Thursday, October 13, 2011

What's in a Name? (I'm Just Sayin'...)

In Psibabe's conclusion to her upcoming review of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, she observes:
"It is amazing that a movie series based simply on a theme park ride can continue to have so much steam, but Depp and company do it again."
-Psibabe, AKA Ashley Perkins
I think that's an interesting and valid observation. It seems like Hollywood is currently in the business of looking back at nostalgic things of our childhood and then building a movie around it. Don't get me wrong - I've enjoyed all of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but a theme park ride isn't the least that Hollywood has taken to make a movie. Case in point - Battleship. Mind you, they can go absolutely anywhere with this license, but it's a license for a game based on a board game that predates World War I. There aren't even any characters associated with the license... just ship-to-ship combat. It almost seems like movie companies should be able to do just as well creating completely new movies... Sadly, I'm not saying they would... I'm just saying it seems like they should be able to.