As some of you may know I am married to who used to be (no insult meant to him at all) one of the top movie web site webmasters out there. Corona’s Coming Attractions was there before even the word ‘blog’ existed. To say that the online media world for film has changed since that site started would be a serious understatement.
While my husband has been seeing the changes for a long time and their effects on movie news reporting, I think this really hit when I saw the link to Today’s Parent magazine’s review of Star Trek: Into Darkness today. While I am glad to see that the non movie nerd world is recognizing the variety of film genres out there that appeal to child and adult alike and while yes, the movie is only rated PG (parental guidance), I am still a bit boggled to see this review at all in a parenting magazine.
Iron Man is the perfect example of the now mainstreaming of what used to be ‘those movies’ for those people. Sci fi, action and fantasy movies have always made big dollars at the box office, but the core fans were always those em NOT reading Today’s Parent. Until we all had kids that is…..and that is a HUGE part of it is it not? All the comic nerds and geeks are having families of their own and are happily sharing their love of the genre with their children.
With Disney being the corporation over Marvel Film, super heroes are no long for the comic geeks. Now we can see Iron Man’s costumes at Disneyland, and MOM bloggers get red carpet premier invites. With barely a movie webmaster to be seen. I saw more buzz from the mom blogger communty for Iron Man than the comic and movie sites combined. My husband does get tickets for pre-screenings of films in town but I have noticed that more and more it is bloggers and those ever present MOM bloggers who are getting the invites to the screenings probably with a lot more ease than the core movie webmasters are nowadays. Bizarrely I am not on the mom blogger radar for film promotion apart from kids stuff which is weird when you know me.
My biggest concern is for those not familiar with sci fi, comics, and so on, is that there seems to be an assumption that these films are fine for kids and the shock when they are not. Hence why I boggle at reviews like the Today’s Parent one with its emphasis on the violence in Star Trek. The judgemental person inside me wants to ask what sort of rock are you hiding under that you would not KNOW there would be violence in an action/sci fi film. Or that indeed that it is for kids.
Is that harsh of me?
It is strange. I have grown up loving sci fi and fantasy. I love the genres and love my comics and the too many books we have stuffed in our house My husband and I met because we both loved the same movies. We attended comic conventions like the massive San Diego Comic Con before it was the movie con for non geeks to see the stars live that it is now. That WAS something different, but now…..now it is just part of the mainstream world of entertainment. I don’t quite know how I feel about ‘fitting in’ so well now to the norm. 🙂
The Mom Influence now knows no boundaries. We are legion.
My husband was a keen comic book reader in the 60s and 70s. My three year old boy was given a book with 12 matching super hero mini statuettes. This prompted his interest in super heroes. He enjoys discussing them with my husband and I always refer my twins to dad for in depth details about each character. For Halloween I hand stitched him a Batman costume. It was a lot of fun to create.
I can understand what you mean about an interest going mainstream. At least it’s not the equivalent of hearing your alternative choices from the 80s made into elevator music. Now that really doesn’t sit well with me.