I keep wondering when Hollywood will wake up and realize that people are starting to catch on to the gimmicks and are tired of seeing the 15th part of the same movie, a movie based off a tv show or studio attraction, and movies based off obscure comic books or anime series (yeah, Im talking to you "The Last Airbender"). I guess this is the reason that I skipped "Iron Man 2" and "Shrek", couldn't stomach to see the "A-Team", didn't so much as bat an eye at "Jonah Hex"and "The Prince of Persia" and groaned at "The Karate Kid." But besides all of that, it just feels like the 2010 summer movie season was over before it ever began.
June gloom set it and, at least in terms of entertainment, the box office seems to be running on fumes as folks have proven that the over saturation of 3D is no longer a gimmick that guarantees and audience. And filmmakers seem content with churning out film after film after film that essentially tells the same story and does little to challenge the audiences sense of excitement and wonder. What happened to the tentpole movies?? What happened to the buzz?? What happened to summer movies???
The last great summer for movies I can remember is when "The Nutty Professor" came out back in 1996 (yeah, that long ago) where every week, something new and interesting came out that you and everyone you knew was talking about. Back then, movies knew their lane and focused on telling and selling a narrative, built around a central construct and interesting characters. Now, with the allure of 3D, movies have become a mere means to an end.....a fund raising tool where every week a lucky loser gets to brag about how many people it duped into seeing its wares. Now it appears that it doesn't matter how good or bad a movie is ("Twilight") as long as it has a ton of special effects, car crashes and chase scenes and is effectively marketed to its target.
There is nothing wrong with mindless action and inane character development/dialogue if you like your meals calorie free. But when did the people in the films become....so unlike real people. They don't really operate under the moniker of "Movie Stars" anymore either since our idea of "Celebrity" and who it applies to is vastly different than say, the golden era in Hollywood when people had real jobs to do and just didn't show up to have their pictures taken.
And likewise, directors used to you celluloid as a way of showing how big their balls were. Several names come into mind like Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Spike Lee, John Water, Jonathan Demme, John Singleton the list goes on and on. But at least they had a desire to elicit something else out of their audience than a "meh" and single file line out to the exits once the credits close.
Im not sure why we have reached this point in cinema, but cinema surely needs an intervention or a reboot of its own. And maybe this will come by way of Christopher Nolan's "Intervention" a movie that really looks too smart for summer and way too intelligent for the lobotomized movie going audience as a whole. But that can all be perception as this summer has proven that you can't judge a book by its cover, but you can judge a movie by its cover art. The glossier and slicker it looks, the harder the filmmakers are trying to dupe you into buying a ticket and filling a seat. This couldn't have been more true with this years "Splice"...a movie I was eagerly anticipating that was totally misrepresented by its advertising and marketing campaign. it was basically the bait and switch, you want horror, we will give you drama. And judging by "Inception" it could be the allure of traces of the "Matrix" that has got me waiting in anticipation.
Either way, Christopher Nolan is a very competent director and although he (In my eyes at least) messed up with "The Dark Knight", "Inception" seems like return to the things about the director that made "Memento" so great. The other last hope is "Predators" and yeah, the "Predator Vs. Alien" movies were a joke without a punchline, but the original two movies, to this day, are still compelling so "Predators" would have to be pretty damn shitty to beat the realms of awful that was "P Vs. A."
So im just gonna go ahead and say it, YES, this summer is in fact the Worst Summer Movie Season anyone has ever possibly experienced. Now it kinda makes more sense why the overdue "Tron" remake opted for a fall release instead of a summer one....maybe they knew what a shitty dumping ground 2010 would be. And the worst part is that its not even that hot due to June gloom so the allure of pristine air conditioning isn't even a factor anymore......maybe they should make 3D glasses with little heaters on the side. You laugh, but Im sure someone is drafting it up as we speak.
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