Without Inception and Toy Story 3, where the hell would this summer of movies be?
Wait, what about Iron Man 2? No more than a passing grade. Robin Hood was so twenty years ago, Shrek Forever After tasted like nothing more than profit for DreamWorks, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Sex and the City 2 are in contention for the worst movie combination for a holiday weekend ever, Katherine Heigl somehow found a way to sink even lower after last year’s scariest movie, The Ugly Truth, by teaming up with Ashton Kutcher in Killers, The Karate Kid only made money because nothing else was being offered (accept the mildly entertaining The A-Team, which flopped), Tom Cruise deserved better in Knight and Day and its disappointing box-office performance, The Last Airbender failed to deliver on its promising trailers, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice was advertised as Enchanted for boys, except studios forgot that that’s like saying Eat, Pray, Love is The Expendables for girls, Salt was the biggest rip-off of the year, Dinner for Schmucks came and went, The Other Guys was amusing but wasn’t asked to do much else, and no one gives a pile of crap that Nanny McPhee has returned. It’s sad when a movie called Piranha 3D that is released in the latter half of August has to provide the goods for one of the funnest times at the movies all summer. Without Toy Story 3 and Inception, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World probably would have been the best movie of the summer, but that’s still not saying much for mass audiences, considering the movie opened to a more than disappointing $10 million.
So, what can Hollywood do to revive itself for next summer? Simple, learn from Pixar and Christopher Nolan. Pixar taught us that you don’t need to rush a sequel to make a profit or a good movie. It’s been eleven years since Toy Story 2, and the third installment is on the verge of passing the $1 billion mark, along with receiving some of the best reviews any movie has ever received. So hold your horses with movies like Iron Man 3, and make sure you have a great story before giving us more piles of mildly entertaining mediocrity. As for Toy Story 3, there is no reason why it can’t be nominated for best picture. The only reason why it’s not the front-runner at this point is because of:
INCEPTION. Far and away the best film of the year. Christopher Nolan taught us that it’s important to not only entertain an audience, but to challenge them. He did it for the comic-book genre with The Dark Knight in 2008, and now he seems to have done it for the entire blockbuster genre with Inception. The movie has made over $600 million worldwide and is in no way slowing down. If Hollywood can’t take the hint that people want more bang for their buck, then expect Prince of Persia 2: The Oceans of Space and Sex and City 3 co-starring Lady Gaga as Lady Gaga to lead the pack for Memorial day Weekend, 2013.
If that’s the case, I look forward to December 21nd, 2012.
