Remakes. Sequels. Prequels. Screen adaptations of books, cartoons, comics, and TV shows. It can’t be denied that the film industry is starting to run rampant with movies based on something that has already been done. What’s shocking, though, is just how few original ideas Hollywood is really seeing.

Wikipedia recently posted a list of the highest grossing films of the past decade. In the top 20, only one film wasn’t based off of any other previous idea. One.

Think it gets better looking at a larger sample size? Think again. In the top 30, only two films were based on original ideas, and in the top 50 a total of nine were considered original.

The interesting thing about the nine original concepts is that all but two were animated films, and of those seven animated films five were from Pixar, with Finding Nemo being the only one in the top 20.

Joining Finding Nemo in the ‘original concept’ category were Kung Fu Panda, The Incredibles, Hancock, Ratatouille, The Day After Tomorrow, Madagascar, Monsters, Inc., and Wall-E.

Now, I know it’s easy to fall into the mindset that ‘if it worked once, why not make it work again and capitalize on it?’, but it’s sad to see how few movies aren’t based on something else.

The fact that the majority of ‘original’ movies were animated films targeted for a young audience seems to say that writers and studios are more willing to go out on a limb to create something unique for kids, and willing to be complacent with what they release for  adults.

It makes sense if you think about it: Kids are young, curious, and have short attention spans that are always looking for something new to entertain them. If you give them the same thing over and over, they get bored. Thus, it proves to be profitable to make something original for them.

If the list of top grossing films is any indicator, older audiences seem to favor the familiar, so reworking the same ideas over and over appears to be the way to go.

However, as Hollywood continues to move forward with franchises, sequels, and films based off pretty much anything, the film industry runs the risk of losing originality completely. If presented with both a new idea and a takeoff on something that’s been done before, why pick the new when the old is almost guaranteed to see success?

2010 already has numerous sequels, adaptations, and remakes on the horizon, but hopefully a move will be made back to original stories taking the forefront in Hollywood.

I just don’t understand. Where are the seat belts? People getting thrown all over the main bridge of the ship every time a space torpedo hits. You’d think someone would come up with a space restraint that protects without chafing… The USS Enterprise doesn’t have any space restraints, but director J.J. Abrams does an incredible job of protecting the series without chafing fans by paying homage to Gene Roddenberry’s original vision even as he blows up your father’s Star Trek.

If you loved the original Star Trek, you’re going to love the relaunch of your favorite characters in a fresh perspective. If you’ve never seen any Star Trek before, you’re going to love a summer blockbuster that delivers across the board.

This movie is a two hour, jam packed, epic that doesn’t waste a minute with anything frivolous. When you’ve got the birth of Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) with the childhood of Spock (Zachary Quinto -Heroes) and the back-story of Dr. ‘Bones’ McCoy’s (Karl Urban) sour attitude, on top of a time-traveling space baddy Romulan named Nero (Eric Bana), mixed in with new perspective on the size of the Enterprise, spaceship fighting and black holes – well, you better buckle up! I came out of the theater overstimulated. Between the IMAX screen and the amount of story told so masterfully, you won’t need coffee to keep you awake long into the night talking about your favorite scene.

The majority of the movie focuses in on the destruction of a planet and the attempts by the USS Enterprise to keep the same thing from happening to Earth. Unfortunately, there’s a gigantic Romulan mining ship that’s been retrofitted with enough firepower to take out as much of the fleet as the Federation is willing to throw at them. Nero’s been nursing a grudge against Spock since before this Spock was born and wants his revenge. But James Kirk and company are fresh from the Federation Academy and looking to test the capabilities of their Constitution-class ship. Getting there is going to require friendship to overcome the disdain and antagonism between Spock and Kirk.

This is a giant prequel that gets everything right. The supporting characters are fantastic. From some great action with a not-so-subdued Sulu (John Cho) to a smart and sexy Uhura (Zoe Saldana) and her love interests, engineer Scotty (Simon Pegg) says it all, in his deep Scottish accent, with the line “this ship is excitin!” But – his accent is second fiddle to navigator Chekov’s (Anton Yelchin) hilarious accent woes. Seriously, it gets me laughing every time I think about that scene.

The other character that needs to be mentioned is the future/original Spock played by the erstwhile Leonard Nimoy. This is some great writing that pulls everything together. When you hear his line to the new Spock, “Put aside logic, and do what feels right,” you almost wonder if it’s more of a blessing on this new adaptation than merely wise words to a young protege’.

If there’s anything to pick on at all, for me it was the scenes on Hoth, er, I mean, Delta Vega. That was the only time I felt the movie veered from ‘everything essential’ to ‘we need to add a monster chase scene for the kids.’ It’s not bad. And it sets up the encounter that ties it all together. But, my 13 year old son, who’s never seen Star Trek, looked at me and said, ‘Oh, it’s the old big monster gets eaten by a bigger monster chase scene.’

Despite that hiccup, I think this movie is going to be hard to top this summer. If it does, I guess it will be just another example of one big monster of a movie getting eaten by a bigger monster of a movie. And really, if that happens…we all win.

Rating: ★★★★½