Movie Website Updates for May 13 - May 18
May 18, 2005
Note: As discussed earlier, this is the abridged edition with only new sites, (placeholder or flash sites) and the films being released this week. Next week this column will include all the minor updates for the past two weeks and should be longer than normal and the week after that it should return to normal.
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, New Police Story - Official Site.
The Da Vinci Code
Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist
Don't Come Knocking
The Great Water
The Island
Junebug
New Police Story
Rent
Sex, Cocktails and Politics
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
The Talent Given Us
Zu Warriors
Just the synopsis, poster and teaser trailer so far. I don't know what I was expecting out of the teaser trailer, but it left me cold. I'm not writing it off, but it will take a lot more to convince me.
Most of the usual features are here, synopsis, production notes, cast & crew bios, image gallery. But there's not trailer.
Typical Sony Classics placeholder site with an image gallery and the press kit.
This site have most of the usual features, (there are no bios for the cast and crew) with a bit of sound and animation, but it's a slow loading site for what's there.
The flash sited launched and while it just has the synopsis, image gallery and trailers, (both domestic and international) there is also a separate site for Merrick Biotech, and I'm a sucker for these types of side endeavors. So far the Merrick site just has a video introduction, written message from Dr. Merrick and some press. It's got style and potential.
Typical Sony Classics placeholder site with an image gallery and the press kit.
Arg. This site is taking forever to load. It is from Hong Kong so the speed is obviously going to be an issue but it's taking 3 minutes so far. Hopefully if the film gets a North American release date it will have the site on a closer server. When the site finally finished loading it was mostly worth it. The usual features are there, synopsis, bios, (including character bios) image gallery and trailers. In fact, there are several videos, but they also load too slowly causing large pauses and ruining their effectiveness. The best section is the Behind the Scenes, which talks about the stunts and Jackie Chan's willingness to die on screen doing said stunts and has several clips to watch. Unlike the other clips, however, these are much smoother and effective. Even with the long load time, this is a top-notch site and the winner of the leisurely Weekly Website Award.
Just the Blog so far with only a handful of entries. It's hard to judge the quality of the Blog this soon, but I'll definitely keep an eye on it.
A very simple site with an unpolished feel. At least most of the usual features are there.
I'm not looking at this site. I'm determined to stay spoiler free for this movie and I'm not taking any chances. But don't worry, I'll review the site next week after I've seen the movie.
Another simple site with an unpolished look.
Typical Miramax site.
Submitted by: C.S.Strowbridge
Filed under: Movie Website Updates, Star Wars Ep. III: Revenge of the Sith, The Da Vinci Code, The Island, Rent, Junebug, Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, Sex, Politics & Cocktails