Term Paper 2

 

Jeremy Langston

Mass Communication

Professor Reppert

October 3, 2020

 

Movie Review: Birds of Prey

    I went to the movies with my girlfriend as part of the work we do with special needs people. One guy we sit with likes movies and invites us to watch them with him at the cinema. I am visually impaired, so I do not go to the movies much. The client is an adult autistic man, so we let him make the choices on everything. We sat in the back of the theater, up top in the middle. I personally usually sit up front where I can see better but I enjoyed being back there because the experience is better without distracting people sitting behind me. Going to the movies is a different experience for me now that I lost my sight, auditory issues can make or break the experience for me.

    As previously stated, our client is autistic and enjoys going to the movies, so he had picked the movie out to see and invited us along. He chose the movie based on the trailer online and reviews. He liked the action, comic book theme, and pretty women going in and he was not disappointed. He is a fan of the comic book character.

    The client picks matinees due to the smaller crowds and Saturday, although not ideal for fewer people, was the only day available for all of our schedules. I appreciate this about the client and relate to his choice of avoiding being over-stimulated. Going to the movies is most enjoyable for me when it is not too crowded. The experience is better because of auditory and distraction reasons. The more crowded the theater, the noisier it is around me. The noises are distracting, and it affects my experience negatively. The day we went was nice.

    The concessions available were the classic popcorn, nachos, boxes of candy and chocolate, and buckets of soda. Also available were promotional items like a large popcorn bucket and huge plastic cup with action scenes and characters from the movie on them. The cup also came with a free Louisville Slugger keychain.  The concessions cost more than the tickets combined but we still use the cup and bucket.

    The audience was at about half capacity. The demographics were a mixture of young adults and older teenagers. Our client is 30 and at 40, my girlfriend and I were probably the oldest ones in there.

The audience seemed to be enjoying the movie and reacting well to the jokes. They laughed out loud at a few of the moments and made sounds at the snarky comments in the dialogue.  

    The product placement was not too hidden. There were food products everywhere. Scenes that took place in grocery and convenience stores had the characters surrounded by products, even scenes with the characters at home featured piles of junk food. I saw Peeps marshmallow chicks in more than one scene. Also in plain sight was definitely the Louisville Slugger product placement, as that is Harley Quinn’s weapon of choice.

    The producers seemed to be trying to attract a younger and female adult audience. It was rated R, so it was not geared toward kids. I think they were successful in reaching that demographic. Also, the movie was centered on female empowerment. It was an action superhero movie directed towards young adult female audiences who also enjoy superhero movies. The audience seemed to be an equal split between male and female, but for comic book movies on a Saturday, getting an equal number of young women as young men is successful in that mission, in my opinion. Usually there are more guys at a comic book movie.  

    The theme of the movie was female empowerment. It was an action comedy with vivid colors and a clean sound. The action was fast and engaging for the viewer. The writers and director used humor to develop the characters for the arc of the story. I do not think it was meant to be too deep, but it used psychology to deal with healing from abusive relationships. It was worth the price of a Saturday matinee. It was a nice way to spend a couple hours.