The Syfy Twitter account run by Craig Engler tweeted that Syfy's Mysterious Island movie pulled in a whopping 2.4 million viewers last weekend, making it their most-watched Saturday night original movie since their instant classic, Sharktopus! And if you're wondering, that's just a bit above their average set of Nielsen TV Ratings numbers that they pull in for Saturday nights.
Which is great for them, but I actually skipped watching the movie this last weekend. It fit a pattern of Syfy's tactic of releasing a like-named movies on the same weekend that a real movie of a similar name opens in movie theaters. Last weekend it was Jules Vern's Mysterious Island, while in theaters last weekend, it was Journey 2: The Mysterious Island.
In the past Syfy has capitalized on releasing movies with very similar names to real movies that hit movie theaters. AKA: Syfy's horrible movie, Battle of Los Angeles. which aired the same weekend the real movie, Battle: Los Angeles, premiered.
Since I'm on the subject, I'm not even sure I want to bring up the horrifying take on Thor, with their Almighty Thor... where Cody Deal, who plays Thor, didn't even get his name on the DVD cover art because Richard (I lost a bet apparently) Grieco played Loki. But no fears... Thor put Loki down in the movie with his Uzi. (No, not a typo or word-o.)
(The Almighty Thor "premiered" the same weekend on Syfy that Marvel's Thor opened in theaters.)
Of course, don't forget Transmorphers: The Fall of Man... OK, never mind. I think I've made my point.
In all reality, I'm fully expecting their version of John Carter, called Princess of Mars to air on the same weekend John Carter comes out on March 9th, 2012. Syfy's version stars Antonia Sabato Jr. and Traci Lords (yes, that one)... how can you go wrong? In many ways actually, starting with the fact that the commercials that aired when they last played this movie were better than the movie. In fact, I skipped out on the movie to catch up on the National Spelling Bee over on my On Demand service.
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But to be honest, after Battle of Los Angeles, I was so disgusted that they rush produced yet another mock-off that I stayed away from Syfy for a few months and started watching BBC America's Saturday night Sci-Fi and fantasy offerings. Which was a good call.
But I digress. These are a few points in an otherwise entertaining fare of movies. Sure, they ARE B-movies, and they know it. But they're fun times to be had sitting around the TV with friends, beer, popcorn, pizza, beer... more beer and either picking on the movie or catching yourself going "Shh" during some scenes. Syfy has had their share of engaging Saturday night originals, so I can't be all 'bash' all the time on the fare.
So last weekend worked out for Syfy, and that's good for sci-fi fans too. It's when their basic sci-fi and fantasy fare starts to crash hard that fans of the genre need to start worrying. But until then, enjoy!
[Syfy Twitter Account: Movie Ratings]
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