Hollywood

So Jenn and I went to see The Dark Knight Rises last night.  The previews show to us were:

• the upcoming Twilight movie (which I didn't understand at all)
• The Bourne Legacy (which I also didn't understand at all)
• Taken 2 (which I only barely understood because I'd seen the first one)
• The Hobbit (complete with singing -- which was cool, but I don't want to watch three hours of it)
• The Campaign (a Will Farrell movie, so no understanding at any level is required)
• Man Of Steel (a Superman reboot?)

Now maybe this is an unfair sample.  I was at a Batman franchise movie, after all.  But by my count, that's five "franchise" movies, and a Will Farrell movie -- and let's face it he keeps making the same movie over and over again so it might as well be a franchise movie.

Wonder why Hollywood is in trouble?  This.  No new ideas are worth anything unless they are presented in a framework that is somehow familiar, that demands credibility based on something that has come before.

Even if that credibility link is weak -- witness "Battleship".  Oh, and Total Recall -- The Total Recallering.  Who the hell thought that was a good idea?  I don't think I have read a single positive review of it.  Anywhere.

Combined with my problems with the feature presentation last night -- the picture was gorgeous, but the sound wavered between incomprehensibly loud, incomprehensibly soft, and just plain incomprehensible (I don't think I understood more than about 30% of what Bain said) -- maybe I'm just too old for the movies now.