When you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way :cool:

Ehhh I'm underwhelmed. I just don't get that excitement factor I got watching the original cast. :no: I know it's just a trailer, but a trailer can be enough sometimes.

Also, I still feel that Rita Moreno playing a gender-bending Doc character is such a cop-out. Very indicative of the times we're in. Guess that's the only way they could secure her an Executive credit.

So I was reading the comments on this article regarding the trailer: HERE - and I figured out why this remake is giving me bad vibes :look:

The depiction of the Jets. You can tell from the gritty cinematography, their dirty clothes and Riff's voice-over dialogue that Spielberg is deliberately portraying them as the enemy. The sole villains.

I don't get the same sense of even ground between the two sides as I did in the 1961 version. All you see in the new trailer is the Sharks surrounded by colors, out dancing in the street (when the hell did that happen exactly? :confused:) and all the focus on them being happy-go-lucky. Yeah, the Jets were always misbehaving but they had a motive in the original - to keep hold of the tiny bit of ground they had to hang out together. "It's all we've got" (Riff). In the new one, it's just "let's go to war." Ehhhh Riff wouldn't say that to Tony. He just wanted his support in all things Jets. They were brothers first and foremost.

The Jets are supposed to be young boys, acting naive and having fun, not just being brutal.

It just feels so far from the original vision of the story that I'm not feeling good about it. Maybe I'm being too pessimistic but I just didn't like the one-way traffic of the trailer.

Early WEST SIDE STORY (2021) non-spoilery reviews are flooding in...

Mike Faist as Riff is getting Oscar buzz! :yay: As he's playing my favorite character, Mike's performance was the only one I really cared to hear about:







Regarding his performance in the 'Tonight' / rumble scene:

'West Side Story' IMAX Fan Event Will Include a Q&A With Steven Spielberg and Cast

‘West Side Story’: Everything You Need to Know About the Steven Spielberg Remake That Has Critics Buzzing

'West Side Story': Steven Spielberg on Creating a Role for Rita Moreno (Exclusive)

Steven Spielberg, Tony Kushner & Rita Moreno on ‘West Side Story,’ Using Spanish Without Subtitles, and Stephen Sondheim’s Involvement

I can't wait to go see the movie on Friday! :thud:

you make good points Gwen about the Jets

I’m actually planning on re-watching the original movie soon with my mom because she hasn’t seen it

also I saw some people making points about how they didn’t like the change of the Jets’s nationality from Polish to Irish - do you have any thoughts on that Gwen?

although looking it up before Irish was the nationality in the original story?

https://artsandculture.google.com/th...GAKyv0zBzGICJA

actually I wasn’t that interested in watching the remake but then I saw a TV special on it last Friday that made me more interested

and I hadn’t seen the trailer yet so I did that too last week and it did make me more interested too

I think the cast looks good especially the ones for Maria and Anita in my opinion but of course nothing compares to the original

also I’ve never liked Ansel ever since the first time I ever saw him in anything back in 2014 in Divergent and since then I still don’t like him (he kinda ruins the movie for me) - if they had picked a different actor to play Tony I would probably be more interested than I already am

I agree

the full TV special from last Friday that I’m talking about was posted on YT

I’ll share it here







okay well I guess that’s only the first half

idk if this will work for you Gwen being in the UK

https://abc.com/movies-and-specials/...est-side-story

I think the special is also available on Hulu! :nod: I think I'm gonna try to watch it before seeing the movie tomorrow night!

I have no thoughts one way or another on Ansel. I have seen the first Divergent, and that's about the only thing I know of him, but I'm enjoying his singing on the soundtrack, so I am going into the movie with no expectations, good or bad. :lol: I know it won't compare to the original one bit, but I'm not gonna diss it before I see it. :lol:

I totally agree with what you said about Rita Moreno's role in the remake, and I don't like how she's the one singing "Somewhere" in the movie and not Tony & Maria. :look: I love that she recorded the song, but I wish it was a bonus track on the soundtrack or something. I'm gonna miss Tony & Maria singing the song together. :( It's one of my favorite parts of the original. :love: