The Age of Movies

     The 80's are back. There's no point in arguing that point. Every where you look you can see the "Retro" look of this infamous decade. ("I wonder what it means to be infamous?" "It means you're more than famous.") At first I thought it was endearing. Since it ended, people have been trying to bring it back. Look at Halloween. Every party I've been to since 1990 has had someone dressed as an '80's prep or punk. Pegged pant legs, wings, large hoop earrings (although those never really left, did they?), and spiked hair. If they wanted to go all in, they added the off-one-shoulder baggy shirt with the tank-top underneath. FAME! Will it really live forever?
     The 80's generation got stuck somewhere along the way. And the rest of us have been forced to suffer through it with them ever since. What happened to originality? Let's take a look at some of the movies from the past couple of years:

Transformers
Batman
Nightmare on Elm Street
Karate Kid
The A-Team
Predators
Rocky (5000)
Tron
Gulliver's Travels
Robin Hood
Superman
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Star Trek (Even though this started in the sixties, I'm including it because The Next Generation was my favorite of the franchise and it started in the 80's)
The Terminator

     I'm sure I'm missing some, but you get the idea.
     So why all the remakes? In the 80's, movies were about plot. Story lines were deep and and effects were just starting to make headway. Steven Spielberg is the perfect example of this. Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. Those were great movies. Have your kids watch them. What do you think they would say? BORING! Why? Because there aren't many special effects. Have those movies remade with today's technology and they would be huge hits. The problem is there would have to be a great screenwriter who could capture the essence of what those movies stood for. And those kinds of screenwriters are getting more and more scarce. Today's movies are about the effects.
     Star Wars is a good example of this. I have watched 4-6 more times than I can count. I love the original trilogy. 1-3 left a lot to be desired as far as story goes, but the special effects were amazing. Both Transformers were horrible. Hardly any plot at all, but hey, great effects. Great job guys.
     There are exceptions to this, of course. Not everyone in Hollywood has the idea that all the great stories need to be redone for the effects, and not all the remakes are bad. My biggest beef is with the screenwriters. We need more screenplays with plots.
     And the saddest part of all of this is when our children look back and want to "retro" something from their youth, what will it be. Another A-Team? Rocky, the legend lives on? Let's get some piquant ideas and make a name for the 2010's. 

What ideas do you have?

(did you notice all my movie references are from the 80's?)