Are Reboots/Remakes Ever Good?

[AutisticMilly]

You can probably guess from the title what this is about. Do you think that remakes, reboots, and re-imaginings of old properties ever turn out good? Additionally, are there any that you particularly liked or disliked?

I’ll start with one of my special interests. Last year, Studio Orange released a re-imagined Trigun series done completely in 3DCGI. A lot of people seemed to dislike the trailers that were being put out, but the anime itself got good ratings and is getting a second season. I myself thought it was pretty well made, despite it lacking some key features I enjoyed from the original.

I’d be interested to hear more thoughts on this potentially controversial topic!

 

[Outdated]

As a general rule of thumb most remakes are a disappointment but there's been enough great successes that a lot of people are still prepared to gamble on spending the money to make them. Movie sequels are quite often also dismal attempts at grabbing a few extra dollars from fans and nowhere near as good as the originals. And the same happens in the music world too.

Example of a good movie remake: The Italian Job
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317740/
Example of good and bad sequels: the xXx series of movies. The first movie was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it. The second movie was beyond bad, so bad that it's embarrassing to admit that I even watched it, I don't blame Vin Deisel one bit for refusing to act in that. The third movie in the series is actually very good, if not quite up on par with the original.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XXX_(film_series)
Music remakes (covers) are mostly dismal failures, especially so when musicians try to copy the same style as the original performer. Where a musician remakes a song in their own style they tend to be a lot more successful, a classic example of this is Jimmy Hendrix with All Along The Watch Tower, a song he almost got in to a lot of trouble over because it was Bob Dylan's song and Jimmy started performing his own version of it without permission.

And a music remake that I really enjoyed, no one can outFloyd the original Pink Floyd, but by putting his own style on this song instead of trying to recreate the original sound he made something really enjoyable to watch and listen to.

 

[Gerontius]

The Coen Brothers remade True Grit. It came out closer to the original novel in their hands, and their actor got to play a better Rooster Cogburn than John Wayne's 1969 version where he ended up mostly just playing John Wayne. The soundtrack for the later True Grit is superior IMHO as well.

 

[Metalhead]

David Cronenberg’s The Fly was better than the original.

John Carpenter’s The Thing was better than the original.

 

[Richelle-H]

In my opinion Mad Max: Fury Road is superior to the first three in every way possible. George Miller finally made the film he was trying to get made when he only had a shoestring budget to work with.

 

[Judge]

"The Thomas Crown Affair" with Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo made in 1999.

IMO superior to the original with Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway made in 1968.

 

[GrownupGirl]

Remakes of movies and TV shows are almost never as good as the original, in fact they're downright awful most of the time. It's all because the writers "think" they have to make all kinds of changes to appeal to modern viewers, like taking out the wholesomeness or innocence and filling it with bathroom "humor" and swear words and other garbage. I'll bet that's what will happen if Disney decides to make a live action version of The Aristocats, which was a cartoon movie where the cats are refined and dignified, much like real cats are. They'll probably have Marie the kitten say "I'm a lady", let out a giant fart and then say to her brothers, "What's the matter, you never seen a lady pass gas?"

Okay, maybe that would be kind of funny if it was a parody sketch of the original movie or something like that. But not a remake that they're letting kids in this dark era watch, it would be even worse than the remake of Pinocchio.

 

[SusanLR]

Most remakes don't live up to the originals. A few do.
I see The Thing was listed @Metalhead .
I just watched the third production, 2011, a few days ago.
It was good IMO.
King Kong 2005 and Kong Skull Island 2017 were my favorites of the King Kongs.

As far as movie series, I liked all of the Star Trek movies and all of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings movies. The Jurassic Park movies.
I also like the X-Men movies. The last, Wolverine, was one of the best.

There have been series remakes that I don't like at all.
Magnum PI, Quantum Leap, Hawaii Five-O are examples.

 

[autism-and-autotune]

David Cronenberg’s The Fly was better than the original.

John Carpenter’s The Thing was better than the original.

Upvote for Carpenter. He's an undisputed deity of making excellent horror.

 

[Judge]

Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes" (2001) was much better than the original film made in 1968.

One can argue over the very premise of the film as being preposterous, however I think Burton put far more "polish" over the basic story compared to Arthur P. Jacobs and his series of film sequels that went downhill with each release, which reflected an evolution of shock value of the first film to camp of the last one.

Gutsy move on Burton's part to even consider resurrecting this series, though I assume he also had the wisdom NOT to consider any further sequels.

