JUST FINISH THE DAMN STORY ALREADY!!!

     Franchise movies are a big business for major movie studios…if they are done right.  Too many cases, however, the films are not done right much to the chagrin of the audience.  I love a good chunk of the franchises that are out there (Star Wars Episodes 1-6, Star Trek, Terminator Saga, Bourne Saga...you get the picture).  But there are some like the Terminator franchise I would like for them to wrap up.  I know that box office numbers determine when and if more movies get made.  I would like to see a resolution to some of the stories that are out there.  Not reboots, just an endgame to the stories that have been put out.  A good example is the Star Wars Saga.  Episodes 1 through 6 chronicled the Skywalker family and eventually it was resolved (somewhat backwards with the prequel trilogy…but resolved nonetheless). 

     I would like to see a resolution to the Terminator Saga as well but with the box office numbers dwindling since the last outing (Terminator Salvation domestic number was $125,322,469, Terminator 3 came in at 150,000,000…you see where I’m going with this) (Box Office Mojo.com) that remains to be seen.  I would like to see a resolution to the story because the generation that followed the series is getting older and the younger viewers that have shorter attention spans and may not be interested in the films as time goes on.  Maybe I’m just generalizing about the younger viewers, but I do know that with each film, if the story isn’t produced correctly, it will definitely show with the box office numbers.  The viewers (aka the consumers) will be disappointed and would be leery of checking out the next installment.  In this case, the dollars speak more than the creativity and therein lies the problem. 

     I guarantee you if the last Terminator film was a serious  hit and the box office numbers was reflective of that, they would have green-lit another entry into the franchise quick fast and in a hurry.  But since it didn’t (plus rights issues are going on) no one is in a hurry to resolve the storyline.  I for one would like to see the end of the story. 

Lastly, studios are on the hunt for new material, but yet at the same time, they re-hash it, re-envision it, re-make it, re-whatever…I would like to see some kind of closure with some of the franchises out there.  I also hope that when they do finish these storylines that were started so long ago, they don’t mess them up (like the major studios tend to do) for the sake of the “bottom line.” 

Too Much Charlie Sheen?

I was observing some entertainment sites especially Deadline.com and I was observing that Charlie Sheen is getting his own reality show after all of the mess that he’s been in lately.  His show “Two and a Half Men” getting cancelled, his ex-wife taking him, to court over the custody of his children, and then his rants to the media about everything that is going on with him.  I mean when is enough is enough? Has society gotten to the point that when they see a celebrity go through the ringer, people thrive on it wanting to see more and more?  Now there talks of him getting a reality show.  I don’t know but, its like where did creativity go out the window and has been replaced by sheer drama of everyday life. 

     Reality TV, watching entertainment news shows like ET, The Insider, and TMZ thrive off from it and people seem to be wanting more and more.  It makes a person wonder about the future of the entertainment business.  Reality is hard enough to deal with.  But when people get to a point of watching someone else’s misery or drama, it’s a little sad.  The saying “misery loves company” brings new meaning to reality TV.  My observation is this, people in general have enough misery going on in their own lives and when they see a celebrity like Charlie Sheen go through his share of it people watch because they want to see what happens next, like a soap opera.  A few years back, Brittney Spears went through the gauntlet of drama in here life, and so did Michael Jackson when he was alive.  Everyone likes to see drama, whether it’s real or if it’s scripted.  As far as I’m concerned, there’s enough drama in the world to write volumes upon volumes of books on it.