A Few of My Favorite Themes

We are all creatures of habit. This seems especially true when it comes to artistic tastes, at least for me. There are certain themes that put in a movie or a book, no matter how bad the entirety, I will walk away and with a feeling of yeah, that's pretty cool. 

I've been thinking about this lately as I bemoan the endless vampire onslaught and ramped up New Moon hype (vampires are not one my things) and the 2012 glory of destruction (again, not one of my things). Though, I get it. Because like I said, I got my own themes that suck me in. 

Here are some of my weaknesses when it comes to entertainment.

POST APOCALYPSE: Something about viewing the world after the end, always gets me interested. Partially because, even as a child, I've always had a feeling I'd witness it. I've been addicted to Fallout 3 of late. I love Waterworld. I even sat through The Postman. So, needless to say, I'm looking forward to The Road. 

DARK FAIRY TALES: The idea of resourceful children lost in some twisted world and prevailing is always a crowd pleaser. Three of my favorite movies ever fall into this genre: Pan's Labyrinth, The City of Lost Children, and yes, Tideland. I'm sucker for it visually and I love the idea of using children's story elements in serious cinema. I use this technique a lot in my own writing as well. 

ALIENS: Not so much the attack-the-world kind of alien, but more the intelligent life, blending of culture, needing each other for survival kind of alien. Or the devious kind like those in V or Dark City. Again, this goes back to a wish-fulfillment thing in that as a child, I always wanted to meet an alien, be it an Ewok or a Vulcan. HOWEVER, there are expectations. (ie. No desire to see Avatar) 

GRAINY ART HOUSE HORROR IMAGES- What else is there to say. Be other dimensions, ghosts, or evil in any of its various forms, nothing quite captures it like images that look they have been plucked from another place.

SPACE: I can watch any number of sub-par movies if they are set in space. Example A: I thoroughly enjoyed Wing Commander and it wasn't very good.

TIME TRAVEL: often related in the sense that I prefer time travel to the future, which generally leads to a setting in space.