Movie antagonists

Years ago, I read a story about moviemaking that argued that with the fall of the Soviet Union, filmmakers were going to turn to space aliens as their villains.  This was after the first Star Wars trilogy, but soon thereafter we were treated to the Star Wars prequel and assorted other movies involving all manner of space aliens.  Some were comic, some were dramatic, some were thrillers.  Even so, aliens of the spatial variety were in our theaters.

Today Karen and I went to see the latest installment of the Twilight franchise.  The movies themselves are hit-or-miss -- according to Karen; I have a far different opinion that can be guessed -- but since she'd read all the books and got roped into watching the movies as a result, we thought we'd see it through.  The movie was pretty much what we've come to expect -- impossibly beautiful vampires, werewolves, supernatural abilities, the occult -- but what struck me was the previews that were shown prior to the movie itself.

We saw approximately seven previews.  Only two of them had what I would call human themes.  Virtually every other one had either a vampire or a zombie theme.  Even Brad Pitt was in one of them -- World War Z -- and one was a comedy -- Warm Bodies.  After having seen what the Department of Homeland Security did at one of its seminars, I think people have lost their minds, not to mention their creativity.

Earlier this year we were treated to one of the most absurdly titled movies, Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Slayer.  I haven't seen the movie, nor do I intend to see it.  But I wonder what the people who greenlighted the movie were drinking or smoking when they thought this would be an entertaining movie.  Seriously?  Abraham Lincoln, vampire slayer?  What next?  Mahatma Gandi, Zombie Hunter?  Mother Teresa, Werewolf of Mombai?

This is patently ridiculous to me.  We now have Islamofascists roaming the world, intent on doing us harm.  The only movies that have come out recently with them as the antagonists deal with the killing of Osama Bin Laden.  Is Hollywood too politically correct to tackle jihadists?  Don't they know that, as Jews, they're already targets for the terrorists' reticules?

I am admittedly not into science fiction.  I can count on one hand the number of science fiction movies that have entertained me.  But this lazy reliance on zombies, vampires and other supernatural beings as antagonists is really lame.

(c) 2012 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles