It's Showtime

Today is the last day of NaBlo, and I have a whopping 6(!) blogs to catch up on.

I saw The Social Network today, and I think one of the nice things about it was how refreshingly different it was to most of the movies I've seen lately. I think I'm starting to develop more of a taste for shows/movies with good character development rather than good plot twists or great action sequences.

I read an article about the proposed Hollywood remake of the Millennium Trilogy, where the the author was wondering why Hollywood was bothering to remake movies that already exist (albeit with subtitles). From what I recall reading at the time, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo performed pretty well during its release, especially for a foreign movie, however, it didn't make the blockbuster amounts of money that Hollywood is expecting it to make if they add Daniel Craig to the cast list.

Watching the trailers for the movie today, made me wonder if Hollywood has run out of ideas. There's this movie where Angelina Jolie whisks away this random guy and they end up being chased by people who want to kill them. Sound like her movie The Tourist? Actually, that's the plot to her movie Wanted, released in 2008. Yeah, I couldn't see the difference, either.

Book adaptations, superhero movies, sequels to previously successful movies, modern adaptations of old stories (e.g. Shakespeare), zombie movies - that's pretty much what populates the "Now Showing" for the entire year. The movie industry keeps blaming pirates for losing so much money - which I do agree, does cost them money - but at the same time, all they are doing is repackaging stuff from a few years ago, giving it a fresh coat of paint, and charging us $15 to watch it. While advertising repackaged stuff from a couple of years ago, so that next year, we'll go and pay $16 to see that.

I guess now is a good time to get back into the classics. The acting might be sub-par, and the special effects non-existent, but good stories, and good writing will have to make up for that. I think it's a lot like games - older games don't have the awesome graphics or multiplayer capability to capture your attention, but they still managed to entertain, so there must be something there.

I think the movies and TV shows I remember the best are the ones with good writing, and good characters. Actually, I lie. I seem to have liked a lot of crappy TV shows with terrible characters and terrible dialogue. I'm trying to think about what I liked about them. I guess a part of it was that I wanted to be like them. I wanted to be a planeteer, or a power ranger, or one of the Mario brothers. Now I want a nice job, and a house, and a huge kitchen.

At first, I thought that maybe my priorities have changed. I don't want to save the world from alien invasions or nuclear waste anymore, I just want to be able to live comfortably. I am sick of movies with a happily ever after, because in real life, there rarely ever is a happily ever after. But then again, I really loved Toy Story 3. Despite being a kids' movie, I thought it was well executed, and without giving any spoilers away, I didn't feel like I was cheated out of a proper ending just because Pixar didn't want parents complaining that their kids went home crying their eyes out.

Maybe that's what has changed. I'm now an elitist movie-goer, who demands more than sparkly vampires and CGI-car chase scenes that are put in everything these days in order to cater to the masses.