As I've talked about recently, I believe that "American Pie" is modern anti-technology allegory, despite the fact that that universe has unfortunately dropped into the straight-to-video market, a new trailer for "American Reunion" recently released, meaning that there is another in-canon addition to the franchise. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEJn00VGV4s)
The trailer (in case you didn't watch) has a scene (first prediction: this scene will almost verbatim be the first few minutes of the final movie) wherein Jim and Michelle are now living happily as a married couple - Michelle retires to take a bath, while Jim stays up to work on his laptop. Of course the siren call of the Internet draws him to watch some porn on it, his son walks in, and he cannot turn off the moans emanated from the digital porn he's now holding. He stumbles into the bathroom to find his wife, also onanistically engaged with a vibrating shower head. These developments will come as no surprise to those familiar with my previous writings: the AP universe has always been at its heart a series about the eternal battle between artifice and sincerity. Here we have two healthy adults, self-engaging themselves sexually no more than ten feet from each other - of course they will be embarrassed by this, this universe always punishes using technology over authentic human interaction. (Second prediction: this will be followed by a scene where Jim talks to the Guys about his sexual insecurity, followed by him trying to get his groove back, and finally them reigniting the flames through the power of the Flute.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7qq0iJGSu0
This will be followed up by a more in depth critique after I watch "Reunion", but for now, we continue to ponder how the ramifications of a world that has become increasingly artificial. The last film came out in 2003, and since then we've had an explosion of Facebook and Twitter (allowing social interaction to occur without ever actually "seeing" anyone), Netflix and Hulu (allowing the consumption of mass media without gathering around a TV or movie theater), and smartphones (allowing us to ignore even casual interactions with, heaven forbid, strangers). The second trailer there is the longer one - wherein we learn that it's time for the ten year reunion for the class of East Great Falls High (nevermind their actual reunion should have been three years ago - don't worry about that). Jim and Michelle are married with a kid, Kevin has become a housedad, Oz and Stifler both appear to have become successful somethings (junior executives?), and Finch shows up as enigmatic as ever. (Also apparently Jim's mom died three years ago?)
What is key here is that a high school reunion was selected - the central motif of artifice versus sincerity can be rewritten as artifice versus innocence. In a lot of ways, the ten year reunion really marks a definitive end of innocence - the Guys get back together in their old home town, find a high school party (which they crash), but the main struggle here is that they are no longer even young adults - they're grown ups now. When you return home and see your former classmates, many of whom you have not seen in a full decade, you're suddenly hit by the resonance of seeing people you used to do, well, high school things with now professionals and parents. Responsible, settled into lives with significant others and jobs and children. This life now feels artificial, especially when sharply contrasted against their childhoods - but this is, for better or worse, life now. This existence only feels artificial, and it's a sad fact of life that we cease being innocent at a point. (Prediction three: Kevin will have the hardest time coping with this fact right before the reunion proper. Alternative prediction three: same as before, but the clinching moment will happen in the middle of the reunion.)
Ultimately the philosophical dilemma of the artifice (embarrassing premature videos, Finch and Stifler pretending to be each other in "Wedding", etc.) and innocence and truth (expressing love for someone by impersonating a mentally touched trombonist, realizing who your friends are etc.) in light of the more debauched behavior of the films leads us to the only conclusion available - these movies are about growing up, and the adventures we have along the way.
Prediction four: I will love this movie.
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