Your Thoughts On Remakes And Reboots

[Dave]

Let's face it, over the last few years, Hollywood has been set alight by reboots. Admittedly, they can have mixed fortunes in terms of hos successful they are. But none the less, it seems as though rebooting a franchise is the new hot button around the film community. With Colin Farrell now signed on to do a remake of Total Recall, it seems that rebooting movies are a quick-fix for many film studios.

But all in all, what have they learned from reboots in the past?

One would think that they would have learned that re-doing a movie, merely to make more use of CGI and special effects will not work. For a pretty good illustration of this point, please make sure that you see, or don't see more to the point, Clash Of The Titans. That movie sacrificed a huge amount of time that could have been used to bring a more progressive and engrossing story our way to give us flashy CGI sequences that no one really cared about. And it isn't just Clash Of The Titans that is guilty of doing this. Movies like Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory have been reincarnated to take advantage of progress in the movie industry. But it seems as though all of the hype around reboots generally leaves people disappointed on release day.

It's not always bad though. With The Dark Knight and Batman begins, Casino Royale, The Departed, True Grit and an upcoming Spiderman reboot to look forward to, it can be hard to gauge the success of reboots.

In cinemas now, a remake of Footloose is being shown to those who would pay their money to see it. It just seems to me that reboots and do-overs are exactly what Hollywood is relying on. Instead of creating a movie that will be original and draw people in on it's own, they rely on the legacy of the original movies in the hope that they will hit the ground running. For me, it comes off as lazy and a slap in the face to some of the movies that have crafted legacies in the film community. Footloose, whether you like it or not, is a huge deal in the world of film. Yet it has been reduced to an MTV film that really belongs on the fucking Disney Channel more than anything.

Good remakes and reboots don't come often but when they do, they generally create a whole new generation of fans. Christopher Nolan did it with Batman and James Bond is seeing a lot more success in the main stream since Daniel Craig took over as 007 and starred in Casino Royale.

So, with all of that in mind, are you a fan of reboots and remakes? Is there a line that you hope that Hollywood doesn't cross in terms of movies that you like and would hate to see re-done? do you care at all as long as it is well done?

I'm intrigued by your thoughts.

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

I personally prefer re-boots over remakes. Re-boots allow certain character distinctions to be re-drawn, as was the case with the Casino Royale example which then gives the films following from the re-boot to explore the possibilities even more of where the main and supporting characters can go; see Batman Begins -> Dark Knight.

Begins allowed us to see how Batman came to be rather than the original Batman where he was already up and running at the start. Begins was a chance to establish Nolan and Bale's idea of Wayne/Batman to a new audience who may not have seen Keaton's, Kilmer's or God forbid even Clooney's take on the pre-existing 'Wayne/Batman'. With this absence of character burden, Batman and Wayne are built from the ground-up (probably no accident that there is such focus on the cave under Wayne manor and the manor's reduction to rubble at the end as a kind of metaphor) with Wayne demonstrating a few facades the whole way through the film until the end where he understands what he needs to be in both roles.


Remakes however, are generally more misses than hits with me. There have been some good ones yes, but their main function nowadays seem to be simply to make money and perhaps spawn sequels if they have done well at the box-office. I understand that, but I do not like it.

At Uni, my dissertation was actually on remakes, specifically Western remakes of East-Asian (Japanese) samurai films. What I discovered was that for the films I compared, Seven Samurai and Yojimbo with Magnificent Seven and Fistful of Dollars respectively, the Western films contained a lot more action and a lot less subtlety than the originals, as well as other minor things.

I even had a go at The Departed too, as the original, Infernal Affairs, contains a lot of subtle narrative clues and continuity in a shorter running time that by comparison makes The Departed seem a bit bloated and disjointed (though still very good.)


So overall, I'd say re-boots are the better option rather than remakes but I understand why so many remakes are either on the go or being mooted for production. I just don't expect many or any remakes to surpass the originals just because the technology nowadays is superior.

 

[amazing_blue]

So we're actually allowed to share our opinions about movies here? Who knew?

Maybe they should rename this place MovieZone.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

One would think that they would have learned that re-doing a movie, merely to make more use of CGI and special effects will not work.

