| Saturday, August 19, 2006 |
| My thoughts on...the Snakes on a Plane phenomenon |
 Snakes on a Plane opened offically yesterday (though there was a 10pm opening on Thursday for the impatient few), and everyone jumped at the chance to see it. Dates, D&D matches, major surgeries, all were put on hold so that people could see the highly anticpated movie. And no, seeing the movie was not the reason I didn't post yesterday. In fact, I was one of the four people who didn't see it. I published a post on the Snakes on a Plane hype, but I didn't explain the origins of the hype. Now, find out how a simple movie title sparked a cultural phenomenon. The title of the movie was leaked on the Internet last year, which built some buzz, even though the script and the cast were unknown. People were intrigued by the absurdly simple title, and most wrote it off as a cheesy B-grade movie. I was one of them. But when people learned that Samuel L. Jackson was the star, and that he was carrying his badass attitude along with his luggage, perceptions changed and enthusiasm skyrocketed. Fans made parodies, flash games, movie trailers, music videos, versions of the script, EBay items, blogs, fansites, memes, etc. No surprise there. Add some of the most feared creatures known to man, an actor whose been in many of pop culture's most memorable films, and throw in a painfully blunt title, and you've got a movie almost as ripe for parody as Star Wars. And to think, they were gonna name it "Pacific Air Flight 121!" If they did, people would probably write it off as another movie trying to cash in on 9/11.
But fun and joke aside, the title is brilliantly simple. It sells itself. What's the title of the movie? Snakes on a Plane. What's it about? Snakes on a Plane. What's the tagline? Snakes on a Plane. With a name like that, you know what to expect. No surprises, no disappointments. In fact the name was the reason Sam signed on the the movie, and threatened to quit if they changed it. Not everyone was looking forward to Snakes though. Some protest that it might give terrorists ideas, and some of them have planned to boycott Snakes. To them I say, get real! Which self-respecting terrorist would stroll into airoprt security with a giant, hissing crate? And with the new security measures in place, I doubt a terrorist can even smuggle a cheese sandwich nowadays.
So how was the movie received? Better than most expected. Rotten Tomatoes, Yahoo! Movies and IMDB have all given it high ratings. Fans say it was far better than expected, and skeptics say it was so bad, so cheesy, that it was actually good. From all reports, people had fun seeing Snakes, because the movie didn't take itself too seriously, so neither did you. Fans cheered at the snake deaths, jumped when that unexpected snake popped out of nowhere, and shouted along with Sam when he said his trademark line. All in all, a good movie.
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Posted by Leon
@ 2:42 PM
Permalink | Audiolink
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