Blockbusters far from home

Who knew that National Lampoon’s European Vacation would be a trendsetter 34 years after its release?

Whether it’s something in the air in 2019, or just a variation on the whole Deep Impact/Armageddon phenomenon we’ve been seeing for decades, blockbuster movies are getting out of the U.S. this summer. Which is certainly an instinct I understand, with Donald Trump in office. But it’s enough of a pattern that I finally had to make mention of it.

They aren’t all going to Europe, but two out of my three examples are. And in all instances, they’re series typically set in New York that are fleeing for foreign shores.

Most recently it’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, which released this week and which I saw last night. The rejuvenated Peter Parker and his Brooklyn classmates, having weathered “the blip,” are now on their way for a trip to Europe, chaperoned by the hi-larious comedy duo of Martin Starr and JB Smoove. They seemingly arbitrarily ping pong around the continent just so the action can have a number of different European backdrops. Is this what’s meant to be injecting new life into the MCU? (As you can see, I’m skeptical about the value of the film on the whole.)

Then before that it was the not-just-middling but legitimately bad Men in Black: International, which has basically the same goal. As the guys in a podcast I was listening to yesterday pointed out, is the thing that’s supposed to blow our minds about this movie that the previously Manhattan-set MIB has offices in London and Paris? Really?

The first in the series was John Wick – Chapter 3: Parabellum, which I also consider legitimately bad, but far better than Men in Black: International. Although I don’t remember all the details of Chapter 2, all the shootouts in this series have heretofore taken place in Manhattan, if I’m not mistaken, with a possible trip to the outer burroughs on occasion. This time, some of them took place in Casablanca.

The weird thing is that none of these movies are taking Asian vacations. Isn’t this the age when we are supposed to be blatantly pandering to the Chinese?

The problem is that these movies cannot take vacations from themselves. You can change the scenery, but wherever you go, there you are.

And after seeing all three, I believe they are all arguing for their franchises to take permanent vacations from our viewing schedules.