[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Alcidas

I don't think Orlando Bloom is a good actor. There, I said it.

Well, neither do I, actually, but that didn’t seem the place to mention that.

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Why would Jackson choose this particular video to highlight in the marketing of the second Hobbit movie? Is it a way to forestall criticism? It is a way to demonstrate who he believes his audience is? Is it a way to titilate fangirls by showing them a reaction in the actors they admire?

Why show three actors reacting to the video--and in particular, these three actors? They are all in costume, so it is not likely an unrehearsed or unscripted response, but very likely part of the publicity that the actors must engage in as part of their employment in the film. Is it a way for Jackson to suggest a Middle-earth response? Is it too cynical to regard this as a mere merchandising ploy, using fans to further the marketing strategy?

Well, if we feel like being really charitable we might suppose that Jackson was for some reason so touched by the decision of the girls to film themselves giggling over the trailer that he shot the response as a purely friendly gesture, with no ulterior motive whatever– but you wouldn’t think he’d have the leisure for that kind of thing right now. And it’s a characteristic of modern marketing to make a lot of use of “spontaneous fan reactions” (whether real or not is largely irrelevant).

So... if we assume there’s a point to this, then what is it? It really seems like the basic messages are, “here’s some people getting excited, so you should too”, plus, “look, even YOU, the ordinary fan, can be a part of this!"

Note the responses on the page:

Watching people that are watching people.... this could go on and on, and on, and on, and on,..... well you get the point. Now those girls need to post another video of themselves watching the cast watching them watching the trailer.

i want to see a reaction video to them watching the cast reaction video of their trailer reaction video!...

.........those fans will be in heaven on earth after seeing the actors watching their responses to them in the trailer!

etc, etc.