Audiences might bemoan the lack of original thinking at the movies these days — all those sequels, remakes, and reboots! — but even new ideas can feel suddenly played out when faced with the horrifying specter of parallel thinking.
Consider everything from “Deep Impact” and “Armageddon” to “Dante’s Peak” and “Volcano,” “Capote” and “Infamous” to “No Strings Attached” and “Friends with Benefits,” and those are just contemporary examples of the phenomenon.
If you’ve got an idea for a movie — hopefully, a good one to boot — chances are, someone else has it, too.
And they may even have it at the exact same time.Such is the case with Kirk DeMicco and Faryn Pearl’s “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken,” which arrives on the heels (fins? paws?) of some very similar other animated adventures, like Pixar’s superior “Turning Red” and the studio’s less thrilling entry “Luca,” both of which use monstrous…
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