Threequels? More like Weakquels

First of all, I know that the title of this post sucks, but it has kind of an endearing suck to it—kind of like, "Ah, nice try Jed, but that sucks."

Oddly enough, this comment echoes my feelings for the onslaught of threequels that I've seen this year: Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third, Pirates 3, and Ocean's 13. They weren't necessarily bad, but when compared to the first two in the series, they left a lot to be desired. In fact, I would submit that all of these summer blockbusters followed similar patterns of mediocrity. Instead of concentrating on character development, they just increased the number of characters. Instead of weaving together an interesting storyline, they overcomplicated the story or at worst just rehashed the same story from the first two installments. Instead of surprising the audience with a smattering of plot-forwarding special effects, they just overindulged their techno savvy inclinations with bloated and over-the-top computer graphics that put the mind into sensation overload—aside from Ocean's 13.

Disillusioned by these uneven productions, I recently saw Live Free or Die Hard. I had low expectations, but came away pleasantly surprised and would like to declare that it’s the perfect summer movie. It's loud, crazy, and has amazing special effects—just like the other aforementioned films—but the major difference is the utter enjoyment of witnessing the perfect infusion of character banter, thin, yet understandable plot, and absurd action sequences complemented by seamless CGI. In other words, it leaves the audience satisfied with a lack of suck.

But maybe you're in the mood for a more cerebral movie; I would suggest checking out 1408. It’s a psychological thriller adapted from a short story originally penned by Steven King. This film scared the beejeezus out of me, but it was smart and, to be honest, somewhat inspiring. It contains none of the slasher or more-gore-the-better type of tactics that have become the norm, but instead messes with your concept of what your own personal hell might look like—a truly bone-chilling venture.

So, now that we’ve reached the halfway point for summer movies, I can only hope the latter-half of the blockbuster schedule is better than the first-half offerings, (which shouldn’t be too difficult to achieve). I could be wrong though; I have pretty high expectations for Transformers, the Bourne Ultimatum, Harry Potter, and Ratatouille. In short, I hope these movies don’t fall into the ‘endearing suck’ category.