Mainstream Movie Minded

I'm notorious among friends for being particularly clueless when it comes to pop culture. I don't go to the movies often, and when I do, it's to the indie theatre to find obscure films like my darling favourites, The Motorcycle Diaries and Millions, or Amal and The Diving Bell and The Butterfly. The friends who really know me typically don't invite me out to see the big ticket movies at the local Googleplex theatres and only upon either high, high recommendations or a simple desire to hang out will I go to see something a little more mainstream. I admit that I never meant to be a movie snob, and I'm decidedly not - it's just that I don't seem to care for making the efforts to be caught up with Hollywood in any way. Despite the indie-movie persona I've managed to give myself, I do try to watch something every now and then so that I can at least keep up with some of the conversations in the lunch room at work.

In my defense, I will say this: At the theatre last night, I noticed something while watching the trailers before our feature that reminded me why I don't want to see any of the blockbusters: they all look the same. Take Terminator, Transformers and GI Joe, for instance, the three trailers I saw last night. Robots, killing, blowing things up. I could have been watching one trailer for one very long movie for all I knew - if there wasn't a break between them I wouldn't have been able to tell them apart. Now, I don't really have anything against robots and blowing things up - unless it harms or kills people, which I don't prefer (unless they're evil).

Take for example, Wall-E, which I saw because friends highly recommended it to me and knew that I would love it. Now, there's a movie all about robots and the bleak, bleak future that I ADORE. I only saw this a few weeks ago and AWW!! Robot love has never been cuter. Whenever I watch a human couple do the dance around a relationship, I'm more annoyed than anything at how our inherent ways never fail to bungle up a relationship. I think I'm quickly becoming a fan of animated, machinized romances.

And with a simple desire to hang out, I saw Star Trek last night, and I'm pleased as punch that I did. I've never been into science fiction, or movies about space and alien species in the future and I admit to only having watched half an episode of Star Trek during a class in high school (the one where they meet a race of beings that don't have genders - it was supposed to prove a point and incite discussion over ...something). Anyway, I found myself enjoying all two hours of it - mostly because I developed a Spock crush. Kirk is great and all, but I'd choose those dark, mysterious, un-feeling Vulcan eyes over the blonde-haired, blue-eyed bad-boy any day. Also, have you SEEN Zach Quinto when he's not Spock? He may have been cute in space, but HUBBA HUBBA. He's like young Spock meets young Pierce Brosnan who can really pull off a good pair of geeky glasses. I have a new reason to start watching Heroes.

So there we go - indie movie snob no more! A robot movie AND a space movie which had lots of things blowing up. I may have liked them for funny reasons, but hey, at least I'm keeping an open mind.
10:57 am