For many of the bored college students out there stuck at home for the summer, going out to see a movie is basically one out of only two things that are fun to do in your hometown.
Summer blockbusters are made for us students, the kids that are bored and just want to sit in a dark room with air conditioning as good looking people live out better (or sometimes worse) lives than us. The movie theater is a glorious haven for teenagers dying to escape their parent’s house for a couple hours. But how great are the cinematic options for these bored teens?
I opened my beloved Flixter app to look at what movies are playing and I noticed a pattern. Out of the top 10 box office movies as of this week, only 3 of the movies are original. The others are all remakes, revivals, sequels or in “Dawn of The Planet of The Apes” case, all three. Now to give credit to these movies most of them had a decent score on Rotten Tomatoes, but I would rather see an original story than one that is a modified version of an existing tale.
Growing up in Los Angeles I have developed a love for movies and all things silver screen. Like every other LA suburban kid I even tried acting for a little bit. Let’s just say it didn’t work out. However, through that experience I learned a lot about the film industry. It is a beautiful mess of dreams being burnt to the ground and stomped on by Brooks Brother’s patent leather shoes.
The bottom line is that original ideas for the big screen are dying. People are more willing to cling to comfortable sequels (“The Purge: Anarchy”) or stories they already know (“Maleficent”) rather than take a chance on something more authentic like Jenny Slate’s “Obvious Child”. Why is this? Who is rubber stamping these overplayed dramas at the production companies? Have we already reached the zenith of our country’s cinematic ability? For the most part, the last statement is not true, but we have reverted to a state of previous cinematic masterpiece tendencies because the producers know that those plot lines will sell to people just trying to escape their own tedious lives.
No matter what the circumstances may be, I will always love going to the movie theater. I always hold on to hope that original stories will break through the revival/remake glass ceiling. Until that day I will settle for the overplayed super heroes, awful casting and repetitive archetypes.
