This is the best movie of the year! This made me believe in summer movies again! Finally a popcorn movie that delivers! Finally a blockbuster not about special effects, but about character! This reminds us why we fell in love with these characters in the first place!
Arrrrgh! The above quotes are ones I have read regarding the new "Star Trek" movie,a film I saw two nights ago and will give my opinion about in a later entry. What has got me all riled up is the way this movie is being perceived once again as the film that will give the summer movie season credibility. Oh how often we forget last summer which makes me question the enduring quality of these films in the first place. However it also says much for the critics of today who endorse these movies without much thought and wisdom into their reviews.
Most film critics these days seem to be coming out of an assembly line much like the summer movie formula they so happily put a label on. As I read their reviews I often wonder if they even know what makes a movie stand out above the crowd. They seem to understand the bare essentials and that is the focus on character rather than special effects, which would make "Star Trek" a better movie than say "Wolverine" which came out last week and was panned for being less about character and more about special effects. A similar comparison if you can recall was made the exact same time last year when "Iron Man" was released and was generally percieved as the better film compared to the box office dud "Speed Racer". However I often wonder in the long run if any of these films will be fondly remembered the way the critics make you believe they will be.
Perhaps I have a bit of cynical outlook on the summer movie season, I think it's because we know what to expect, and some of the fun in movies is not knowing. Summer movies seem to be all about big fun entertainment as if it were a sideshow, there isn't much substance there anymore. Recently I've gone through some of the old summer blockbusters by Steven Spielberg such as "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "Jaws", the one that started it all. I would advise anyone who think the summer movies made today have any staying power to go back and view those films and see if there is a difference, my guess is you will see something much more textured and nuanced and maybe a bit more subversive than anything out there today.
Summer movies have changed into a product, something that must be bought and sold at the right price, and right now it seems everyone is playing that game. If a blockbuster like "Jaws" was made today, I'm sure it would still be sold as a film more about character and special effects, they would probably add more CGI shark and take out anything boring, like that bit where the three men are sitting alone in the boat and Quint has that monologue about being shipwrecked, and waiting for his turn to be eaten by the shark. That might be a tad too dark and moody for a summer film.
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