The Lucky One (still not sure who that is...)

   Another pre-review (annoying I know, I apologize for this). Let me just preface it all with the fact that I bash Nicholas Sparks some so this should make a few of you happy.
  So here we have yet another love story (to the extreme). Don't get me wrong, once a month I curl up on the couch with a tub of chocolate ice cream (that magically disappears...) and cry while I watch The Notebook right along with half the female population (a generalization I know, but a pretty true one), but come on...we all know Nicholas Sparks can write a heart-wrenching novel that will inevitably make you cry (and apparently become a movie?). So why do they all make it to the big screen? News flash ladies: THE HOT GUY GETS THE GIRL. Always and forever. Another news flash: THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN IN REAL LIFE (yes, I know sometimes it does, but seriously girls in high school need to stop holding their boyfriends to the standards of Noah...he will not build your dream house and read you your life story when you get Alzheimer's).
   Anyway, back to the movie at hand...The Lucky One. First off, why is this the title? Who is lucky? The lady who Zach Efron stalked? Or Zach Efron for being distracted by a shiny object (that just so happened to be a picture?)? I mean what if it had been a spoon instead of a picture? Or better, what if it had been a naked picture that said something very inappropriate instead of "keep safe x,"? I'm just saying, I think he took the whole thing a bit too far. Before you all assume I'm one of those girls that hates romantic movies because this has never happened to me, you're wrong (not about the fact that nothing like this has happened to me, it hasn't). I love romantic movies and right below the surface I'm a hopeless romantic, but movies like this annoy me because they just add to my completely unrealistic views of men in general. So thank you Nicholas Sparks, I do not believe you are a man with a kind heart, I just believe you are a douchebag (who can write one hell of a story). On a serious note, I do respect him (damn him for writing so well...).

   My first opinion of this movie was based on the teaser trailer (above) when basically all the information you have is this (my version of a tobuscus literal trailer!): Army scene, Zach Efron picks up photo, *zoom* "keep safe x", explosion behind him, suddenly he's surfing the Internet (creepily finding where the picture was taken), then there's the girl in the picture! (Oddly in the same clothing from the photo?) Flashes of them together laughing, then she's sitting at a table and he says "I found your picture" she looks oddly freaked out, dramatic flashes of big cast members (and some sex scenes...I think 3 in under 10 seconds? Risky). And that's it. My reaction was literally this: So he finds her picture, meets her, explains his situation, falls in love with her, and they live happily ever after...? That sounds way too predictable and annoying. And honestly the movie did not look that great to me at all. I mean I'd probably end up getting it on DVD and watching it alone on a rainy day with more magically disappearing ice cream, but definitely not a movie I'd pay to see in theaters. Apparently there's more to the plot (I discovered this after seeing the 2 and a half minute trailer below) and I won't give it away, but let's just say I went from thinking this would be mediocre to a decent (yet still predictable) film.

   My main problem is that they're going crazy with the love movies recently and it annoys me. Not because I'm single, not because couples annoy me, not because I hate romance, simply because you have to draw the line at some point. I know things like The Vow are cute, and The Notebook was an amazing film that gives all of us hope for love (and my opinion is never let that hope go, there is someone for everyone), but do wee need a billion movies with hot guys getting an attractive girl against some crazy odds or an unrealistic circumstance? I mean at this point we've damn near seen every story you can imagine (even some you really disagree with) and let's face it: It stops being cute and becomes a tad bit upsetting. Solely because of how unrealistic it is. Again, I don't say this out of bitterness (a word...I think), I say it because it's true. Every girl wants a guy that's romantic...maybe only when you're alone, maybe in a non-traditional way, or maybe even in a way that only you understand...you still want romance and the fact is for some girls these movies just set the bar too high. So I really hope they stop making these movies and stop creating sad hopeless romantics like me.
   I didn't realize that was a rant until it was over, but I guess it was...well, my opinion is this movie won't be terrible, and if you're having a girls night maybe you could go see it, or if you're one of those girls you can drag your boyfriend to see it (seriously, do not be that girl. Nobody likes her). Go watch it, I'm sure it will make you go 'Awwww' and bawl your eyes out.