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Critics Lambast ‘Adjustment Bureau’ Marketing

March 5, 2011 by Robert Marich Leave a Comment

The trailers and other marketing materials for “Adjustment Bureau” are getting mentions in reviews for not representing the movie well, with some going as far as to claim that its misleading audiences.

"Adjustment Bureau" poster
“Adjustment Bureau” is a rare movie whose marketing is cited by reviewers.

“New York Post” film critic Lou Lumenick wrote, “The misleading trailers for the supremely goofy ‘The Adjustment Bureau’ promise action-packed sci-fi. What you actually get is a love-struck Matt Damon running for the US Senate as he’s stalked by fedora-wearing angels.”

“The trailer for Matt Damon’s upcoming thriller ‘The Adjustment Bureau’ starts out looking like a glossy romantic comedy but soon gets a serious case of ‘Fringe’-style paranoia as mysterious men in hats explain their mission,” writes Hugh Hart for Wired.com.

The gist of comments is trailers convey that the Universal Pictures release that opened yesterday is an edgy sci-fi film like “Inception.” That positioning plays off the source of the movie—writings of Phillip K. Dick, whose other works spawned movies “Blade Runner,” “Total Recall” and “Minority Report.”

But the $60 million+ production of “Adjustment Bureau” is a genre bender that is more a romantic drama with fantasy elements. At its core, the film explores the question can love overcome fate?

“Ignore the ads,” says the headline of Robert Vaux’s review on mania.com. “One of the key roles of a critic (besides serving as a convenient target for death threats) is to warn audience members about misleading advertising,” writes Vaux. “The commercials and billboards for ‘The Adjustment Bureau’ convey the tone of a paranoid thriller: a sort of ‘Bourne Identity’ head game by way of ‘Dark City.’ That ain’t this film.”

Let’s not criticize the trailer and advertising too much. The story is a hybrid and clearly Universal decided to hit hard the sci-fi demographic. That’s because author Dick has a following, even if that only covers half the movie. It is the fate of studio marketing departments everywhere to sell what is dropped in their lap.

“The film has been bumped and shifted around the release schedule like a lost puppy looking for a home – supposedly for the studios to give it more time to advertise and reassess their first ad campaign – and will finally hit March 4th,” blogs Brian Mulligan at Fredericksburg.com. “The at times unintentionally laughable trailer has the feeling of a first-time filmmaker (George Nolfi) who’s not completely in control of the material he has to work with and lacking a real distinctive style.” 

Related content:

  • ‘NY Post’: Angels & Damon
  • First ‘Adjustment Bureau’ Trailer: Matt Damon Meets Weird Men in Hats
  • ‘The Adjustment Bureau’: The Unbearable Rightness of Being

Filed Under: creative, publicity Tagged With: bombs, buzz, campaigns-strategy, critics, messaging

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