I'll admit it, I saw Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 in theaters.

I know, I know-- the snotty, artsy kid in me was laughing (and, unfortunately, was criticizing the film the entire time, making it way less enjoyable). And while it was fun (I saw it with my cousins, so it was a cute girl-bonding kinda thing), and able to being enjoyable enough to push past its (many) imperfections, I was still had to face one very sad fact before the film even started:

The HSM 3 trailer.

Yeah, it was in front of a real movie. That piece of crap you're going to see above, that was in front of my movie. And at first I figured Hey, they put car commercials in front of movies now, why not commercials for TV Movies? That's chill. Then I had the even sadder realization that no, no, this was set to be a FEATURE film. Like, released in theaters. With TICKETS.

Oh.

And I was torn, at first. As not only an educator of young girls, but an older aunt/cousin to some little girls, I know that they love this franchise more than life itself. That they think it's the bomb.com. That's fine-- and they can watch what they want. While HSM is cheesy, poorly written, poorly acted and (somtimes) poorly sung (coughBabyVI'mlookingatyoucough), it's nothing so offensive or controversial that I mind my little cousins watching. I'm sure I read/watched questionable content when I was 12 myself.

But in theaters?

It seems like, lately, the theater industry  have been pandering to whatever will make it money. I remember a few months ago, Miley Cyrus's "Best of Both Worlds" tour was playing on theater big screens. I was appalled. I go to the movies not just to laugh or cry, but to enter a world of artistic or comedic prowess. While I don't often get perfection, I go into the movies to watch a story, the world of a creative and technical team trying to tell me something--whether they pull it off well is up to the audience to decide, but still, that work is there. That big screen and those squishy, comfy seats used to be reserved for movies that had the work and the money to end up there. Lately, however, it seems like theaters are willing to give those privileges to any set of moving pictures that can make a quick buck. What the hell is happening to the big screen?

Things like showing theaters showing a (crappy) concert tour or a mediocre TV Movie series to become a feature is just a spit in the face of the tons of cinematic artists out there scrounging money together to put their piece together--trying to actually tell a story and create something to be proud of. My problem isn't even TASTE at this point, it's just QUALITY. It seems like, at some point, movies stopped being primarily a way to tell a story and instead just became this money-making monster. Suddenly, HSM has not just 1, but 2 sequels, one of them being a feature--just because tons of 13 year olds love it. And it's not just HSM or concerts, it's that-- as long as they think somewhere out there, someone will give it a buck-- we seem so willing to fall into the corporate bullsh*t instead of thinking whether or not this film has a good story, and interesting narrative, a POINT. And yeah, I'll admit, I do it too-- there are some films I watch that probably would (and should) have been enjoyed on a comfy couch in my living room with all my girl cousins instead, but sometimes you look at a crappy movie and say "Why not?". At what point am I going to ask "WHY?!"

Why am I settling for mediocre money things? I'm not saying every film produced should be dark and intense and indie or something-- cuz there are some films out there that I'm sure are good, but just aren't my taste. I just want to know why it's so hard to produce movies that just have a good story. Where characters are characters and not little cardboard cut-outs singing and dancing on a stage. Where trailers aren't so bad that the audience LAUGHS at it in the theater (yeah, that happened-- it was awesome)? Why are we so willing to watch something as long as its shiny and bright and entertaining without really giving it a thought? 

Are good movies too much to ask for? I was hoping that, with some truly awesome summer releases (TDK, Wall-E, etc) maybe there was an resurgence of making quality films, but apparently, I was just setting myself up for disappointment. All I can do is hope that someday, just maybe, I'll be able go to a theatre and, perhaps, not want to gag at all but one or two of the movie choices I'm being offered.

But hey, I'm just an idealist.