Saturday, January 04, 2020

Coming Far Too Soon

I was happy, for the most part, with the sequels that came out in 2019. I was fine with the loose threads of the Avengers saga being tied up. I was satisfied with the precise and much too neat way that things came together at the tend of nine movies in the story of Star Wars. I sat through the second chapter of Zombieland, and I waited for M. Knight Shyamalan's convergence of superhero-type movies to appear on cable. I paid to see Toy Story 4 on opening weekend, and was pleased to let my wife and son take on Frozen 2 over their Thanksgiving break. I anxiously awaited the return of Spider-Man, and enjoyed every web-spinning minute. 
And there were a bunch of second chapters that couldn't get me off the couch. Like a second film in the Godzilla reboot series. And the Secret Life of Pets 2 seemed to suggest that I cared that there was a 1. The story of Kingsmen kontinued. The X-Men tried again. I missed both of those because I was not stirred.
And now it's 2020, and though I carefully avoided both chapters of the Jumanji remake, I hear that there are a ton of additional pieces to the puzzle that amounts to making a franchise out there. Should I start with Top Gun: Maverick? What makes thirty years after the fact the perfect time to squeeze out another recruiting advert for naval aviators? Maybe because forty years might be too long, such that Mister Cruise will no longer be able to lower himself into the cockpit. Feel free here to use the word "cockpit" in your own joke.
Then there's the sequel machine that is Keanu Reeves. John Wick Three, Bill and Ted Three, The Matrix Four, will keep mulitplexes full of Keanu in the coming year. For those of you who just can't get enough of the dramatic stylings of Mister Reeves. 
Indiana Jones 5.
Coming To America 2.
It starts to sound more like a sports report than coming attractions. And yes, there will be another James Bond film. If "No Time To Die" sound opportunistic as a title, then I think you're starting to understand the machine that is Hollowood. 
Does this mean I will be staying at home and watching reruns of Spin and Marty on Disney Plus? Perhaps, but chances are that once the hype builds and I see a trailer for Gladiator 2, I will gather myself and my date and head off to the movies. Because it gives me something about which I can reflect in the following year. 

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