Depending on where your box office allegiances lie, you may or may not have heard of the recent film adaptation of West End and Broadway musical Rock Of Ages. If you have, then chances are you might have given it a miss since its June 16th release as a result of the 47% critics’ average on Metacritic or indeed the 41% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes- you certainly wouldn’t be in the minority, seeing as the new flick has been steadily dropping down the charts nationwide.
Hold up for just a few moments, though, as I have reason to state that you’re wrong to dismiss this new musical instalment so fast. There are a number of reasons why Rock Of Ages actually seems to have confused critics, and indeed why this source of confusion and alleged mediocrity may have skewered their ratings for the film. If you as a film viewer just open your mind to the idea of seeing it and heed the five justifications I’m about to give you for doing so, then you may just be surprised to find you’ll have stumbled upon one of the Summer Of Film’s surprise hits…
1. Wanted Serious Or Alive
One primary factor of film critiques that are laid upon us from the professionals nowadays is that of how seriously a film takes itself and how efficiently it applies its dark and mature tones to its direction and narrative. You only need to look at some of the harsh 3-star reviews for Avengers Assemble with its peppy, upbeat yet brilliant superhero antics, scores quite likely based on the fact that comic-book films are rarely taken seriously by critics, to see that even if a film has gained mass approval from its mainstream audience that does not necessarily mean critics will react to it in the ‘right’ way.
While I’m not trying to say any critic is fundamentally wrong in their own opinion (as long as they put the evidence there, I’m willing to accept any viewpoint), I cannot deny by any stretch of the imagination the profound influence that review scores can have on consumer appeal for products and entertainment releases. As a gamer too, I see this influence demonstrated on a regular basis in the charts, but film-goers aren’t exactly averse to checking how well new flicks have done in the papers and online before shelling out around a tenner at their local cinema.
In this respect, Rock Of Ages suffers right from the off from the low-to-average review scores it has received, and to me many of the reviewers of the film so far have missed the point as to this being a fantastic homage to classic rock (i.e. the real stuff, not some of the utter rubbish ‘rock stars’ produce nowadays). This would not be a problem in my perspective if as with the likes of other musical films such as Hairspray and of course Mamma Mia, fans of the genre rolled out in full force in spite of the middling reviews, yet that ROA is getting so little attention from film fans despite actually boasting a fantastic set list and great turns from celebs like Russell Brand and Tom Cruise and newcomers Julianne Hough and Diego Boneta is a real shame. I would wager that it more than matches up to those other aforementioned musical big screen successes, and provides a neat contrast to next year’s deeper musical adaptation Les Miserables.
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6 Comments
I don’t feel they did enough to sell this film and I haven’t heard anyone mention it in conversation at all. The trailer did look interesting though, maybe its worth a second look.
Totally agree with this, I thought it was ace, despite what critics had suggested. The problem is, it’s supposed to be a fun film, and critics expected it to be the next Grease.
WB totally blew the Publicity stuff on this one. All of those faces and characters splashed over the Century City mall (I can’t call it Westfield) were idiotic. With the exception of Cruise and Baldwin, nobody knew the people or the characters. The film, is nothing but masterful, Cruise putting himself directly and– poignantly–masterfully in the line of fire here. I’ll bet he’d do more advance work on who Diego Boneta is and why the “dancing with stars” young woman needs some coaching on her interview “revelations”. I am completely guilty of: seeing the film twice, downloading the “alblum” on iTunes, and of giving props to Mr. Cruise for reasons other than his skills at blowing things up.
Rock of Ages received a marmite reception from the critics. I attended the press screening of it and listening to people coming out of the cinema they seemed to enjoyed it as much as me. But it then amazed me why it received such mixed reviews, either 4 stars from the likes of The times & The Sun to two stars from most of the other press.
For me it has all the elements of a fun night out at the cinema, great music and cast, in these times of doom and gloom Hadn’t enjoyed a film as much in the cinema since the first Hangover film.
Some critics have questioned the casting of Cruise and Brand but I think both are cast well Cruise surprising us again after his role in Tropic Thunder doing something completely out of what we would expect from him. Very similar to John Travolta in Hairspray.
For some reason this didn’t hit like Mamma Mia and Hairspray (with the same director) did. Critics aside, people just aren’t interested….the thing is tanking hard both in the U.S. and the international markets.
If not the movie itself, what is the difference? Main choices seem to be either marketing ot overall appeal of the concept within the musical genre.
I saw Rock Of Ages before even reading Tom Buxton’s excellent comments. I totally agree as I loved loved Rock Of Ages. The movie was fantastic, the entire cast fab especially Tom Cruise who outdid himself again!! Two freaking fun filled hours of fabulous music, dancing, love, and laughter. Awesome! The so called critics are full of s–t as always!!!!!!