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 Episode 71 [63:56m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (39)

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

PTG Episode 71 is brought to you by the Fanboy/Fangirl Cultural Revolution. So did you happen to catch that lil’ vampire flick that opened in theaters last week at midnight, The Twilight Saga: New Moon? Well, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com, chances are pretty good that you did. Talk about blowing away expectations.

The latest film adaptation of Stephanie Meyer’s runaway best-seller novel series/cultural phenomenon shattered box office records, recording the third-largest opening in history by taking in $142.8 million–only The Dark Knight and Spider-Man 3 have notched bigger opening weekends. Can we now say, without a shadow of a doubt, that the revolution is in full swing, and that fanboys AND fangirls are taking over mainstream media, when the top three biggest box-office openings of ALL TIME feature characters from superhero or fantasy genres? I think its safe to say that we’re getting there, and Hollywood will keep helping us on that journey as long as we keep showing up in droves to see stuff like this. The record-breaking midnight and opening day box-office receipts ($26.3 and $72.7 million, respectively) alone send a strong message to the film studios: Give us geeks what we want, and we WILL pay money to see it, even in a down economy!

So in this episode we bring you OUR take on the film version of New Moon, and yes, taking into account what I personally thought were the goals of the studio and the production, I’d say the film is a tremendous success. Personally, I do have some reservations about the less-than-explicit messages target audiences might be taking away from the film’s stories and themes, but that’s a separate issue entirely. More on that in the podcast, of course. We start the hour by talking about the issue I brought up in the last blog post, the ‘Cult of Negativity‘, and some reactions I got to the strong words I put out there for folks to digest. Wrapping up the hour we have a review of the last new episode of Smallville we’ll see this year, “Pandora”, which brings to a close the ongoing storyline with Lois’ fragmented memories of her trip into the future during last season’s finale. Hope you enjoy!