 

[Swansong]

It's obviously a case by case thing but as a general rule I'd say that most media products that get this treatment get so because they are considered to be good or are at least popular, which is the exception because most things aren't successful, so it makes sense that reboots and remakes often fail, because they're working against the numbers, the original already did the unlikely so repeating it again with the same properly is improbable.

Also, reboots and remakes obviously have a 100% commercial drive to them, if somebody is trying to create out of passion and not 100% for money then they're less likely to bother rehashing previous works or stories, meanwhile there's at least a chance that the original work had at least some creative drive behind it.

 

[mysterionz]

2016 reboot of the powerpuff girls is horrendous.. watch the original 1998 version instead. Great first four seasons, fifth and sixth are dry.. CW tried to make a live action reboot but that thankfully got cancelled due to it being panned by the fandom.

 

[GrownupGirl]

Last night I found out that Disney is making a live action remake of Snow White and the titular character is not going to be white, and the dwarf will not be actual dwarfs, as in little people.

Oh yeah, this is going to be spicier than hothouse of ghost chili peppers. A story about a princess living in GERMANY during medieval times, but apparently they can't make her white because that's offensive now. I read that in Japan Disney's Snow White is very popular because she has fair skin and black hair, which is considered the perfect form of female beauty in their culture. I wonder how people in Japan will feel about the new movie?

 

[mysterionz]

Last night I found out that Disney is making a live action remake of Snow White and the titular character is not going to be white, and the dwarf will not be actual dwarfs, as in little people.

And controversy is rolling in like what happened with the little mermaid live action remake.

 

[AutisticMilly]

Last night I found out that Disney is making a live action remake of Snow White and the titular character is not going to be white, and the dwarf will not be actual dwarfs, as in little people.

Oh yeah, this is going to be spicier than hothouse of ghost chili peppers. A story about a princess living in GERMANY during medieval times, but apparently they can't make her white because that's offensive now. I read that in Japan Disney's Snow White is very popular because she has fair skin and black hair, which is considered the perfect form of female beauty in their culture. I wonder how people in Japan will feel about the new movie?

I don’t really think it’s fair to judge the actress by her race. Anyone should be able to play Snow White. I have other problems with Disney remakes though.

 

[Princess Viola]

I mean Snow White isn't a real person and there's nothing about the story of Snow White or the character that says she must be white.

It's a fantasy story, it's not real.

Also like...the original film still exists. That's why I find it hard to care when people complain about how remakes or reboots 'ruin' the original work. No it doesn't, you can literally still go and watch the original version.

 

[Jacks Brain]

The Battlestar Galactica reimagining of the 2000's was one of the best tv shows ever, despite a stupid ending.

 

[Neat Hedgehog]

His Girl Friday (1940) was a remake of The Front Page (1931) which was itself a broadway play.

While The Front Page was a good movie in its own right, it just can't match the visual quality, manic energy, and comedic timing of His Girl Friday

 

[Kavigant]

The Battlestar Galactica reimagining of the 2000's was one of the best tv shows ever, despite a stupid ending.

This is what I came here to say. I still have tremendous affection for the original series which I watched when it first aired on network television, but the remake was a remarkable accomplishment in itself. (I thought Caprica was also pretty good.)

 

[Tyer]

OF course it depends on taste. I personally had the experiences by watching remakes to find the original. I like to dig deeper into stuff I'm interested, so I found a lot of gems this way. Plus, this life would be less colorful without remakes and new interpretations. Nobody has to watch them if they don't like it. But it always interested me where it was different, how those people, making it, thought. -What was important to them-
seeing and savoring the differences between all those superhero movies. Some better some worse, but I'm even grateful for the not so good ones.

I like -let me in- which lead me to -let the right one in- and that to the book, which I bought immediately, never regretting it. (Even if it had surprises in it which I didn't expect. I was young.)
(Same with Stephen Kings IT.)

I love all Devilman movies and series. From the first old school hero tv-series to the newest heart wrenching netflix series Crybaby. I even watched the not so good live action, but even if I don't need to watch it again I don't think I wasted my time. (Don't watch it if you can't handle the...quality.)(I'm able to watch a lot of boring or confusing things others can't endure.)

Remakes like Batman, Spiderman, Superman, Gilgamesh, Romeo and Juliet, Beowulf, Sherlock Holmes, etc... what are we without them? Some of us would never know about its base if they haven't watched a remake.

Maybe not all ever made remakes are good.
but!
If remakes suddenly stopped getting made, maybe a lot of good stories, messages and classics would vanish over time, out of the eyes of many, slowly dying out. Which would be devastating.

Life just makes more fun to follow connections. And finding all those enjoyable big and little things. While filtering out the stuff you like and dislike.