Ah, summer. Traditionally it’s the best time for movies because kids are out of school and the weather is hot. There’s no better time to go and plop yourself down in the nearest air-conditioned theater to watch the latest blockbuster. However, if you were to do that in the past two months, chances are that you’d be left unfulfilled and light in the wallet. With the exception of two or three great films, this summer has been full of disappointments on the silver screen. “Why?” you may ask. Well, I am here to inform you and shed some light on the predicament in which Hollywood has found itself.

The “summer” genre features good acting, amazing action sequences, solid plots and targets the age 16 to 30 years old demographic. Examples of these movies would be “Star Wars,” “Terminator 2” and “Jurassic Park.”

It would be unfair to compare this summer with last, seeing that “Transformers 2,” “The Hurt Locker,” “Terminator: Salvation” and “Inglorious Basterds” were released all within a couple months. But 2008 had “Iron Man” and “The Dark Knight.” 2007 yielded “Spiderman 3,” “Bourne Ultimatum” and “Transformers.” In 2006, there was “Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” “X-Men 3” and “The Da Vinci Code.”

You get the picture. The past three summers have featured numerous films that are still talked about today as some of the best movies ever. Yet, in 2010, we’ve seen only two worthwhile films of the summer genre, “Iron Man 2” and “Inception” (“Toy Story 3” was great, but can’t really be thrown into the same genre as the previous films).

The most alarming aspect of this bland summer is the fact that these huge movies are failing at epic proportions. Some of the most anticipated movies of the summer (“Clash of the Titans,” “Jonah Hex,” “Prince Of Persia”) have failed to live up to a fraction of their initial hype.

Now, it has been speculated that this may be due to the down-trodden economy or that people just aren’t interested in those types of movies anymore. The main problem is that Hollywood is quickly becoming more and more shallow. Original ideas are becoming scarcer by the minute. I’m not saying that writers and directors need to come up with their own completely original ideas for scripts; but that movies are just starting to look, sound and most of all feel the same. Moviegoers might not notice it while watching the actual film, but a lot of ideas, scenes and actors are just being recycled over and over (prime example: Michael Cera, do a different role, man).

This summer’s lull in quality films is a warning to the industry that something has to be done — for a lack of better words — to pull its head out of its ass. Hopefully something happens soon because, I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty tired of watching the same guys run, jump, shoot, roll and scream all over the screen while their scantily clad girl is idiotically getting herself into unnecessary trouble.