What Averagely Makes a Movie Awesome

Since I’ll be doing movie reviews on this blog from time to time, I think it’s time to introduce the “Brent Alles' What Averagely Makes a Movie Awesome List” (patent pending). This is subject to change, but below are the “top 12” criteria as they currently stand (listed alphabetically, not necessarily by awesomeness).

BRENT ALLES' WHAT AVERAGELY MAKES A MOVIE AWESOME LIST (2010)
1. Aliens. From outer space, not immigrants.
2. Explosions. KA-BOOM!
3. Giant Monsters. GO GO GODZILLA!
4. Mobsters. From any era.
5. Ninjas. Preferably wearing black. See also http://www.realultimatepower.net/
6. Robots. Metallic form is preferred.
7. Space Combat. Preferably small ships against an impossibly large target.
8. Superheroes. Preferably in their original costumes from the comic books, not some “realistic” Hollywood idea of what a superhero costume should look like.
9. Supervillains. Mad scientists would definitely fit into this category; I'll also accept the weirdos from Dick Tracy and the like.
10. Time Travel. Preferably in a DeLorean, though other forms are acceptable.
11. Vampires. Not the moping, navel-gazing kind found in Twilight; I’m talking the bad-@$$ bloodsuckers found in Hammer films from the 1950’s and 1960’s and their proper descendants.
12. Werewolves. Again, the scary kind; not Taylor Lautner with his shirt off.

A film's WAMAMA Scale, then, is determined by how many of the above elements are in a given movie. More elements mean a better chance of being awesome. (Hence the insertion of the word "Averagely," since having something from the above list doesn't guarantee awesomeness; e.g., there have been plenty of awful films with space combat in them, believe it or not.)

For example, Star Wars (any of them) would have a WAMAMA Rating of 8, based on the following:
· Aliens. Check.
· Explosions. Check check.
· Giant Monsters. Check. The snow beast and asteroid worm from Empire Strikes Back are two good examples.
· Mobsters. Jabba the Hut is a mobster. (And contrary to some rumors, Marlon Brando did NOT play him; he wanted too much money.)
· Ninjas. I’ll stretch here and count the Jedis in this category.
· Robots. Plentiful.
· Space Combat. It’s not called Star Wars for nuthin’.
· Superheroes. Even though they’re not wearing comic book costumes, I would count Luke Skywalker and Han Solo in this category. And hey, Star Wars has appeared in comic book form in several manifestations.

For additional reference, “Valentine’s Day,” which I reviewed recently, would have a WAMAMA Scale of 0. (I’m not counting Ashton Kutcher as an “alien,” though maybe I should.)

That’s not to say that a movie with a higher score on the WAMAMA Scale is "awesomer" (me teach English - hi!) than another that at least qualifies with one of the criteria. For example, “Back to the Future,” one of my favorite film trilogies of all time, only has a 2 on the WAMAMA scale (“Time Travel” and "Explosions"), but it’s still almost as AWESOME as Star Wars. (And it beats the 1990's/2000's prequel trilogy quite handily, thank you very much.)

If you have your own ideas of “WAMAMA”, feel free to add them below, Rabbit Holers!