Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Take Two (again)

This past weekend, my wife and I went to see Everest, which is a film based on a true story about a group of people who sought to climb this mountain in 1996 but only one returned. How was it? Ehh, it was 'aiight'.

As with all movies, there were previews. The moment one such preview started airing, my eyes started rolling the moment that I heard one of the characters referred to by name.

Johnny Utah

Yes, I am speaking of the remake of that adrenaline fueled Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze cult classic film, Point Break.


Personally, I am a fan of Point Break. Whenever it’s on, I immediately go into man mode. I plop down on the couch, want my drink, my chips and I look at the coffee table in front of me thinking, where is my woman? My sandwich ain’t gonna make itself.

(Alright, so that last comment wasn’t totally true.)

My point is that I enjoyed that movie for what it was and still is. A flick for guys (and some ladies as well) who like lots of action, a basic plot line and an odd frenemy dynamic running throughout the tale. It allows the viewer to put your mind on cruise control and quote classic lines.

“I don’t care! You gotta go down! It’s gotta be that way!”

But there’s a point when you need to move beyond the past. I don’t need to tell you how many times Hollywood continues to try and capture lightning in a bottle over and over by regurgitating the narratives over and over (Usually with less than stellar results).Why do they do this? I have a theory that fits along with human nature in general.

Fear

The unknown is risky, so sticking with what we know feels more comfortable, easy and doing it again makes sense. If it worked in the past, we feel that we should get the same results in the future. Perhaps, we can make it better. Maybe we simply feel that this is as good as it will ever get. 

So, we stick to what we know. From the kid that stays alone on a Friday night because he can’t ask someone out, to the person that won’t leave the abusive relationship, to the bad habit that we refuse to break, to the multi-million dollar movie company that tweaks a few items here and there on a film for that “updated” twist to present the same story that you’ve already seen. It’s all based in the same thing. Fear.

There are way too many fresh ideas out there to ignore. There are way too many innovative scripts that will never be heard. I've seen just a fraction of them in the independent circles of people that I know. The stories are there. But the desire to move beyond a comfort zone is simply NOT there for many.

What if we lived in a world, or lived a life where we believed that “No Fear” sticker that was so popular a few years ago? What would we lose? What would we gain? Just a thought ;)

*******************

Adrian “Asia” Petty is an independent comic book publisher and director at Jericho Projects, Inc. Find out more about our books at http://www.jerichoprojects.com and like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/jerichoprojects

No comments:

Post a Comment