CANZE| A hard act to follow
The Summer 2008 movie season was an expectation-crushing dynamo that proved the cinema business is still alive and kicking.
Three movies - "Iron Man," "Indiana Jones" and "The Dark Knight" - combined to gross more than $1.1 billion in North America alone.
So, what next?
This summer, which could easily be considered a follow-up, Hollywood seems to be hedging their bets largely on fanboy enthusiasm and genre interest, and dependence on sequels and franchise loyalty is greater than ever.
This strategy may prove to hurt the industry.
Certainly, clumsily titled franchise flicks like "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" and "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" will bring butts to seats, but will it be in the overwhelming magnitude of last summer?
Will "Wolverine," a spin-off capitalizing on the popularity of a single performance, live up to last year's "Iron Man," or its "X-Men" predecessors? And can "Transformers" possibly overcome its preposterous budget to attain the ultimate goal of the film industry: turning a profit?
Both these films are following movies that were an initial financial success, but suffered crippling word of mouth.
To be fair to "X-Men: The Last Stand" and its director Brett Ratner, respectively schlock and hack, the harshest things said by critics about that movie were some of the kindest said about Michael Bay's first "Transformers."
And if you don't believe that a franchise's pedigree counts for something at the box office, go take a look at "Matrix Revolutions."
Something that most of the mega-budget films have in common this year -- and have for the better part of a decade - is reliance on franchise recognition. Be it a title like "Harry Potter" or "Terminator," a company like Pixar or names like Johnny Depp and Quentin Tarantino, movie companies are banking on familiarity.
It's a safe bet, but rarely sets the world ablaze.
I'm just saying, it was a relative nobody named Spielberg, with little more than a great script and a rubber shark that created the "summer blockbuster."
And last summer it was a nearly-three-hour superhero-noir morality play, produced as a sequel to what was a modest hit at best, that grossed a billion dollars worldwide.
Big explosions and pretty actors will get young people in the theater when they have nothing better to do. But to really become a piece of pop culture, to create something significant out of a summer action flick, and to make money, a film needs something more.
Like a good script and a talented filmmaker. And this summer's lineup is dangerously thin.
Studios need to risk, and risk seriously, to see serious returns.
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