Well, I saw Snakes on a Plane yesterday. It was a solid B-movie—a combination of Speed, Anaconda and Passenger 57, and probably more fun than all three combined. Was it worth all that ironic Internet hype? Not really, and its box office showing (a modest $14 million) reflects that.
Snakes‘s mediocre box office take is yet another example of just how small and unrepresentative of the real world the blogosophere is. Clearly, the Internet community does not give the slightest indication of the situation on the ground. People with the time, money and inclination to write or read a blog or discuss topics at length online do not represent a very good cross-section of America.
That said, I think the execs who produced Snakes knew that they had a second-tier flick on their hands and that going along with the hype couldn’t hurt. In the end, it probably netted them an extra $1.4 million in preview night tickets. Of course, for the Snakes fans the film was always secondary, and I suspect it will sink very quickly.
But the filmmakers did do about as much as they could with the concept. You get to see snakes biting every conceivable body part (yes, every one). You get a gratuitous Mile High Club scene. You get Samuel L. Jackson swearing and generally being Samuel L. Jackson. And you’ll happily forget all about the film ten minutes after leaving the theater.
“People with the time, money and inclination to write or read a blog or discuss topics at length online do not represent a very good cross-section of America.”
Now wait a damn’ minute. (Sorry, this is a SoaP post – let me phrase.)
Now wait a muthaf’n minute. I have a muthaf’n wife, two muthaf’n kids, two muthaf’n dogs, a muthaf’n house on 1.5 acres of muthaf’n land, I muthaf’n vote, pay muthaf’n taxes, read the muthaf’n paper each muthaf’n day and maintain a muthaf’n Blog.
So what am I, mofo? Some kind of muthaf’n anomaly?
An anomaly? No. But I stand by my statement—I don’t think bloggers represent a very broad swath of the American public. Though I admit, I suppose it could be argued they represent the kind of person who would ever go see Snakes on a Plane fairly well.
In any event, as I said above, the film was always secondary to the hype. And I still think that, owing to the geeky circles I run in, I was much more aware of Snakes on a Plane than most people were.