comment #1

PopcornEyeglass says ...

Spider-Man 3 was pretty disastrous, lest you've forgotten the emo club dance number.

comment #2

Eloi Manning says ...

I saw it last night with the lady. In Times Square so there were quite a few teens/tweens about too. It was alright. It's really not bad at all. I'd not see it again, but it was no way a slog to get through. It felt a bit more polished and slick than the first one, and I kind of preferred the moodier lighting and music in Twilight. I don't know why they replaced Carter Burwell as his score was perfectly fine for the first flick - Desplat's was good but I never see the point in replacing a composer midway into a franchise. Surely the musical motifs help build a franchise identity? Star Wars would have suffered if they bumped John Williams after part one.

Anyway, it was silly and comical in parts, but at least some of it was intentional. I wish they included her high school friends more as they grounded the silliness a bit. The scenes with Anna Kendrick and the boy who pukes were both quite entertaining. Even her Dad kept things from being too daft at times. But on the whole it wasn't a bad way to spend a couple of hours. The teenage girls sitting behind me laughed at some of the stupid bits - especially the scene where Bella and Edward frolic through a field of flowers that looked like a laundry detergent commercial. But everyone seemed fairly entertained.

The cast was fine. Lautner was good - the perfect charismatic contrast to mopey Edward. And the sequence with the Thom Yorke song was pretty stylish.

So yeah. Not bad, not great, but a damn sight more entertaining and tolerable than the likes of Terminator Salvation, G.I. Joe and Transformers 2.

comment #3

jbf81 says ...

I am not getting the hate for this film, its because its made for girls? I am no fan, but please. STOP THE FUCKING DRAMA. In a year that where we had GI JOE, TRANSFORMERS II, YEAR ONE, 2012 etc, this is NOT the worst film ever.
I get that Pattinson is awful, the stroey is crap and the hype is annoying, but can we let the girls go crazy for one film, since the rest of the year is made for boys?

comment #4

K. Bowen says ...

Jeff, you're seriously asking this question in a post in which you mention Spiderman 3?

Ditto on the Thom Yorke sequence, also liked the 1080 season-changing time-elapse shot.

I knida liked New Moon, but I see why others didn't, and I've soured on it a bit since leaving the theater. But it's far, far from a disaster.

comment #5

K. Bowen says ...

I mean, there' nothing nearly as "dorky high school romance" in New Moon as the waffle-cooking sequence in Spiderman 3.

comment #6

arch451 says ...

I also saw it last night with the lady. The theater was half empty; I'm thinking all the die-hard fans saw it on Friday.

Anyway, it was a better film than anticipated (perhaps slightly better than the first) but I would never have the patience to watch it a second time.

comment #7

Eloi Manning says ...

I did think the "October," "November," "December" captions on the time-elapse sequence were stupidly unnecessary.

My girlfriend said she felt the whole Italy sequence was rushed and that a lot of the plot was excised for time reasons. I must admit I wasn't really following what was happening at that point - got confused by all the talk of each vampire having certain magical powers or whatever.

comment #8

Sabina E says ...

Has there ever been a worse film that has made box-office history? I'm asking.

Transformers? GI Joe? I don't know if they made history, though. Such awful, horrendous movies, they don't even deserve to be called FILMS.

comment #9

Deathtongue_Groupie says ...

Not sure why you seem so flabbergasted at this, Jeff. Well, it is box office related and that is your Achilles heel when it comes to industry reporting.

Look, the top films will soon be some of the crappiest made because in order to get that many butts in the seats they will be the ones that appeal to the "American Idol"/basement common-denominator/Eloi who just can't wait one week. As home theaters have become more and more sophisticated, great numbers of serious film goers have opted to simply wait the 4 months to see all but a few. The economy is helping to speed that up.

Here at the Groupie household, we simply looked at the economics and decided that our old weekly night at the movies was better spent on a bigger TV and Netflix. The wife and girls went to see NEW MOON yesterday for a matinee.

comment #10

nightheat says ...

Aren't all "hollywood blockbusters" inherently awful populist/mainstream films? Spiderman 3? I didn't even watch that mess. Same goes for Pirates.

Face it Wells, you're just picking on it.

comment #11

actionman says ...

Pirates 3 runs circles around Spiderman 3. Pirates 3 had an edge, a distinctly surreal flavor, and had a fantastic performance from Depp.

Spiderman 3 was horrible.

comment #12

Eloi Manning says ...

Got to love this: http://chud.com/articles/articles/21646/1/STEADY-LEAK-TIMES-LIKE-THESE/Page1.html

Key quote: "I mean, I'm trying to make movies. Genre movies. Ones that are good and smart that contribute to the foundations they pay respect to and exist because of."

Like the giant shark movie MEG and GRIZZLY PARK? Fuck, Nunziata is a clueless moron.

comment #13

btwnproductions says ...

Not at all. There are some terrific blockbusters: SPIDER-MAN 2, for example. But this year's strike me as particularly pandering and marketing-driven.This is the dreariest, lowest common denominator Thanksgiving movie crop I can recall--with that Williams/Travolta thing still to open--and I think it's just goiing to get worse.

comment #14

erniesouchak says ...

If you want to talk about terrible movies that have made ghastly amounts of money, you have to talk about "Titanic."

comment #15

btwnproductions says ...

Someone always shouts "TITANIC is terrible!" in these blockbuster threads, and I shout "TITANIC is brilliant!" right back. Having staked out these irreconciliable positions, perhaps we can move on. :)

comment #16

Mr. F. says ...

