Worst Title.. Ever

It is official, titles are out of control. The last few years, hollywood has gotten more and more ridiculous with the names of movies. The ones that I think started it were a combination of Lord of the Rings and the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Neither of these were really bad at all, LOTR obviously took their titles directly from the books, and Pirates were going for that old-school serialized movie thing, like Indiana Jones did.

But since then, the sky has been the limit on how long a movie title seems to be allowed to be, and they all have to have a sub-title. The Seeker: The Dark is Rising. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer? (it should be pointed out that the movie did not feature the Surfer "rising" as much as "arriving.") The newly announced Terminator sequel being planned is: Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, which is basically two sub-titles together. How about "Terminator 4: Salvation" Not nearly as pretentious as the new one, and it maintains the continuity of the other 2 sequels, which while includng a subtitle, still maintains the classic number system. Even my beloved Indy. Coming out this summer is "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." Really? Why not just 'Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull'? Doesn't seem any less impressive to me and is less of a mouthful.

One thing I admire about the James Bond series in its titles is that by virtue of having been around since the 60's, they never got into the bad habit of putting "James Bond:" before every title. And yet Bond fans seem to have no trouble finding them. Props to Christopher Nolan for his new Batman, simply titled "The Dark Knight" and not "Batman Begins: The Dark Knight" or some other such silly name. People aren't so stupid that they won't recognize that a movie is a sequel without having the name of the original in the title. Would National Treasure: Book of Secrets have made any less money had it simply been titled "Book of Secrets"? I doubt it.

Bond is on my shitlist right now though because of their newest title. "Quantum of Solace," really? Maybe the worst Bond title ever. It doesn't even sound like an action movie. And before anyone calls me on it, yes, I know that it is an original Fleming story title. It still sucks. "View to a Kill," "Live and Let Die," "Goldfinger," "Diamonds Are Forever," those are good names for Bond movies. "Quantum of Solace" is even worse than "The World is Not Enough." It is a good thing "Casino Royale" did away with the opening song being a titular song, because I would pity the poor band that had to write the "Quantum of Solace" song.