Every summer our cinemas are inundated with the latest blockbusters, massively budgeted films hoping to open big and recoup the lavish amounts of money spent on them. Encompassing everything from sequels, comic book and video game adaptations, and fantasy epics, to high-concept action films, blockbusters are held far down the critical cannon in terms of quality. Rightly so in some cases, as over the years a vast majority of blockbusters have been nothing more than bloated excesses more concerned with selling merchandise than telling an involving story. Pearl Harbour and Van Helsing are recent examples of the often vapid, commercialized, CGI stuffed route many blockbusters take. Snide comments aside, blockbusters can be entertaining and worthwhile. Being purely entertaining is perfectly adequate as long as the film is well made and the characters are interesting. The critical pummelings often given to blockbusters seem to forget that many of these films are geared solely towards entertainment: not art, social relevance or awards ceremonies. Again, nothing wrong with just creating entertainment as long as ití¢â‚¬â„¢s well done. However, having said this, can blockbusters be intelligent? Can they provide more than just whiz, bang and flash? Ultimately the answer will lie with the individual critic, but a certain type of blockbuster can provide food for thought as well as junk for mass consumption.

We could go back to the one that started it all, Jaws, to see that blockbusters had brains as well as brawn. Released in 1975 and now considered an all time great, Jaws is regarded as the first true summer blockbuster. Spielbergí¢â‚¬â„¢s first big hit managed to combine action and tension with family drama and believable characters. Roy Scheiderí¢â‚¬â„¢s relationship with his sons is just as important as any of the big set pieces and the film features a slow burn method of storytelling that is all but dead in todayí¢â‚¬â„¢s blockbusters. Despite the success of Jaws , the eighties and nineties provided a standard production line of blockbusters that often morphed into something more akin to marketing campaigns than films. However, recently a small majority of these films have been going back to the ethos of Jaws: where story is as important as spectacle. Batman Begins, Superman Returns, Miami Vice, the Spiderman films and to even some extent, pictures like I Robot and Díƒ ©jíƒ   Vu have taken time to add something more to all their car chases, fist fights and special effects.

í‚  Perhaps this has something to do with those at the helm. Christopher Nolen (Batman Begins), Bryan Singer (Superman Returns), Michael Mann (Miami Vice) and Sam Raimi (Spiderman 1 & 2) are all directors who worked exclusively in the independent realm before taking on a summer blockbuster. Independent films are generally synonymous with thought provoking stories and fleshed out characters as opposed to complicated special effects sequences. Batman Begins rebooted the franchise when everyone thought it was dead and provided much dark, psychological torment to go with all the action. Spiderman and its sequel showed we could actually care about the human characters and that they were the heart of the story no matter how much flight of fancy the plot took. It is also telling that a good portion of the more intelligent blockbusters have been comic book adaptations, a medium which has often been looked down on or discarded for not being challenging enough. Manní¢â‚¬â„¢s Miami Vice is perhaps the biggest progression for blockbusters. A summer release based on an old TV show remembered for its kitsch value more than anything, it proved that a tent pole film about cops did not have to be all about wise cracks and gravity defying car chases. This was a film about characters who were real cops in real situations. Again, whether it was successful or not, is up to the individual viewer but it was certainly a brave and mostly rewarding route for a blockbuster to take.

Blockbusters will inevitably carry a stigma, yet in the right hands they can be just as rewarding as any smaller, independent film. Maybe a reversion back to the story telling techniques of Jaws is what the blockbuster needs as there is certainly nothing wrong with films just simply entertaining. With the release of films such as The Host (a blockbusting hit in its native Korea) and the upcoming Spiderman 3, it would seem the intelligent blockbuster on the rise and here to stay.

Andrew Skeates.