Summer Blockbusters Not So Blockbuster-ish After All

Summer blockbusters are always eagerly anticipated by the movie buffs and the studios which produces them. The former can't wait to see what's in store on the silver screen and the latter can't wait to see how much the weekend openings will gross. Whether it's on 3-D, WIMAX or any other format of presentation, the question which always beckons is whether the movie will be a blast.

As you would know from my previous postings, the "opening ceremony" for me this year is Star Trek. Previously, I have been to all the Trek movies. None of them will surpass the euphoria for this one. The story was good and the elements in the movie was perfect. The reboot of the entire franchise was for me, an ingenious way of ensuring its continuity for posterity and Trekkers like me. It was clever to reset the whole timeline in the Trek universe. A clean slate to start off with. An escape clause, if I may.

Then came the silver screen rendition of Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. Naturally, as I was on the roll, I had to watch it, in anticipation that the entertainment value would closely linger behind the Da Vincci Code. To my dismay, the plot, although supposedly getting thicker, didn't quit cut it for me. It was like watching a modern day Sherlock Holmes mystery relegated against a backdrop of the conflict between the clergy and science. Nothing really fresh. Reading christian literature on the subject, one can find more intrigue. The 'god particle' controversy did not appeal to me all that much at all. In fact, I thought it was a suttle means of convincing the masses that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a machine of 27 miles in circumference would safely smash atoms at near the speed of light without any dire consequences on planet Earth.

So, a change of taste into Marvel comic characters would do the trick? A resounding NO. X-Men Origins: Wolverine was a forgone conclusion. We all know that Logan will remain alive at the end of the movie. We all know that he's skeleton was infused with adamantium. A man conflicted by his carnal instincts and his will to remain 'human'. A depiction of a constant struggle of a man whose neither here nor there. It's all been played out before in comics and other literature. It's akinned to retelling a story with CGI and SfX. Nothing novel about this rendition of the animal-in-a-man epic. Why don't they make a movie on Charles Xavier (Professor X) or even Erik Magnus Lehnsherr (Magneto)? But of course, violence and action sells more, doesn't it?

Terminator Salvation was next on my list. There was more entertainment value than the preceeding two movies I mentioned, but the again, we all know that Judgment Day was inevitable and John Connor would rise to lead the resistance against Skynet with an outcome unknown till now. The battle rages on. It was the same story told on a another vantage point. We all know he sent his future father, Kyle Reese into the past to protect his Sarah Connor, his mother and the salvation of the human race depended on the events that have past and events to be. A temporal paradox where one cannot exist without the other. Something which would compliment a Star Trek episode very well. Why do they have to unravel the same conclusion over and over again. The machines and humans will remain at war which is seemingly far from any resolve.

Well, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is playing in June. As the title suggests and what more the give away in their latest trailers... Megatron can't die. It's ludricous that the arch nemesis of the Autobots remain "inoperative". I'm keeping my fingers crossed. If this one doesn't do it for me, I'm minded to avoid going to the silver screens for a while...