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
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