Its kind of sad, really. Think about it for a minute. We all come to a particular forum, where we can be around other people who are similar to ourselves in terms of intelligence / artistic integrity and the like. I would say this forum, among the entirety of the internets has one of the most intelligent user bases. That being said, we are not the "target market" for these movies. Oh, I'm sure there is quite a few of you who will secretly watch this, or any of the other movies, but all in all, these movies are not made for us. They are made for the MUCH larger population (you know, the same population that voted for Bush). It isn't surprising to me that this and its predecessors do well, or that "safe" bubblegum pop (despite the outfits) does well. It's easy to understand. There are no hidden messages, no deeper meanings, nothing to confuse the simpler minded. Everything is bluntly in your face. I mean, Americans are getting stupider by the year (if average IQ testing is to be believed), so do you really expect things with artistic merit to make it in this day and age? The only "art" field that doesn't have a part of it devoted to making simple things for simple people is the "fine" arts (Photography, Painting, etc), although I'm sure that could be argued as well.