2. I Want To Know What The Fuss Is
My last point essentially has had a knock-on effect to this one cropping up when I’ve heard the movie discussed amongst my colleagues. It is a truth universally acknowledged that the majority of contemporary movies live or die based on word of mouth and their advertising campaigns, and here that the latter is weakly promoted and the former cannot exist as so few people are seeing Rock Of Ages in the first place to recommend it is really holding the flick back from any kind of substantial success.
Back in 2008, when Mamma Mia arrived and shocked everyone with its breakout success for a good couple of months, it proved to us that the process of positive word-of-mouth spreading across the world really could take musical films far in the charts. When you consider that that film only has a 51% average rating on Metacritic, and yet that I’m sure many fans of the genre would regard it as amongst their favourite films shows that the lack of word-of-mouth spreading around Rock Of Ages is preventing many people from even considering going to see it.
I have a feeling that in the years to come what many are coming to know as the Twittersphere will grow to encompass a far wider audience, and had that already happened then the generally positive vibe sweeping around it about Rock Of Ages might have helped it earn better. As it is, those who aren’t ‘caught up’ yet are relying mainly on critics’ scores, and the more that they do that, the less chance there is that these less-anticipated yet equally strong ‘indie’ movies (that I’m even having to use that term to describe what should have been a big-seller feels criminal) can survive and succeed. I’d far rather see a Rock Of Ages 2 than the infamous Transformers 4 in two years’ time, but thanks to sales, we all know which stars are coming back on stage, and I doubt they’ll be singing The Final Countdown anytime soon.
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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!!!!!!