at teenagers.

I recommend the Fault in our Stars for a read. If you want to read a "young adult" novel that doesn't feel like the stereotypical teenage fantasy, John Green is your guy.

Oh god, three posts defending the movie, the book and the author?.I'm a fan?. Oh god! Don't panic! It's not like I'm one of those typical Sherlock fans?WAIT! I AM! OH GOD! OH GOD! OH GOD!
 

Ryan Hughes

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RJ 17 said:
That said, even if he was still as relevant and popular at ever this movie STILL wouldn't have stood a chance. "Young Adult" novel movies are all the rage these days...that's why these bullshit hack-authors just trot out some lame trumped up story (Cancer Love........I mean really?) about romance and pain and every girl in the world will drag their boyfriend to go see it.

Seriously, how many times are we going to see a re-write of Romeo and Juliet?
James Baldwin said it best: "For while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn't any other tale to tell, it's the only light we've got in all this darkness."

Funny thing: Romeo and Juliet was not "created" by Shakespeare either, but was effectively a re-imagining of a rather cut-and-dry moral tale of the same name that was popular at the time, itself a re-telling of "Trollius and Cressida," which had been adapted by many, many writers in different cultures for centuries before hand. In what can be considered the post-classical era, the first major retelling is from Giovanni Bococcio, also the first European novelist, circa 1350. Geoffry Chaucer also had his own version of the tale. So, we have been telling and retelling "Romeo and Juliet" for the last eight hundred years under different forms and different names. I doubt we will be slowing down any time soon.

Random Argument Man said:
Oh god, three posts defending the movie, the book and the author?.I'm a fan?. Oh god! Don't panic! It's not like I'm one of those typical Sherlock fans?WAIT! I AM! OH GOD! OH GOD! OH GOD!
Nothing wrong with being a John Green fan. As I said, I am only familiar with his YouTube work, but I consider myself a fan as well. I usually don't read novels aimed at teens -though modern marketing often makes a mess of any attempt to actually classify genre any more- but I may give "Fault" a shot later this summer.
 

RJ 17

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Ryan Hughes said:
So, we have been telling and retelling "Romeo and Juliet" for the last eight hundred years under different forms and different names. I doubt we will be slowing down any time soon.
And there-in lies my problem. As a creative writer myself, I'm fully aware of the phrase "There's nothing new under the sun", that doesn't mean we shouldn't at least try to be original.

Above all else, though, my comment was more directed towards the fact that as a creative writer I really...REALLY can't stand this wave of "Young Adult Literature". It's essentially the "Ow! My Balls!" of writing. I don't blame the people who write it, I just hate the fact that it's so successful.
 

teamcharlie

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Poor teenage girls, missing out on the radness that is Edge of Tomorrow because...uh, the star isn't a girl, I guess? I got nothing. Maleficent looked dumb and I am absolutely bored of movies about pretty girls being told over and over and over that they're special when they are clearly, demonstrably not. I guess demographics are king over being simply the best, most entertaining thing in theaters.
 

faefrost

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I think a lot of the more dependable big budget action fans saw "Tom Cruise does Groundhog day with Robot Suits" and kinda went "frak no!" And decided to give this weekend over to the Wife/GF/etc. Much like After Earth before it, the personalities involved carry way too much baggage to be overcome. The audience does not want to watch 'Tom Cruise". he has stopped being an actor and instead become a character unto himself. And it is more and more becoming a character that we really don't have a pressing desire to revisit opening weekend. Even with the film getting good reviews the impression remains "ok maybe I'll have to check it out when it hits Netflix". It's not that the public hates Cruise so much as they have become completely and utterly apathetic to his movies. His presence elicits a "what else ya got?" from even the most hardcore action nerds. And when they are taking the weepy teenage cancer girl movie over it, yeah that should really be telling all involved something important.
 

MCerberus

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faefrost said:
The audience does not want to watch 'Tom Cruise". he has stopped being an actor and instead become a character unto himself.
Not helping: the feeling that Tom Cruise wants to play himself seemingly as some sort of author-insert AWESOME character in fanfictions. Also, Aliens + Tom Cruise = "you know what, I'm not even going to risk money going to Club Zenu"
 

Czann

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The *trailer* of this saccharine thing almost made me throw up. I can't understand why people like sentimentaloid schlock like this.

If my GF tried to force me to watch it I'd consider it grounds for a breakup.
 

DerangedHobo

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So is TFIOS basically this?
Nothing more tragic than a movie which uses sadness to oscar bait.
 

FPLOON

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Huh... You know, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense... kinda... TFIOS is one of those books/movies that you can't really judge until you see it for yourself... and, as it turns out, given who wrote the original book alone, you bet your ass it's going to be a good movie... Plus, apparently, we have reached the point where saying the name "Tom Cruise" makes whatever's attatched to it not worth watching anyway... even if you did the same thing you would do with TFIOS and not judge it before you even see it firsthand... Not to [truly] defend "Tom Cruise" or anything, but it's kinda sad how we are doing the same thing we would do with a movie we would call "Twilight bait"[footnote]I don't know the actual lingo term...[/footnote], only this time we're calling it "Tom Cruise repellent"[footnote]I no has lingo cred...[/footnote]...