Here's a question for discussion: will it EVER be possible for a non-sequel to be released and have this kind of opening weekend gross?

The only time I imagine it would ever be possible would be for a very rare pre-existing property that's utterly gigantic already -- think HARRY POTTER. Can't imagine an adaptation/continuation of a TV series would ever be as big. But from everything I've heard about the Twilight book series, the first one is more popular and a better read... yet the first movie opened to good numbers, this one to record-setting.

Would love it, just to see that it could be done, for a new movie to utterly smash expectations and be one of the biggest openers ever... what would it take?

comment #17

The Winchester says ...

Transformers 2 is the most egregious offender to my senses of late. Spidey 3 has an amazing trainwreck quality to it, where you don't think it can get any more stupid and yet it delivers, culminating with the terrific scene where the hip modern teens dance to the Twist.

This New Moon looks boring. All I see from the ads are shots of trees and teens looking at each other in those trees. Then more trees. I feel that if it doesn't deliver any Ewoks in those trees, I'm not going to have much interest in it.

The top ten all time box office champs (for opening weekends) is all full of pre-sold properties made mostly in this decade. I agree with the sentiment that for a new movie to be a huge smash like that would be a true feat. Perhaps Avatar, but I sincerely doubt it. Hell, Titanic didn't break records right out of the gate, and it opened up against a James Bond flick.

comment #18

poseidon72 says ...

I'll never get the Hate for Spiderman 3 and for those who think Titanic is BAD movie - Why do you watch movies? Its one of the great movies of all time.

comment #19

btwnproductions says ...

At that level, unlikely. But at the lower end of the triple digits it's encouraging to see films like PARANORMAL ACTIVITY or (maybe) PRECIOUS swell into phenomenons, whether or not they appeal to you personally.

comment #20

Eloi Manning says ...

Spider-Man 3 wasn't a disaster on the level of Batman & Robin. But it was crap.

comment #21

dinovelvet says ...

Spidey 3 was like a wild rollercoaster, lurching between highs and lows for its entire runtime. I'll take that over a sexless vampire film that just sits there and flatlines for two hours.

Anyway, records, who needs 'em. We all know that some other heavily hyped piece of crap will break the record again within 18 months or so.

comment #22

The Winchester says ...

The hate for Spidey 3 stems more from disappointment and overstuffing and changing the films' own continuity to make everything seem relevant and tied together (aka Lucas Syndrome).

Remember Spiderman 3 was coming off the heels of Spiderman 2, widely regarded as the best comic book movie (until The Dark Knight came out). Batman and Robin followed the equally terrible Batman Forever, it wasn't as far a drop.

And Titanic is not a bad movie. It's just a movie I don't like.

comment #23

Jonathan Spuij says ...

I liked Spidey 3. It wasn't as good as the other two but there was enough to like. even love, about it.

And the New Moon Box Office is just shocking. Teenage girls are now a serious force to be reckoned with. Fanboys have some serious competition now.

comment #24

bfm says ...

Does anyone know what the biggest opener of all time was, when the film wasn't a sequel in a franchise?

comment #25

Jonathan Spuij says ...

Spiderman 1. 109 mln orso.

comment #26

Josh Massey says ...

Spider-Man 3 was the Patch Adams of comic book films. Truly one of the worst movies Hollywood has ever produced (and I was a big fan of the second one).

comment #27

baboo says ...

Any one of those Star Wars prequels, especially the final one, was just as awful and had worst acting than New Moon. The thing to cheer for is that young women (as well as their mothers) have become a force to be reckon with at the box office and perhaps better, more Wells-approved material will come out of that. The geeks have spoken and not all of them have gonads.

comment #28

Colin says ...

Spiderman 3 was bad but never was even close to Batman & Robin.

comment #29

Mgmax, le Corbeau says ...

"With Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest bumped out of the third-highest slot, it's also fair to say that New Moon now holds the distinction of being the most sluggishly-made, most agonizing-to-sit-through epic grosser of all time."

Oh, I think the Harry Potter series has a couple of contenders, too.

comment #30

Krillian says ...

Transformers 2 was one of the worst movies of the decade. And if New Moon can't pass $400 million, it'll hold the 2009 record. So......

comment #31

DeeZee says ...

The worst big-hit turkeys for me include ID4, The Lion King, Indy 4, WOTW, and Mission Impossible. Man, were those lame.

comment #32

BurmaShave says ...

Why does everyone shit on GI JOE? That was a cartoon that absolutely knew it was a cartoon. Complete with JGL's deranged Snidely Whiplash performance. I finally caught up with it on DVD and I was amazed how quickly it breezed by. Michael Bay and Chris Weitz could use some time in the Stephen Sommers Film School.

comment #33

BurmaShave says ...

And Dee, there's one film on there that absolutely doesn't belong. I think we both know what it is. It's fine if you want to shake hands with the devil, I just want to make sure you do it in hell.

comment #34

Rich S. says ...

See, that's the problem with these "zombie franchises." If you don' shoot 'em in the head, they just keep on coming.

In other words, rumors of the Twilight series' death were greatly exaggerated.

comment #35

JohhnyCanuck21 says ...

Spiderman 3 for sure. 1 and 2 were such well crafted films it only made the disastrous fall of S3 seem even more extreme. I expect to want to punch the screen when you see GI Joe or Tranformers...but with Spiderman you hope for the best of action/adventure only to get Emo dancing, omelet dancing, unnecessary butler exposition and just terrible storytelling all around.

comment #36

DeeZee says ...

Burma: Sorry, but MI is a paycheck wank-fest, compared to the original show, and DePalma knows it.