By Mark DeGuzman
Skewed and Reviewed is back at the the 4th annual CinemaCon, a gathering of cinema owners and operators from around the world. From exclusive Hollywood product presentations highlighting a slate of upcoming films, to must-see premiere feature screenings, to the biggest stars, producers and directors, CinemaCon helps jumpstart the excitement and buzz that surrounds the summer season at the box office.
I had the opportunity to attend Paramount Pictures Opening Night. To me, the presentation wasn’t as great as the last few years. But it was mentioned that they have high hopes for three movies this year that will be hits: Hercules, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Transformers.
But what did pick it up, was the introduction of Dwayne Johnson and his introduction of his new upcoming movie Hercules. Dwayne entered from the back of the theater and into the crowd – shaking people’s hand and making the ladies scream. Finally getting on stage he talked about how he wanted to take the fans along and give his fans a behind the scenes look through social media, which of course brought in a lot of interest to the movie. He also mentioned that this is a story of Hercules finding himself and mostly the early stage of Hercules’ life. I was a bit disappointed with the clip they shared, since it doesn’t really tell me much about the movie, but another 1-2 minute trailer. We finally get to see his face and a little bit more. I’m sure this trailer will probably go live pretty soon. The graphics look good and the action was good, but on the other hand, how many Hercules movies do they really need to recreate?
Coming out introducing TMNT on Segways was Will Arnett and David Cross. Will Arnett joked around about his character being the love interest of Megan Fox’s character, April O’Neil. In movie reality, his character just has a fascination on Megan’s character. David Cross on the other hand, was rolling around on the Segway on stage and didn’t really say much. It was mentioned, for this movie, that “heroes weren’t born heroes, they were created”. I think that line was repeated so many time that it kind of got stuck in my head. Again, I was a bit disappointed with the clip, it was short, and about 2 minutes long. But we finally got to see what the turtles look like. I do know that they did keep Michelangelo’s voice and sense of humor. It does seem that it’s more action packed and a bit more brutal than the original. Then again, with it being part of Nickelodeon, I’m sure they’ll keep the violence tempered, but it’s definitely a movie I wouldn’t mind seeing.
They highly anticipated Transformers 4 was introduced by Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz, Jack Reynor and Ella (Mark Wahlberg’s daughter who’s not in the movie, but just backstage). Mark mentioned that even though that this may be a continuation, it’s set far enough that this is a whole different approach and a different story line. That this could be better than the first 3. Watching a 5-10 minute preview of the movie, the graphics were really great, and since it is a Michael Bay movie, I’m sure the final product will have bigger special effects. It’s action packed as usual and in that short clip, it had a little bit of everything. I could see this being better than the first 3.
Paramount, did touch a little on NOAH, which is coming out pretty soon. They also showed clips of The Gambler, which also features Mark Wahlberg and The Almanac. I’m not to sure how the Spongebob Squarepants 2 in 3D will do, but I’m sure there are plenty of kids and teenagers and young adults who grew up on it that will probably want to see it.
