Despite the “Watchmen” legal imbroglio which will cost them significantly, Warner Bros. are not dumb. In fact, their campaign with Zack Snyder’s film has been rather brilliant and the final masterstrokes were doled out in these last few weeks.
Something we read last week that seemed to be on the money and makes perfect sense now that we’ve seen “Watchmen,” first hand: Warner Bros. were brilliant to screen this in advance for partisan geeks only and let traditional media in at the last minute. We’re starting to believe they knew they had a dud on their hands, but also realized it would play well to their constituency. So the early reviews gushed and creamed their jeans and now the good damage is done. Traditional media — last night, practically every critic in New York and L.A. saw the film, the elite (NYTimes’ A.O. Scott), the not so elite (us) all lumped together — will run their reviews today, tomorrow and Friday and by then even if they deservedly savage the film — which we believe many will do — it will be far too late to make a dent in the positive noise already generated. They mounted a juggernaut and it’s in full forward motion. Nothing can stop it now.
David Poland hinted at this canny and wise move on WB’s part last week.
“As I have pointed out a couple of weeks ago, [Warner Bros.] are right not to show the film to people they think will draw attention to some of the R-rated issue and get play in the Traditional Media with those observations. It has issues and the longer they can wait for those issues to become public somewhere other than on geek sites, the better the opening weekend. It’s the right call. It’s a bit chicken shit… especially if the film is 70% as good as Harry & Drew would have you believe – but it is the right call because they need to open the movie and critics will do nothing to help or hurt… but the big blue cock and the extreme violence and the sex scene might. Duh.”
Duh indeed. Most films that are reviewed last minute start to generate backlash and whispers of failure. That’s basically the case, but it’s too late now. This is not a new or novel concept — screening faulty films to critics last minute — but with the lawsuit fallout, too much was at stake. The review campaign was meticulously crafted, including even the “hey, I’m not a journo!” Time review written by someone who is evidently a real adult male. WB did the job and did it right. Congrats to them, but more discerning viewers might want to wait for the reviews, before you lay down your hard-earned cash.