{"id":281,"date":"2006-04-27T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-04-27T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2006\/04\/sequel-summer-what-a-shame.html"},"modified":"2006-04-27T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-04-27T12:00:00","slug":"sequel-summer-what-a-shame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/04\/sequel-summer-what-a-shame.html","title":{"rendered":"Sequel Summer! (What a Shame)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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May is about here and with it comes the kickoff of the summer movie season, which looks like it will be far different than last summer, when May’s bombs and semi-bombs included \u201cKingdom of Heaven,\u201d \u201cMonster-in-Law,\u201d and \u201cKicking and Screaming,\u201d all landing with a box office thud that lasted all summer long.<\/p>\n

It looks like the studios are making up for it this year, kicking off with \u201cMission: Impossible III\u201d this weekend, followed by \u201cPoseidon\u201d on May 12, \u201cThe Da Vinci Code\u201d on May 19, and \u201cX-Men: The Last Stand\u201d on May 26. I hope they\u2019re good, but it doesn\u2019t take a rocket scientist to notice that they\u2019re certainly safe, at least for the studios. \u201cM-I 3\u201d and \u201cX-Men\u201d are sequels, \u201cPoseidon\u201d is a remake, and \u201cDa Vinci\u201d is the screen version of the book that\u2019s been a best seller for what seems like a thousand weeks.<\/p>\n

The trend will continue throughout the summer with sequels and remakes, including another Superman reincarnation in \u201cSuperman Returns,\u201d another Johnny Depp turn in \u201cPirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man\u2019s Chest,\u201d a modern version of \u201cThe Man Who Came to Dinner\u201d called \u201cYou, Me and Dupree, \u201d a big-screen \u201cMiami Vice,\u201d and \u201cGarfield\u2019s A Tale of Two Kittens.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the business of movies, these are as much franchises as they are films, which is good for business and hopefully entertaining for us. But I don’t expect too much new to be said for the spiritual person looking to learn and reflect on life through art, as franchise films can’t really risk saying too much. That’s a shame, and I hope there’s room in the market for films which still try and say something. A franchise which did that would be even more welcome, at least by me.<\/p>\n

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May is about here and with it comes the kickoff of the summer movie season, which looks like it will be far different than last summer, when May’s bombs and semi-bombs included \u201cKingdom of Heaven,\u201d \u201cMonster-in-Law,\u201d and \u201cKicking and Screaming,\u201d all landing with a box office thud that lasted all summer long. It looks like…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":279,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nSequel Summer! 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