Quadrilogy of the Remakes: At Wit's End

Recently I've watched two of the giant mega-hyped summer movies of the year. I'm talking about Spiderman 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. While both movies were running over with special effects and high octane flaming-school bus-through-a-fireworks-factory grade action sequences, I left both of them feeling a little disappointed.

I think the biggest problem is that both movies shove tons of new characters and excessive plot down our throats. Neither movie handles this very well. They are both third installments in highly successful action trilogies, so it's like both are trying to wrap up an overload of plot lines and create some finality to the dozens of characters. Yet, the sad thing is, neither film feels like a conclusion. I know for certain that right now, fourth movies are being pushed for each franchise, and they will be made.

Why? Because people just want to make money. You look at the movies being made today and it's obvious that well over 50 percent of the films are all sequels, prequels, remakes, re-imaginings, reinventions, and similar unoriginal junk. And if something new and interesting is ever successful, it'll be milked to death. Clusters of sequels filmed all at once will be released in rapid succession every summer, with rushed scripts and numerous rewritings.

And it shows.

The third Pirates movie was spectacular to see (I want to see it again just to enjoy the visuals and action again), but I really had to strain myself for three hours to piece together the plot and the motivations of the characters. I dare anyone coming out of the theatre to convey the story to a stranger in under thirty minutes and answer all their confused questions.

A little extra care and polish and I think these two movies could have been something special. I see a lot of money on the screen, but not a lot of thought. But I guess that's fine for Hollywood. Churning out high-grossing sloppily made sequels leaves you with tons of cash and time. Just what you need to make more sequels.