Inception, The Silver Lining to a Summer of Crappy Movies

I am a huge fan of going to movies. Normally during the summer I go at least twice a month and usually more often. I rotate between the four cinemas in my area with stadium seating so that the employees don't think I am casing the joint. So how many trips have I made this summer, at almost the halfway point of the season? One, one disappointing trip to see the Iron Man franchise dumbed down to the point that I felt as if I had paid ten dollars to simply watch a long trailer for the Avenger's movie. So what gives this year. Well to start people are sick and tired of remakes, gratuitious sequels (excusing Toy Story 3 here because I heard it was great), and reboots of franchises. It seems as if Hollywood as run out of ideas and instead is simply replaying the highlight reel.

Now for those of you nodding your heads our there the main question may be what have we done to deserve this? Well, we went to a lot of shitty movies thats what. Each time we buy a ticket to a movie we are giving an implicit endorsement that we agree with the content, tone, and level of brain activity required by the production. Movies won't get any better until we demand a better class of films to take the place of the fluffy nonsense that currently dominates the box office.

Now to my main point. From early reviews as well as a gut instinct I think the notable exception of the summer is going to be Christopher Nolan's Inception starring Leonardo DiCaprio (Departed, duh), Joseph Gordon-Leavitt (500 Days of Summer), and Ellen Page (Juno). Basically about thieves who utilize dreams to extract information this film looks to be the smartest movie of the summer. Our jobs as movie goers is to make it a success. By rewarding films that require more thinking than an afternoon nap we can give studios an incentive to green-light similarly intelligent projects. Now I am not saying to get rid of every stupid movie, far from it. Those movies have a crucial role to play and they can quite a bit of fun. I am concerned that these films have become the industry standard instead of simply a part of a larger pool of viewing options.