What this Summer's Blockbusters can Teach us About Ourselves -

Iron Man

Plot: While in captivity, industrialist Tony Stark (Downey) creates a high-tech suit of armor which he first uses to fight his way to freedom, and then to prevent a dark-minded scientific genius from carrying out his nefarious plot against humankind.

Meaning: The amour represents man’s desire to keep a distance from his fellow man, while Robert Downey Jr. represents man’s desire for men.

Made of Honor

Plot: Tom (Dempsey) is a consummate ladies' man. Hannah (Monaghan) is his best friend and the one constant in his life. But when Hannah leaves town for a six-week business trip, allowing Tom to realize his love for her runs deeper than he ever knew, how does he deal with conveying his feelings -- especially when she returns with an engagement ring on her finger, and a request for him to be in her wedding?

Meaning: With the modern world’s gender roles continuing to blur as we progress in this technological age, this film address the brand new issue of can men and woman just be friends? In the end, they prove that men and women must bone if they want to talk to each other.

What Happens in Vegas…

Plot: Joy (Diaz) and Jack (Kutcher) meet while on a Las Vegas bender, where their drunken nuptials are only part of a larger problem: What to do when Jack wins $3 million with Joy's quarter, and they are forced to spend six months as wife and husband if they are to see a penny of their winnings.

Meaning: Greed should never supplant the needs of the ones emotional self. Material goods can not provide the happiness that forced marriage can.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Plot: The Pevensie children return to Narnia one year after their first adventure in the magical land. Soon after entering the kingdom, however, they learn that 1,000 years has passed here, and all is not well since an evil king ascended to the throne. The children and allies both, old and new, band together to help restore the kingdom to its rightful heir, Prince Caspian (Barnes).

Meaning: Imagination and the willingness to hope are often seen as childish, but it is these qualities that allow children to overcome diverse obsticales. As adults we too could do with a dose of optimism in the face of adversity. Also, Jesus is a lion.

Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Plot: Famed archaeologist/adventurer Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones (Ford) is called back into action to stop a Soviet plot to uncover and use ancient artifacts in order to take over the world.

Meaning: Hiding the past away will not help us have a secure future. We must uncover our own personal “relics” and gain control over what curses they might have imposed upon our lives. Only then will we have the strength to punch our own personal “Soviet Spies” in the face.

Sex and the City

Plot: Set four years after we last saw the ladies, Carrie (Parker), Samantha (Cattrall), Miranda (Nixon), and Charlotte (Davis) negotiate their friendships, romances, and careers in New York City. At the center of it all is Carrie's pending nuptials to Mr. Big (Noth).

Meaning: Ask your girlfriend. She’ll explain it to you.

The Incredible Hulk

Plot: Geneticist Bruce Banner (Norton) takes flight in order to understand -- and hopefully cure -- that the condition that turns him into a monster. Complicating his situation is the military initiative that wants him captured and controlled, as well as the arrival of a more-deadly nemesis: The Abomination.

Meaning: Life deserves second chances. Sure something may have caused you pain in the past, but that’s no reason not to try again. I mean, it might be good this time. Right?

The Love Guru

Plot: Pitka (Meyers) an American raised outside of his country by gurus, returns to the States in order to break into the self-help business. His first challenge: To settle the romantic troubles and subsequent professional skid of a star hockey player (Malco) whose wife left him for a rival lover (Timberlake) before the NHL Stanley Cup.

Meaning: The same meaning as Austin Powers.

The Dark Knight

Plot: The Caped Crusader (Bale) teams ups with Gotham's Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Eckhart) to take on the city's newest villain -- The Joker (Ledger).

Meaning: Escalations of conflict only causes more conflict. The only true way to end a fight is to kill someone (or the person who plays them).

Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D

Plot: A geologist (Fraser) on a special mission with his son (Hutcherson) discovers the entrance into a previously unseen world.

Meaning: See you are the Earth, and sometimes you need to journey to the center of yourself. You are also probably full of dinosaurs. The 3-D represents your mother’s love.

* Movie summaries from IMDB.com

Things Overheard at the Iron Man Premiere

“Iron Man! They should call him Iron Suit Man, because it was his suit that was made of iron and not him and I don’t even think he used iron.”

“Did you see Stan Lee’s cameo? He played the soulless man who would do anything for money.”

“I love theater popcorn!”

“I should have waited to watch that on YouTube when it’s a 3 minute montage of explosions set to Seal’s ‘Kiss from a Rose.’”

“Did you hear they are doing a comic based on the movie?”

“I couldn’t decide who I wanted to kiss more, Iron Man or Tony Stark!”

“Badoo. Pwew! Pwew! Fwoomp! (Runs around like he is flying).”

"George Lucas really took Indiana Jones to a weird place."

“Wow, you can hardly tell that Robert Downey Jr. no longer has a drug problem.”

“I was disappointed. That had nothing to do with the song “Iron Man.”

“That movie just made me more excited for the upcoming Hulk movie!”