Movie Website Reviews for the Weekend of March 13th, 2009
March 14, 2009
After several weeks without much in terms of Award-worthy sites, we have two sites this week that are both worthy of the award: The Last House on the Left's Official Site and Race to Witch Mountain's Official Site. The former has better design, the latter has better interactive features. Both should sell the movie to their respective audiences, and both are recipients of the Weekly Website Award.
Brothers at War - Official Site
Carmen and Geoffrey - No Official Site
Miss March - Official Site
Pontypool - Official Site
Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America - Official Site
Sunshine Cleaning - Official Site
Tokyo Sonata - Official Site
A good site for a documentary with synopsis, bios, images, trailer, and clips. Not a lot of flash, but that's likely for the best given the subject matter.
Noting to review here.
The Last House on the Left - Official Site
Huge site with all of the usual features (synopsis, cast & crew bios, images, and trailer), as well as a ton of extras. These include common extra features like clips from the movie, as well as more unusual features like a featurette. Interactive features include a personality quiz, a rather in-depth game, and a trio of pseudo-interactive 'Experiences'. (I like interactivity in a site; however, these click-fests grow tiresome after a while, unless there's some real branching.) Add in video clips and audio clips used as introductions, and just general sound and animation, and this is still a top-notch site, and the winner of the Retaliatory Weekly Website Award.
I like the 'magazine' portion of the site, at least in terms of style. Being able to flip through the content does help set the site apart. There are the usual features, plus several clips marked coming soon. In addition, there's a couple of image galleries, and plenty of video clips on YouTube in the Fox Searchlight section of the site, but while I like this additional content, this part of the site simply looks messy. I've made this complaint again Fox Searchlight sites in the past.
The usual features are here (synopsis, cast & crew bios, images, and trailer) while the only extra is some information on the book. Looks polished, but there's not a lot of flash.
Race to Witch Mountain - Official Site
Another massive site with all of the usual features including the synopsis, production notes, cast & crew bios, image gallery, and trailers. There is also a featurette on the making of the movie, which at close to 2 minutes long is substantial for a website (a little light for a DVD, on the other hand). There are also three games, including two action games and a strategy / puzzle game. Add in video clips used as introductions, and it is also a top-notch site. Compared to The Last House on the Left's site, this one doesn't have as much sound or animation, but better games, and it is worth of the Bewitched Weekly Website Award.
Most of the usual features are here (minus the bios) while the transitions between sections is better than many for a limited release. On the other hand, the there's no sound on the site, and little animation.
Normally I judge limited releases to a lower standard than wide releases, simply because limited releases are usually dealing with much less resources. However, this movie site has more in common with a wide release than a limited release in terms of polish. There's not a huge amount of content outside of the usual features (synopsis, production notes, cast & crew bios, image gallery and trailer). In fact, the only extra content are four clips, but they are good clips and they should sell the movie well.
Another solid site with all of the usual information, but little in the way of flash. There is a text based interview with the director, but that's it as far as extras go.
Filed under: Race to Witch Mountain, The Last House on the Left, Sunshine Cleaning, Miss March, Tokyo Sonata, Brothers at War, Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America