Worth the Hype

I’ve written here previously about the juggernaut Snakes on a Plane had become on the Internet before it even came close to theaters. Fans were making up their own trailers before the official ones were released. Fans who had heard that the film would have a PG-13 rating were outraged and believed that it should be rated R. They even latched on to the fact that film star Samuel L. Jackson didn’t use the f-word enough.

Producers and New Line Cinema listened. They went back for five additional days of reshoots. In the process they upped the violence, sexual content, and the profanity.

Many in the movie industry were worried that the producers were making changes due to the public’s demand. They did not want a precedent set that movie goers could demand something on the Internet and then they would have to go back and change their final product.

Critics became worried when New Line did not have any pre-release showings for critics. This is often a sign of a bad movie that is trying to avoid bad reviews before opening day. However, New Line said that they wanted audiences to go in without any preconceived opinions that could be steered by critics.

With all this being said, I went to see Snakes on a Plane on Friday evening. Ever since I heard about this movie so many months ago I knew that I wanted to go to one of the first possible showings. I didn’t go in with very high expectations. How could I when the entire film is described with the four words in the title? I hoped for some campy fun and not much more.

But, after seeing it, I must say that I did get a whole lot more.

The premise of the film is pretty silly. (A witness against a notorious criminal is being transported from Honolulu to Los Angeles to testify. The criminal snuck hundreds of poisonous snakes of many different varieties onto the plane and has them released once the plane hits 35,000 feet, and he sees to it that they go on a rampage.) But I found myself really enjoying it.

“Someone seemed to think that was a comedy,” was what I was told as I left the theater.

In truth, for what was supposed to be a suspense-thriller, I did find it to be very campy. Much of the dialogue was written for laughs. There is no doubt in that. I did jump a couple of times because of snakes coming out of nowhere, but overall Snakes on a Plane was just a fun ride from beginning to end. Granted there are some strange and grisly deaths, including snakes biting people while in the bathroom in some very delicate areas, but overall this film was much more fun than even I thought it would be.