One of the ones, Hades abducted Persephone.008Zulu said:
I suspect it's because Satan has his job in the Christian set up, though.
Gods of Egypt Director Blames Critics For Box Office Failure
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I suspect it's because Satan has his job in the Christian set up, though.
His descent into mediocrity isn't something that's merely made up by critics. I don't see how hardly anyone watches Dark City and then sees this trailer and thinks he hasn't fallen off dramatically. Dark City has its issues, mostly to do with editing IMO, but the film was unique and interesting both in premise and execution. Meanwhile, this overwrought movie with its cheesy, cliche dialogue looks awful no matter who you are.
And that's it right there. Why did it fail? The trailer looked like a generic movie SyFy spits out on a weekend. Bad video game cutscene level CGI presenting what looked like the same movie we had already seen 6 times in the past 18 months alone. Including 2 Hercules's. Honestly it sure as hell didn't look like a Proyas movie. People had written it off as "likely garbage" long before any critic said a word, just on the basis of the awful uninspiring blue mess overly CGI trailer.Programmed_For_Damage said:
While I still would have liked to see some non-white people as leads in this movie, I do have to agree with this.tf2godz said:
Its fuckin horrid logic, but movie directors don't cast poc because they don't think that poc draw as well as white people. Having them be leads in a movie that bombs this spectacularly wouldnt do them any favors on that front.
Proyas is one of a special breed of people who cannot, for the life of them, take any sort of criticism no matter how badly needed or richly deserved. Every criticism is transformed into a personal attack or conspiracy and, when riled, they shoot back along those same lines.
The smartest thing a director can do is surround himself with people who are smarter and better artist than himself and listen to every word they say. They might have set him right on the "trailer looks terrible" or "don't cast ancient Egyptians as white" or "overuse of CGI special effects is what killed Star Wars" problems among others.
The smartest thing a director can do is surround himself with people who are smarter and better artist than himself and listen to every word they say. They might have set him right on the "trailer looks terrible" or "don't cast ancient Egyptians as white" or "overuse of CGI special effects is what killed Star Wars" problems among others.
I can't blame him in that respect. There are a bunch of forgotten blockbuster genres that directors have been trying to get out of retirement: The successful ones are comic book movies, pirates and space. These are the kind of movies that would spectacularly flop a couple of decades back, but now make for billion dollar franchises. Mad Max is a cult movie series that hasn't been relevant in decades, so who exactly asked for Fury Road? Doesn't matter, that film was great. Directors and producers are desperate to find the next thing to re-invigorate.Zontar said:
The problem is that they keep fucking it up. Failed ones include movies about the wild west, bible epics and (in this case) ancient mythology. I think I'd love a good Egyptian pantheon themed movie, but we got a bad one.
Why have one scapegoat when you can have them ALL?008Zulu said:
Did I miss any? I should work for Hollywood PR. Sometimes the drama surrounding a movie is better then the movie itself. I didn't even care about it before, now I just HAVE to see it. Was that their plan all along?
I can understand to some degree them not having actors of colour in pivotal roles for these kinds of movies. I mean it's not a historical documentary, it's escapism. But "whitewashing" deities? That's the kind of thing offering your first born can only remedy.undeadsuitor said:
How is $320,000,000 a good return on something that cost at least $150,000,000 to make? And that assumes marketing was covered in that figure - which it usually isn't. The Last Airbender was a critical and financial shit show with some changes small and annoying - the Aang to Oong thing for instance - to the major and plot derailing change implying the Avatar cannot have a family which is stupid because having a family is unlikely on a 12 year old's mind no matter how enlightened he is and it stomps to death one of the crucial reveals about Zuko and Azula.Slice said:Europeans are not the sum total of "International". The fact remains that it was a significant financial success, in addition to being a disgusting pile of shit. I would certainly expect that international in this case includes China, the Middle East, India, and so on. No one is looking at Western Europe and blaming you for Airbender (I hope).PBMcNair said:Implying Europeans like Shyamalans The Last Airbender
OT: That thing I'd only heard about due to peoples complaints bombed ?
Say it isn't so.
Wikipedia said:
I'll be the first to admit I'm not sure how accurate the figures Box Office Mojo have are, but it never says who got how much. See the studio doesn't see every dollar of those ticket sales: a substantial portion, especially in the first month, stays with the cinema chain. The longer a movie stays in cinemas with a consistent audience means the studio gets more money hence big returns for stuff like Avatar, Titanic and Star Wars TFA. So with that in mind I have two questions:Slice said:I'm sorry, are you asking how something that make its investors $150 million dollars JUST IN BOX OFFICE ALONE (not merchandising, or video sales, and so on) is a "good return"?Gordon_4 said:How is $320,000,000 a good return on something that cost at least $150,000,000 to make? And that assumes marketing was covered in that figure - which it usually isn't. snipped plot stuff I don't care aboutSlice said:Europeans are not the sum total of "International". The fact remains that it was a significant financial success, in addition to being a disgusting pile of shit. I would certainly expect that international in this case includes China, the Middle East, India, and so on. No one is looking at Western Europe and blaming you for Airbender (I hope).PBMcNair said:Implying Europeans like Shyamalans The Last Airbender
OT: That thing I'd only heard about due to peoples complaints bombed ?
Say it isn't so.
Wikipedia said:
It's doubling your money, and then more. I don't know what fantasy you entertain about the world, but that's an astoundingly good return on any investment.
