Top 10 Reasons Why This Movie Flopped.
The failing of this movie is very strange and peculiar in itself. After watching this movie it really all became clear why it wasn't a good film. So then I went over the other films of Romeo and Juliet and it is really all down to these reasons.
10. The Main Actors Don't match the characters.
A tip for a good movie is actors who embody the actual characters there playing sadly the actors in this movie don't. Hailee is pretty and even kinda beautiful but not Juliet beautiful you see juliet is at the tender age of 13 so the best actor to play her would be someone with a sort of innocent beauty. Another thing is she just can't do Shakespeare acting it just came off as kinda Strange and sorta fake. Now Douglas isn't a Shakespeare actor either but his looks did actually match up but not the age.
9. No Romance
When you go and see a romantic movie you expect to see actual romance but I sorta didn't. The leads never really seemed to be in love. When I saw the moment they see eachother it to me felt kinda weird and not having any emotional depth whatsoever. Even when he finds out that she is dead it doesn't seems like he cares much in fact throughout the whole movie they seemed like they never really even liked eachother it was just awkward.
8. Failed to try something new
I heard someone say "well at least they tried to do something different" but really they didn't look there's a difference between trying something new and then just butchering the original. I'm sure most of you are familiar with the term if it ain't broke don't fix it. This is very true to this one to say the least if you try and vamp it up look to the Baz 1996 version when they tried something new like setting it in a different time period but keeping the dialogue now some people didn't like it but it was a good take.
7. Don't release a movie at the wrong time
The other movies were a product of their time sorta matching what people were into at that time with the 96 version it worked with the youth culture back then and put two of the very popular young actors in the roles and it was a hit. With the 68 version it worked because of the films released back then and how they were more romanticized then they are now and lots of books to films were being adapted it just sort of fits. But right know releasing a Shakespeare play just won't work yes you got that demographic of people who really love Shakespeare but it got cut out by them watching the trailer if you look at the highest grossing films of 2013 R&J just doesn't fit in with what people were liking.
6. Offending there key demographic
I really think they should have thought over the changing of the dialogue when they were in the beginning stages. Look when I was watching the first 10 minutes all I was thinking was were the hell is the Shakespeare dialogue. It sorta seems like they were dumbing it down cause to them the original dialogue was hard to understand and would make people less interested. To me changing the original Shakespearean language is really destroying the best part. I'd like to think that Shakespeare plays are a connection to his time. Plus adding new scenes that add nothing to the actual story sorta just seems like horrible filler.
5. Oh Dear Lord the Extras
Another thing I thought that ruined the movie is the supporting cast. Miscast is a really big understatement they really did not match the people they were playing for instance take Mercutio the guy who played him just didn't fit with me. At first he looked like he wandered off a set from a biblical movie were he played Jesus then he was sorta to good for his own shoes. Mercutio in simplified terms is the funny one that guy who brightens up the play but the guy who played him sorta looked more like a valiant hero than a funny friend with something to say.
4. The Adults Outshines the young cast
The biggest reason I decided to see this movie was because I wanted to see how bad everyone set it up to be and the second reason was for the adult cast. Alright to be truthful the best part of the movie was Paul he was the only person who fit the actual role he was playing and really pulled it off and I actually did like the nurse (Also miscast but that's not important) I found myself wanting to see Romeo and Juliet leave to just see the adult actors who actually seemed to put some effort into the actual movie.
3. They seemed like they knew it would suck
As the movie progressed I found myself saying well that's pretty and then I realized I had fallen victim to make sure we draw peoples attention away from this awful movie to other things. And it is quite prominent everything looked pretty like Douglas and it was kinda sad like they were trying to save this piece of awful cinema. By plopping pretty pictures everywhere sort of telling your kids grandma died while taking them to get ice-cream hoping that it won't seem as bad when they're on a sugar high.
2. Escapism from the modern world
This one is a bit tricky to explain and I'm not sure everyone will agree. I had always loved history and movies that really embody the time that they are set in. MY favorite movie is Excalibur not for the action but for the time they are set in I love the way they spoke I love the fantasy feel of it to me it's like escaping the modern world. This definitely holds up with R&J like the dialogue and how everything seemed to fit perfectly to the time it was written in. You might be thinking doesn't this one do the same and to me it doesn't why it's like Hollywood sort of made it into a story with no actual heart. When watching the Zeffirelli Version to the 2013 one. Minus the awfulness of the one now it just feels like your average run of the mill love story with something in their way. The first time I saw Zeffirelli's version to me it felt so much different to all the other love stories cause of it's originality that was created hundreds of years ago by Shakespeare. And the modern one just feels like it was sucked of all that made the original story great.
1. THE ACTING
Here we are the number one reason this movie sucked. After reading through the other topics and reviews plus watching it myself it became clear as day. The acting was the biggest reason this movie flopped. A scene which is really cringe worthy is the balcony scene it's void of every possible emotion I'm dead set sure this was their first try you even see Hailee look down and back up again which is when she probably forgot her line and had check the script because everything was rushed. Every line someone mumbles is so utterly two dimensional I'm 98% sure all of the actors are robots missing their emotions chip. It was just so strange and then I don't even think most of them have ever read or seen Romeo and Juliet because the scenes play out like no one knows what there suppose to or even how the scene is suppose to play out.
A Quick Summary
Look I'm pretty sure there was no effort put into this film so why do we care so much to even remotely know about it because of the story they're horribly ripping off means something to us whether you remember the first time you read it and just falling in love with everything from the characters to how the scenes play out then some of us may have seen a movie which made us fall for the beautiful story. So when you see something you love that got turned into a quick money grab with no effort put into you are bound to care .The only demographic they had was dumb teenage girls and the only reason they liked it is because they don't know what love is even if it came running at them with a chainsaw they pretty much be wondering what do I just stand here. That being said romeo and Juliet isn't the most realistic depiction of love but more of the emotions surrounding it being sadness and happiness and the most important depiction of all youth.
Please I don't want any blood spilled so if you disagree with me or someone else please say it nicely.