This is same feeling I had, when I first saw The Thing (2011). Yeah, the CGI looked cool and mesmerizing, and the effects were very detailed, but these effects DID NOT help this film. The special effects in The Thing (1982) weren't too flashy, but they did look a lot more realistic. These effects provided plenty of shocking and disturbing moments, because the effects in The Thing (1982) were genuinely disgusting and repulsive. The effects in The Thing (2011) were a pleasing treat for the eyes, but most of the time, these affects were too mesmerizing, and they didn't want to make me turn away from the screen.

Anyway, I usually don't have a problem with remakes. I always try to give remakes a chance, but most of the time, fans of the original films won't do this, because they won't accept something new. "IT WILL NEVER BE BETTER THAN THE ORIGINALS!!" This is usually the mentality they have, and I've seen this throughout the internet. I have been a fan of The Thing (1982) for years, and I was actually excited at the thought of a new film. I wanted to see what the 2011 version had to offer. Of course, that film was a piece of shit, but still, I wanted to give it a chance. I'll always enjoy the older Halloween films, but I also love Halloween (2007), and this film is high up on my list of favorite remakes. You never know what you're going to get when it comes to remakes. You could get a surprise every now and then, but you'll never know, if you don't give the new film (or films) a chance.

Like remakes, reboots can feel VERY unnecessary most of the time, but reboots can also provide a fresh start. At first, I wasn't too excited about the Spider-Man reboot, but I actually begin to accept the idea of a new series of films after a while. Emma Stone is a promising young actress, who continues to rise in Hollywood, and Andrew Garfield could be a good Peter Parker/Spider-Man. Plus, I've always thought Spider-Man 3 was a piece of garbage, so a fresh start could actually breathe some new life into this franchise. Yeah, I know Spider-Man 3 was a box office hit, but I just can't stand this film.

In the end, fans should give remakes and reboots a chance. Sure, Hollywood is trying to capitalize off of the nostalgia factor, and this does work most of the time. The remakes of Halloween, Friday The 13th, and A Nightmare On Elm Street were trashed by the critics, and a good amount of people hated these films, but each film was a box office success. Why? Because fans of the original films were curious. They wanted to see what the new films had to offer. Usually, the new films won't measure up to the older films, because films like Halloween (1978) and A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) will always have that "one of a kind" feeling, but giving the new films a try won't hurt, but some of the remakes and reboots will be doomed for failure, when it comes to criticisms, because they will never escape the shadow of the originals.

 

[Blue Chipper]

Remakes tend to do critically worse than the original, and as such, is considered to be of less artistic quality, and movie fanatics do not like it when their original masterpiece is degraded. Fans of the original move experience a bias when they view a remake. They remember how good the original was, and the impression it made on them. Nostalgia is pouring from every opening in their body, and when the remake is not what they expected, they show disapproval.

Fans simply love their original movie, and to see it redone in a way that they do not approve of, they hate it.

Personally, I love any movie that I can find at least an iota of merit out of. With that in mind, I'm open-minded when it comes to remakes. More often than not, I can be thoroughly entertained by a remake of a movie that I originally liked. So, I say as long as the remake doesn't tarnish the original and a percentage of viewer can get enjoyment out of it, I approve of the continuation of remakes being made.

 

[The Woo Kid]

I quite enjoy reboots and remakes. In general I think movie directors do a better job at remakes and reboots then people give them credit for, I will say this thought the spiderman reboot just seems awful and unnecessary. Howver, overall I like the concept of remakes because it maintains interest in a move franchise.

 

[GrandSword]

There has been more misses than hits when it has come to the remakes/boots of certain movies.

Uusally they consist of a better looking cast and better special effects, but whatever it was that made the original special seems to be lost ie: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre...

I'm still saying how much I disagree with Casino Royale as the Daniel Craig Bond was stripped of everything that was enduring to the James Bond chaarcter. The smooth talking, intelligent, hard drinking, smoking, womanising, almost unfit, lathario, was replaced by basically Jason Bourne. A beefed up, muscle brain, who shoots first asks questions later type of guy. Sorry for going off tangent..

I think remakes and reboots screams of a total lack of unoriginality coming out of Hollywood these days...