Movie Website Updates for May 27 - June 2

June 2, 2005

During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner, The Perfect Man - Official Site.

The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Standard Universal website with the synopsis, cast and crew list and image gallery.

The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3-D
This site is inventive, but not enough of the features are active for a final judgement. The movie opens next weekend, so there's not much time to change that.

Après Vous
No changes from last week.

Bewitched
There's a new design for the flash site, and while this one has much more animation, it doesn't have as much heart. It's too standard.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The flash site launched this week and there's a lot of animation. The animations for the Character Bios are extremely well done and help reveal the characters' personality almost as much as the bios themselves. But after the bios, synopsis and downloads, the rest of the content is all marked coming soon, or worse. The information on the book is a broken link to RoaldDahl.com. Hopefully that will be fixed shortly.

Cinderella Man
No real changes from last week, but it is an award winning site so there doesn't need to be many changes.

Cry Wolf
The trailer is up, but there's way too much text to read to be effective. This could be a good movie, but it's going to be a tough one to sell.

Deep Blue
No changes from last week.

Fantastic Four
I still can't get the game to work for me. I thought it might be the pop-up blocker, but even with it turned off the game still doesn't work. Does it work for anyone else?

George A. Romero's Land of the Dead
The flash site is up, almost. Right now there's more content marked coming soon than actually on the site, but hopefully every week something new will be added. The synopsis, image gallery and trailer are there, leaving bios, production notes, TV spots, clips and, most importantly, a game marked coming soon. There's enough animation and sound to keep a surfer's interest (although the background music is too repetitive), and depending on how well done the game is, this could be a award-winner.

Herbie: Fully Loaded
The second game was added to the site, but it was no better than the first.

The Island
There's a new trailer that gives away way too much information. Any intrigue or suspense the movie might have is gone, leaving just a popcorn action flick.

Lords of Dogtown
This site has an amazing amount of content, and not just the usual features. Webisodes, movie clips, history of skateboarding and even a game. I just wish it had a little more style, especially more sound and animation.

Milwaukee, Minnesota
Has all the usual features, but a very unprofessional feel.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Meet the Smiths section was added to the site, but it's just two quasi-interactive clip trips that are way too similar to each other.

My Summer of Love
The full site is up with all the usual features, synopsis, bios, image gallery, trailer, etc. It's presented in a stylish way, with line drawings turning into photos and the background music adds to the mood.

The Perfect Man
As expected, the flash site launched this week. The site has the usual features: synopsis, production notes, cast & crew bios, image gallery and trailers (including two TV spots). There are a few extras, most notably the behind the scenes look, which clocks in at slightly more than 2 minutes and features clips and interviews. There are also a couple of personality quizzes that have plenty of sound and animation and make good use of video and audio clips from the movie. Overall the format is really well done with animated transitions, audio clips and background music comprised of clips from five songs. And since it's practically the only flash site that launched this week with more than half of its content online, it is the winner of the flawless Weekly Website Award.

Revolver
Just the teaser trailer so far, which is too much of a teaser to judge the film.

Rize
A couple of songs were added to the soundtrack section. Unfortunately you can't set them to be the background music while you explore the rest of the site.

Rock School
No changes in a while and that background music is way too repetitive, which is a shame for website about a rock school.

The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants
The friendship quiz was added to the site, but the clips are still marked coming soon.

War of the Worlds
Another trailer and another level to the game was added to the site. It's definitely the best trailer so far, but I'm still worried about the changes they've made from the book.

Submitted by:

Filed under: Movie Website Updates, War of the Worlds, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Fantastic Four, The 40 Year-old Virgin, Herbie: Fully Loaded, Bewitched, Cinderella Man, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The Island, George A. Romero's Land of the Dead, The Perfect Man, Lords of Dogtown, Cry Wolf, Rize, My Summer of Love, Revolver, Rock School, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D