1. How much of that 320mil did the Universal studios get?
2. If it was an unqualified success, why wasn't there a sequel?
I mean if I'm wrong, hey, I'm wrong - it's happened before and I'm sure it will happen again - but I don't think in this case that I am.
I've learned that you can't really trust anyone when it comes to movies. Just too subjective. I've had people state their dislike of X or Y movie; yet, I enjoyed them a lot. Professional critics, though... I really wouldn't even entertain the notion of listening to them. They seem extremely hard to please (like Yahtzee).
Anyway, this movie didn't look like anything special, but I still thought that it at least warranted a watch. It looked like mindless entertainment; and sometimes, that's all you want out of a movie.
Anyway, this movie didn't look like anything special, but I still thought that it at least warranted a watch. It looked like mindless entertainment; and sometimes, that's all you want out of a movie.
I'm not sure if that's accurate. Movies like this have done quite well in the past, especially during the Harryhausan Era (Sinbad, Clash Of The Titans, etc...), we've also had TWO Percy Jackson movies which did okay apparently. This is to say nothing of the success of the "Mummy" movies. I think the concept here was perfectly acceptable to "General Audiences".Zontar said:
I think the director is right to an extent, that he was hurt by all of the pre-emptive left wing critics going off about the white washing which shouldn't have even been a thing. That said, no amount of pre-release political bashing is going to do this much damage... and really the problem is that this movie didn't look all that good in it's trailers, and by all accounts wasn't that good in it's entirety. The guy made a 140 million dollar bomb, and thought it would be good, that's not unheard of. Raging on social media isn't going to help the movie though. Of course given how much he lost, the director might be out of a job.
Wow.. that's a lot of salt.
What's particularly funny is that this is the same guy who wrote and directed Dark City, a film which was a) fucking awesome, b) absolutely loved by critics and c) still a box office failure.
Films can be critically panned and still financially successful. Conversely, films can be critically adored and still bomb hard. When a film is both critically panned and has a weak box office, however, it's generally a sign that it's just not a very good film. I don't think Proyas has anything to prove in this regard.. we know he can do good work, but it's rare for a director to get through a career without making a bad film, and this lack of grace about it is both surprising and unnecessary.
What's particularly funny is that this is the same guy who wrote and directed Dark City, a film which was a) fucking awesome, b) absolutely loved by critics and c) still a box office failure.
Films can be critically panned and still financially successful. Conversely, films can be critically adored and still bomb hard. When a film is both critically panned and has a weak box office, however, it's generally a sign that it's just not a very good film. I don't think Proyas has anything to prove in this regard.. we know he can do good work, but it's rare for a director to get through a career without making a bad film, and this lack of grace about it is both surprising and unnecessary.
I actually thought this movie sounded pretty good based on the first few lines of the Wikipedia plot summary and after seeing the TV trailers...
...but that full length trailer look BAD. I can't even put my finger on why, but I just thought it looked terrible.
Then after reading the director's post saying that anybody that doesn't like it doesn't think for themselves or make up their own opinions, well, that made me lose the little remaining desire I had to watch this movie.
...but that full length trailer look BAD. I can't even put my finger on why, but I just thought it looked terrible.
Then after reading the director's post saying that anybody that doesn't like it doesn't think for themselves or make up their own opinions, well, that made me lose the little remaining desire I had to watch this movie.
Well blow me down. After the shit-show that was the original they're handing over the sequel reins to the same idiot? And with almost half decade between them, in which a new Avatar has been and gone, this is probably the very opposite of striking while the iron is hot.Slice said:You're wrong, and in fact if you just google "Avatar Sequel" and any spelling of Shamalamadingdong you'll see that a sequel is already greenlit, with him directing again.Gordon_4 said:I'll be the first to admit I'm not sure how accurate the figures Box Office Mojo have are, but it never says who got how much. See the studio doesn't see every dollar of those ticket sales: a substantial portion, especially in the first month, stays with the cinema chain. The longer a movie stays in cinemas with a consistent audience means the studio gets more money hence big returns for stuff like Avatar, Titanic and Star Wars TFA. So with that in mind I have two questions:Slice said:I'm sorry, are you asking how something that make its investors $150 million dollars JUST IN BOX OFFICE ALONE (not merchandising, or video sales, and so on) is a "good return"?Gordon_4 said:How is $320,000,000 a good return on something that cost at least $150,000,000 to make? And that assumes marketing was covered in that figure - which it usually isn't. snipped plot stuff I don't care aboutSlice said:Europeans are not the sum total of "International". The fact remains that it was a significant financial success, in addition to being a disgusting pile of shit. I would certainly expect that international in this case includes China, the Middle East, India, and so on. No one is looking at Western Europe and blaming you for Airbender (I hope).PBMcNair said:Implying Europeans like Shyamalans The Last Airbender
OT: That thing I'd only heard about due to peoples complaints bombed ?
Say it isn't so.
Wikipedia said:
It's doubling your money, and then more. I don't know what fantasy you entertain about the world, but that's an astoundingly good return on any investment.
1. How much of that 320mil did the Universal studios get?
2. If it was an unqualified success, why wasn't there a sequel?
I mean if I'm wrong, hey, I'm wrong - it's happened before and I'm sure it will happen again - but I don't think in this case that I am.
But you're right, they're doing another one; can't fathom why but there it is.