DVDebacle.
So, over at Tor.com I talk about the Repo! DVD and how the normal DVD buyers are getting shafted in favor of a more goodies-laden Blu-ray. This might be indicative of a greater trend, but the even GREATER trend is the rabid fanbase that has propelled this movie from a straight-to-DVD movie to a movie with an ongoing and relentless self-promotional tour.
As someone who owns every iteration of the Lord of the Rings DVDs, I sympathize with Repo! fans who are facing either plunking down for that Blu-ray player or waiting until the inevitable Director’s Cut comes out in eight months and they have to drop another 35 bucks or something. Plus, a mobilized and organized online fandom can clearly accomplish a lot. Grassroots: not just for politics any more!
However, lest you think I have mellowed on my earlier position, I have not. I still think the movie was terrible in a way I couldn’t even enjoy (and that should tell you something, because holy crap, there are plenty of shitty movies I have enjoyed). There are a few catchy hooks, but they float on a sea of badly-lyricized and poorly-composed music that disappoints a plot that disappoints the talent that disappoints the truly awesome concept, and it ends up as hollow and wrecky as an abandoned farmhouse. (The endless smugness of the movie’s creators in all the promo material I saw prior to my screening did not help endear me to the movie, since announcing you set out to create something “cool” is a pretty good indicator of a lot of things. A loooot of things.) However, the principle of the thing is that shutting out DVD customers is sort of biting a hand that feeds you and only has twenty dollars’ allowance a week, and if it doesn’t go to you, it’s going somewhere else, you know?
