Everyone is afraid the world is going to end in 2012. However, our days on earth are not the only things that seem to be numbered these days. According to the popular belief of several Mariemont students, the number of new, original movie plots is also running low.

     Junior Catherine Kemper says, “Movie plots are getting far-fetched and stupid. Out of desperation, movie people are making sequels and remakes.”

     Kemper’s opinion is not completely baseless. Looking up the backgrounds of the ninety-plus new movies to be released between now and September 2011, roughly 50 of them are based on a book or a comic, are a remake of an older movie, or are prequels/sequels to movies that already exist.

     Junior Claire Foran agrees with Kemper, “There are only so many stories people can think up before they have to start repeating themselves.”

     It seems like that has happened. Most of the movies coming out soon are based on books or are sequels. For example, soon to be released:  a sequel to the Pixar movie, Cars, and a fourth Spy Kids movie.  Scream 4, The Hangover 2, Kung Fu Panda 2, an X-Men prequel and Piranhas 3 also fall into the sequel/prequel category of movies slated to premier in the next 6 months. 

     Movies based on comics are also very popular in the sense that lots of movie companies are filming them. Classic comics like Captain America, The Green Hornet and Thor are all becoming movies in the near future.

     Foran is not excited for these comic book remakes.  She says, “Those movies are geared towards boys, and I do not plan on seeing them.”

     Both Foran and Kemper claim that within the next two years movie plots will run out and the world will be left movie-less

     “I can’t even imagine what movie producers will come up with next. I’m not looking forward to a future with no outstanding movies. My life will be incomplete,” Kemper says.

     Despite their fears about living in a world with no movies, that day hasn’t come yet. Both Foran and Kemper enjoyed the new Natalie Portman movie, No Strings Attached.

     “No Strings Attached was so funny and original. It’s the only good movie I’ve seen in a while,” Foran says.

     However, as if to cement the no-more-movies theory even more, a movie with almost the exact same plot as No Strings Attached is in the making. This movie, titled Friends With Benefits, stars Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake as two friends whose friendship gets complicated when they decide to become romantically involved…. Sound familiar? I think so.

     20^th century author Willa Cather once said, “There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before.” If this is the case with the movie industry, I plan on getting to the movie theater to see all that I can, before there is nothing new to see at all.