'Ocean's 8' is part of a dying breed of film

If you pay any attention to the world of film, you know that original ideas are effectively dead, at least when it comes to major studio releases. Everything is a sequel, a reboot or based off a popular pre-existing intellectual property. The words "intellectual property" are now used in casual conversation about movies. It is what it is at this point. However, beyond that, the biggest movies are becoming even more specific. They are almost all CGI-laden, special effects-heavy action adventures. "Avengers: Infinity War" is currently the biggest movie of the year. The villain is a giant purple alien man, and early in the film he fights a giant green monster dude. Neither of them is really there. Basically nothing is really there anymore.

That's why something like the release of "Ocean's 8" can be viewed as something of a relief. Now, it's still a spinoff from the previous "Ocean's" trilogy. Sandra Bullock is playing the sister of George Clooney's Danny Ocean, and she happens to also be a master criminal who is going to pull off a great heist. It could be its own thing, an original, fresh idea for a heist caper with a predominantly female cast, but you don't get to do that anymore. You have to make it part of a pre-existing universe, because otherwise you can't trust audiences to buy in to the star power of Bullock, Cate Blanchett or Anne Hathaway, evidently.

Nevertheless, it's something of a relief, or a respite, to see a film that isn't going to be all about special effects getting a massive release. Obviously, you can still find films away from the world of CGI and special effects. If you want to watch Joaquin Phoenix play a man with PTSD trying to rescue kidnapped girls, there's "You Were Never Really Here." However, if you want a fun night at the movies, if you want to see a "popcorn flick" that is going to be an event, films like "Ocean's 8" seem harder to come by.

Other than "Fifty Shades Freed," which is its own thing, all the biggest films of the year have been loaded down with special effects. What are the other big, popcorn movies scheduled to come out this summer? Well, there's "The Incredibles 2," which is all CGI, another Marvel special effects fest in "Ant-Man and the Wasp," and a "Mission: Impossible" movie that will surely have some practical effects and stunts but is in the same vein as basically everything else on the blockbuster front.

The trick of it is that this is working for movie studios. They have no reason to stop doing what they are doing. It's not like they are bad just because of all the CGI and special effects, either. "Infinity War" is good, and people were over the moon for "Black Panther." Still, we have to hope that movies like "Ocean's 8" don't go away. The general movie-going populace needs alternatives to over-the-top action movies loaded up with actors performing stunts in front of green screens. It can't all be small indie dramas and gigantic CGI extravaganzas. We have to hope films like "Ocean's 8" can carve out success at the box office. Otherwise, they too will be subsumed by the comic book movie industrial complex.