Regardless, I'm happy that a movie that based on a book by a really cool guy is doing so well in theaters... I kinda wished the Tom Cruise movie was, at least, in second place beating dark[er] Sleeping Beauty, but again, "Tom Cruise repellent" has worked its magic once again, I guess... Seriously, I know that some people hate really don't like Tom Cruise the person, but at least judge the movie by the character he, for example, portrays in the movie instead... It [still] baffles me when I hear people not want to watch a movie that, if only described the premise without name-dropping a single actor, they would have watched "if not for X actor playing in it"... I thought we were suppose to separate the character from the actor playing said character most of the time, anyway...
 

pearcinator

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Tis a shame because I thought Edge of Tomorrow was the best movie so far this year.

People who are snubbing Tom Cruise because it's Tom Cruise are missing out on a great sci-fi movie!
 

Shinkicker444

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Don't think I could stomach Fault with Our Stars, not because it's bad per say, but because its deliberately out to depress you. You know someone's going to die just from that premise alone, and it will be soul crushing, just like that Red Dog movie, god I bawled my eyes out at the end of that. So yeah, I try and avoid those kinds of movies.
 

HardkorSB

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EoT has made over 60 million over the first week outside of the US so it's not doing too bad.
It's the same as with Pacific Rim - didn't do all that well in the US but made it up elsewhere.
A bad opening weekend in the US isn't a tragedy anymore.
The studios want a great opening weekend but there were good movies, even recently, which have made profit 6-8 weeks after (like The Wolf of Wall Street).

Edit:
Counting this weekend, the movie has already made $140 million worldwide.
It's doing good.
 

vid87

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DerangedHobo said:
So is TFIOS basically this?
Nothing more tragic than a movie which uses sadness to oscar bait.
I sincerely doubt they're aiming that high(?) - as far as I understood from the premise and trailer, it was just going to be a formulaic cash-grabbing tear-jerker in the vein of Nicholas Sparks, whose movies/books I've never seen/read, but I've read a fairly detailed breakdown via Cracked.com that showed how every story is a carbon copy with specific plot-points designed to give the illusion of depth and meaning to emotionally manipulate fans who don't pay enough attention to tropes. Knowing now that the author is John Green, I do wonder if he despite his respectability just crapped another teen drama like the rest or if he actually gave it something more.
 

DalekJaas

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Saw Edge of Tomorrow, pretty enjoyable. Liked it more than Godzilla and X-men. Of course I only saw it because our advanced screenings of How to Train Your Dragon 2 sold out while standing in line, but it was still a pretty good movie and not a disappointment.
 

Simalacrum

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Sniper Team 4 said:
I haven't even heard of...what is this movie called? Fault In Our Stars? I don't recall seeing a trailer for it or even hearing about the book it's apparently based on. I have no interest in seeing it whatsoever, but usually I'm at least aware of these types of movies.
Still going to see Edge of Tomorrow though. Bob said it's like a video game and I have been waiting for a movie to get that right. Does How to Train Your Dragon 2 really come out that soon? Oh man, where has the time gone...?

On a side note, is this going to be a thing for Bob now? Every Saturday where he reports the top grossing movie of the weekend?
So, basically one of the primary reasons why The Fault In Our Stars has been popular (both the movie and the book) is because the author, John Green, has a massive following on YouTube. And rightly so, actually! Him and his brother Hank run the Vlogbrothers YouTube channel (as well as like, a bajillion other channels), which create funny, informative and highly intelligent videos on a frequent basis. John had been a successful novelist even before they became YouTube superstars, but having that backing took his newest book and now the film to new heights.

Having said that, unless you're actually following that particular community, its quite likely you wouldn't have heard of the film or the book, as their campaign has mostly been lead by John Green just making videos every week that hundreds of thousands of people watch every week, who then tell all their friends about the film because Vlogbrother fans tend to be very involved and dedicated... every week. Which is more publicity than any film could ever hope for.
 

Darkong

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I tried reading The Fault in Our Stars and I had to give up, its just awful, the dialogue had me cringing, and hearing that "I'm a grenade" line in the trailer, dear God I didn't think it could get worse than it was reading it but nope, my expectations have been surpassed.

Then again, between that and seeing something with Tom Cruise in it... eeh, I'll go with the pretentious teen melodrama.
 

Erttheking

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Nothing like the classic "Everyone who likes what I don't like is a moron" Guys, is this movie like Twilight with it's subtle sexism, romanticizing of domestic abuse, racism, homophobia and all the other stuff? If not, maybe we should lighten up on what teenage girls like.
 

JUMBO PALACE

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pearcinator said:
Tis a shame because I thought Edge of Tomorrow was the best movie so far this year.

People who are snubbing Tom Cruise because it's Tom Cruise are missing out on a great sci-fi movie!
Exactly. I don't know why there's so much Tom Cruise hate in this thread. The dude turned down the crazy years ago and has been in some solid ass movies since. Edge of Tomorrow was a blast and I'd probably go see it again.
 

Nurb

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The Fault in Our Stars I think is an insult to anyone who has/has had cancer and trying to have a relationship, and I'm speaking as one who has leftover complications.

Not everyone is "lucky" enough to have "hot chick disease" where you need a tube to remind everyone a person is actually sick in your movie.