Studios’ Blockbuster Web Sites Get Flashier, Faster, Easier to Use

If the studios are going to spend good money promoting summer blockbusters online, they might as well make it a worthwhile visit for Web surfers. And luckily for us, the online experience this summer delivers richer, pulse-pounding entertainment--with fewer downloading hassles.

Once again, Shockwave plug-ins are as necessary online as popcorn is at the movies. Many sites also are using Vivo streaming video, so you can see trailers and clips as they download. All the sites will link you to the tools you’ll need. Make sure you have a Java-capable browser, too, to enjoy some of the instant soundtracks and mini-games.

Predictably making the largest clawprint online is the site for the ultra-hyped monster flick “Godzilla” (https://www.godzilla.com).

A bright green light fills your screen, fading into a futuristic, sleek interface. The main site has Vivo trailers, rotating facts on the U.S. nuclear program (the old lizard was born from H-bomb experiments) and cool chat rooms, including “instant Palace.” The latter lets you take on 2-D avatars and zoom through “rooms” without having to download a thing.

More interesting for movie buffs is the G-Database, a compendium of bios, old movie posters and behind-the-scene pix from the old Toho Studios productions. There are stats, pictures and even sounds from old-school Godzilla beasts like MechaGodzilla, Mothra and Jet-Jaguar. And the Hall of Fame includes long stories about producer Tomo Tanaka and how he quickly came up with the original Godzilla movie along with effects man Eiji Tsuburaya, who had wanted to do a film on a giant octopus in the Indian Ocean.

The Godzilla mega-site successfully uses the strengths of the Web (simple multimedia, chat, history) without straining the bandwidth of the average consumer.

Though no other site matches the monstrous size of ‘zilla, many others take pains to use the Web advantageously.

The page for “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” (https://www.fear-and-loathing.com) does a surprisingly good job of creating an original online trailer that reveals tantalizing plot details without postage-stamp-sized video. Go to “Take the Ride!” and you’ll soon be immersed in a screen-by-screen passage from the road with Hunter S. Thompson/Johnny Depp to a drug-induced hallucination in a Vegas hotel lobby. Shockwave helps bring waves of colors to text and pictures.

“The Truman Show,” starring Jim Carrey as a person whose life is secretly taped for an ongoing TV show is perfect for a particular Web treatment (https://www.truman-show.com). Since many people are now actually living some of their lives on Webcams, it seems perfect to let viewers into a “control room” where they can view movie sets and stills using QuickTime VR.

For doing the most with the least, “The X-Files Movie” site (https://www.xfilesmovie.com) deserves a visit. Sounds swoosh between speakers, graphics fly around the screen--and it’s just to tell you “this area coming soon.” There’s a running countdown until the June 19 movie release date, plus neat rollover sounds with Mulder saying “Sculley” and Sculley saying “Mulder.” Is this a sign of some big-screen romantic fireworks to come? Hmmm.

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Mark Glaser is a freelance writer and critic. You can reach him at glaze@sprintmail.com.