| Summer Blockbuster Breakdown | |
by Susan Harr Entertainment Editor Summertime has always been an exciting time for movie buffs: studios take advantage of breaks in school and work schedules to release their biggest films to audiences seeking refuge from the scorching heat. This summer has already proven to be cinematastical with the release of Iron Man, Speed Racer, and The Chronicles of Narnia: Price Caspian. Yet with blockbusters like The Incredible Hulk, The Dark Knight, and Sex and the City on their way, we still have tons of movie mayhem look to forward to. |
“grew tired of licensing its characters (and losing profits) to studios and acquired $525 million in 2005 to start funding films itself.” Bouncing back from the previous box-office tank that was Hulk (released in 2003), they will release their new version, dubbed The Incredible Hulk, on June 13. Edward Norton will play the lead (Bruce Banner), much to the delight of comic book enthusiasts who were disappointed in the 2003 version. According to Moria, a film review site, audiences couldn’t get into the film because during the most important scenes, when Banner becomes the Hulk, Eric Bana looked like a “great big green cartoon figure.” According to the Marvel Web site, in this “new beginning” the movie will start with Banner searching for a cure to the gamma radiation that has poisoned his cells (as opposed to the 2003 version which was an origin story). According to Entertainment Weekly, the new Hulk film is said to remain truer not only to the comic book but also to the old Lou Ferrigno TV show. Dedicated fans are anxiously awaiting the debut, so on June 13, they can decide for themselves. This seems to be the summer of comic books with Speed Racer (it is a little-known fact that Speed Racer, based on Japanese anime, was made into a comic book in 1985 by Now Comics), Iron Man, and The Incredible Hulk all debuting within months of each other. Yet the one comic book-based film everyone is holding their breath for will come out on July 18. The Dark Knight, starring Christian Bale and the late Heath Ledger, promises to be box office gold. Its predecessor, Batman Begins, grossed over $200 million in the U.S. alone, according to boxofficemojo.com. The plotline is dark, as its title implies, so this one’s not exactly for the kids. Ledger will play the demonic joker that has been haunting audiences since the movie trailer was released. It may be difficult to watch the beloved fallen star onscreen but alas, the show must go on. In a summer full of action–packed mega–movies, Sex and the City offers quite a different experience. SATC “carries” audiences back to New York and into the lives of our four favorite glitterati. Spoilers are flying, but we won’t know until the May 30 debut: does Carrie marry Mr. Big? Did Charlotte finally have children? Is Miranda still happy with Steve? And was Smith able to tame the untamable Samantha? SATC has developed a cult of followers who are delighted to get a last bit of closure to the series, which ended its seven year run in 2004. Familiar with the writer’s love of open-ended questions, I doubt the movie will leave audiences with any definitive answers, but at least one look back at the fashionable quartet will be enough for me. There too many movies coming out this summer to give considerable attention to them all. Honorable mentions include: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (May 22), Get Smart (June 20), Hancock (July 2), and The X-Files: I Want to Believe (July 25). |
| Cellphones Ruining the Concert Experience? | |
| by Thor Christensen mct campus What if you gave a concert and the crowd refused to watch? It’s not as far-fetched as it seems. As more and more concertgoers fiddle with cell phone cameras and fidget with BlackBerries, some people say mobile technology is ruining the concert experience. “It’s extraordinarily irritating,” says Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame. “All these people holding up these horrid little squares of bright light.” “It’s like they’re not even there,” says jazz guitarist Bill Frisell. “It’s like, `Why don’t you put that away and listen to the music?’” “It drives me crazy,” says singer Steve Earle. “They have their use, but there’s definitely a price to pay.” It’s not just a case of cranky baby boomers griping about the young and the restless. Plenty of younger artists and fans are also getting fed up with the tech intrusion. “As a performer, it’s frustrating to look out and see a sea of cell phones instead of faces,” says Sleater-Kinney guitarist Carrie Brownstein. “There’s definitely a problem where people are so busy documenting the moment that they forget to just live in the moment.” Of course, pop concerts were awash in distractions long before the cell phone. In the early `60s, shrieking girls made it impossible to hear the Beatles perform. In the `90s, mosh pits made going to concerts a contact sport. “You never expect 100 percent of people’s attention,” says rapper Ice Cube. “You learn to take 80 percent.” But the levels seem to be rapidly shrinking thanks to “microboredom,” a term invented by, who else, a cell phone company to convince people they need to escape reality with their mobile gadgets. At concerts, microboredom usually means fans snapping dozens of photos of the band, the crowd and the stage lights. The ultimate disconnect comes when they take pictures of the pictures on the video screen. “Everyone has this strange archiving addiction now. It’s like they’re trying to pin a butterfly to a corkboard,” says Canadian singer Feist. “To me, a gig isn’t supposed to be for posterity,” she says. “It’s supposed to be a bunch of people tossed together in a room, making a mood, and then it’s over. You can’t see the world through a viewfinder.” Ray Davies of the Kinks sang about the problem 40 years ago in “People Take Pictures of Each Other,” a song about obsessive photo-takers trying “to prove they really existed.” But the existential crisis isn’t confined to photography. To some fans, a concert isn’t a concert until they’ve text-messaged their buddies about it. “It’s a really interesting trend, instead of clapping, they’re blogging,” said Michael Stipe, poking fun at the tech-addicted crowd at R.E.M.’s recent show at March’s South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. |
But not all musicians regard mobile technology as a buzz-kill. When cell phone use exploded in the late `90s, bands had fans wave them in the air to create a million-points-of-light effect. Suddenly, flicking your Bic was passe. Later, as text-messaging flourished, groups asked concertgoers to post messages on video screens. Today, some artists embrace the tech boom as a potential career boost. “My bottom line is communication,” says English rocker Billy Bragg. “If they want to capture a photo of me and send it to a friend who can’t be at the gig, I don’t have a problem with that.” Concert videos are the latest rage as fans flood YouTube with clips they shot using their cell phones and digital cameras. The videos are often so fuzzy and muffled they’re unwatchable. Still, some bands embrace them as free instant promotion. Bowling for Soup recently made up a song onstage and “that thing was on YouTube before I even got back home from the show,” says singer Jaret Reddick. “That’s just the way it is now.” In an age of multitasking, some wonder if electronic gadgets are really that much of a distraction or if the anti-cell phone brigade is just being crotchety. “Do you want people to be strapped to their seats, with their eyes pinned open and a jolt of electricity if their mind should stray?” says Police drummer Stewart Copeland. “Cell phones don’t bother me,” he says. “An audience that’s so excited it’s shooting the band with its cell phones is an audience that’s throbbing with the pulse of the band.” But is it really about a communal pulse? Or is it more about stroking your own ego? “I see people calling their friends and saying, `Hey! Guess where I am? I’m at the Roger Waters show,’ just so somebody somewhere can be impressed by them,” says Waters. “It’s about them showing off.” One solution would be to forbid fans from using phones during the show, a protocol already used at classical concerts, plays and movies. Then again, rock prides itself on personal freedom. Banning cell phones might seem totally un-rock `n’ roll. “It’s a personal choice. We shouldn’t say `you can’t have a cell phone,’” says Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney. “But it’s frustrating,” she says. “There’s a generational gap where people no longer know how to experience life without technology.” Music lovers can only hope they’ll learn. It may take decades, but some future generation is bound to hit the “off” button and rediscover the joy of focusing on the concert. “All these new toys, people have to play with them for a while,” says musician-producer T Bone Burnett. “But ultimately, they’ll figure out how dehumanizing they are.” |
