Well as you are probably aware, Warners has decided not to screen the film to the press, and last I heard there will be no radio promotion screenings etc. So what's to keep secret? I mean the trailer kicks major ass, surely it can't be that bad... right? Well, I remember the first test screening of AVENGERS that took place in Pheonix, Arizona. People chimed in with little nuggets, tiny reports about how bad the film sucked. One guy took a poll in the men's room, while a group of guys let their precious bodily fluids flow. According to the informal pollster, 9 out of 10 hated it. So what about that 1? Well, we heard from him, after a screening in California. He said the audience hated it, but that they didn't 'get' it. Ever since I have believed that this might be one of those films that mass society despises, but that for some reason it works for me. But then the last time Uma Thurman climbed into a superhero/villian type film... Ahem.... it didn't work out to good. So here comes, probably the last review you'll see before this film is released. And this person HATES it!!! Que sera sera, eh Warners?
First time sender here, though I read your stuff everyday. Just wanted to add my two cents to all the stuff I've been reading on the net about The Avengers not having critics screenings and the tales that they don't even have a print of it yet.
I saw a trade screening of it this week and it looked awfully finished to me. It even had a Practical Magic trailer attached to it which I don't think they would have bothered with if it was an incomplete work print! I think Warners is just running scared because they have, once again, a film that is so bad they are hoping to reap whatever they can from opening weekend and then hope for the best on video. The movie is really abyssmal, Harry. Its incoherence is only matched by the utter lack of enthusiasm by any of the actors working in the film. If Ralph Fiennes underplayed Steed anymore than fe already does, he would disappear from the screen altogether. Uma is just plain silly trying to be an upper-class British scientist. And watching Sean Connery attempting to chew the scenery as Lord August just makes one want to rush home and pull out of their James Bonds and see how much better at playing a suave, sophisticated hero he was than Fiennes could ever hope to come close to.
At some point Warners is going to get its shit together and heads will roll for the atrosities they have unleashed onto the filmgoing public this past year!
Just call me Video Guy.
