Movie Website Reviews for Weekend of May 23, 2008

May 24, 2008

Another week with just one massive release dominating the box office. This time around it is Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which as expected, has the best site this week. However, the best of the week is still not enough to justify giving it the Weekly Website Award.

The Children of Huang Shi - Official Site
A smaller site with just the basics (synopsis, production notes, cast & crew bios, image gallery, and trailer). However, I like the menu system, which makes adds to its effectiveness.

The Edge of Heaven - No Official Site
No Official site for the North American release, however, you can check out the U.K. site. That site is too sparse to be effective.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - Official Site
Not as strong as I was expecting. Don't get me wrong, this is the best site on this week's list and there is plenty to explore, but it is not the audio / visual extravaganza I was hoping for. In fact, some features that I simply assumed would be there, like video clips from the movie, as still marked coming soon. I think these are still absent to preserve the sense of mystery and to avoid spoilers. This means they could be added as early as this week, but that's nothing more than speculation. There are plenty of behind-the-scenes video clips, but they are very careful not to reveal much, if any information on the movie that you can't learn from reading the cast list. There are several extras on the site, including text based extras like the real life history of the crystal skulls (they are fakes), as well as short character bios from previous movies. Overall it is effective, but I'm not sure if it is truly worthy of the Weekly Website Award, as it lacks the real flash needed. Outside of the clips, there's very little sound and animation. To emphasize, it is still the best site of the week, but it is not award-worth material.

A Jihad for Love - Official Site
Typical of many documentary sites, this one has a lot of information, but little flash. Outside of the intro, there's no sound or animation on the site directly (the trailer is a link to YouTube).

Postal - Official Site
A bunch of clips, some pictures, and a rant from Dr. Uwe Boll who claims theater are not booking the movie because of its controversial nature. I think it is far more likely that they are not booking the movie due to the fact that his last three movies completely bombed at the box office.) Nothing here makes me want to see the movie, in fact, the site feels amateurish and that makes me want to see the movie even less.

Twisted: A Balloonamentary - Official Site
More style than most documentary sites, including fun background music and a more interesting approach to the bios. Like the previous such site on this week's list, this one has its trailer on YouTube, which is an easy way to lower bandwidth costs.

War, Inc. - Official Site
Quite a small site with just the synopsis, image gallery, trailer, and three clips. The three clips does make it better than average for the week, but not enough to stand out. (Also, the lack of sound and animation make the site feel smaller than it actually is.)


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Filed under: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Children of Huang Shi, Auf der anderen Seite, War, Inc., A Jihad for Love, Twisted: A Balloonamentary, Postal