Sitting in a movie theater recently watching trailers waiting for Constantine to start I can't help but feel that I've seen all these stories before. It's made me realize that Hollywood doesn't know what a good story is and is vastly under using the medium because they are afraid of not making money.

Every single trailer of every genre is I've seen recently is for a story that's either recycled or based on pre-existing material.

Stealth: Stop me if you've heard this before, but a new military artificial intelligence goes insane and tries to incite World War III. In this Terminator/Macross Plus rip-off Jessica Biel, Jamie Foxx and some good looking white guy play naval pilots who have to fight to control their fourth wingman an "A.I." That goes crazy and starts killing people.

This is a prime example of jaded Hollywood film making. This story has been told so many times I can probably write a beat outline of the film after just seeing one trailer.

Amityville Horror: For some reason there is a second movie made about this alleged New England haunting. Why?

There have been numerous books, documentaries and a movie already made about this story. What new is there to tell? Absolutely nothing, but a studio saw a chance to make a cheap horror film that could turn a profit.

Kingdom of Heaven: I did a lot of research on the crusades as part of writing my novel so I'm really looking forward to this movie and I hope it doesn't suck like every other massive epic since Lord of the Rings has.

This is an attempt to capitalize on the market that Peter Jackson proved existed when he brought the LOTR trilogy to the screen. The success of those movies have given us unmitigated crap like Arthur, Alexander and Troy.

Article Author: Eric James

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