Too many reboots?

[Adora]

There Is one thing that is really annoying me is all these movie reboots or remakes that are constantly coming out these days,I recently heard that they are going to reboot spiderman for the third time and he will back in high school,also there might be a remake of the crow,have Hollywood seriously run out of ideas and plus some movies don't need to be rebooted,what do you guys that think do you think there are too many remakes?

 

[StephF]

Its because the movie makers are just too lazy to make new stuff. Its cheaper to recycle existing stuff and turn it into garbage

 

[Judge]

Formula film production. A pathetic concept that has been around for a while. That it's much less riskier to invest in a project with a financially historical and measurable track record than leave the equation to chance using entirely new material which may appeal to a more restricted demographic.

It's tragic...but it's strictly business. Small wonder I hardly ever pay to see a movie any more.

Frankly there are next to no remakes I've seen that were superior IMO to the original. The one title that always comes to mind is "The Thomas Crown Affair", in which the 1999 remake was far more fun than the original 1968 film with Steve McQueen. Another title that comes to mind is the remake of "Ocean's Eleven" with George Clooney.

And now a remake of "Mad Max" is about to be released. It never ends!

 

[Adora]

Formula film production. A pathetic concept that has been around for a while. That it's much less riskier to invest in a project with a financially historical and measurable track record than leave the equation to chance using entirely new material which may appeal to a more restricted demographic.

It's tragic...but it's strictly business. Small wonder I hardly ever pay to see a movie any more.

Frankly there are next to no remakes I've seen that were superior IMO to the original. The one title that always comes to mind is "The Thomas Crown Affair", in which the 1999 remake was far more fun than the original 1968 film with Steve McQueen. Another title that comes to mind is the remake of "Ocean's Eleven" with George Clooney.

And now a remake of "Mad Max" is about to be released. It never ends!

Yeah saw the trailer for that not really interested but I do agrees sometimes though rarely remakes can be better but still can't wrap my head over the 3rd spiderman reboot though.

 

[Slithytoves]

What kills me is that there are so many fantastic Indies being made that never see cinematic distribution. I dated a movie actor until fairly recently. He is a known name but he acts in a lot of smaller films, mostly out of preference. I had the interesting experience of watching a very smart, fresh, well-written film develop from when he first signed onto the project through DVD release. I was on the set every day, attended festivals, supported the young guys that wrote/directed/produced it as they struggled to get distribution. It's an incredibly expensive and demoralizing game. After blowing untold amounts of money on production and promotion, you have to shell out even more to get a project onto the big screen. This one was winning festivals left and right, but in the end it only went straight to DVD.

The major studios have a choke-hold on the system, but they have little imagination and care more about a guaranteed audience (thus reboots) than they do quality or originality. That's somewhat because of the massive budgets that have become more or less required for a competitive product, these days. The studios did that to themselves. It sucks.

 

[Judge]

In my "moviegoing youth" we still had plenty of variety. Studios were still willing to take a chance on creativity. For decades I would see a minimum of one movie a week.

Now most films are simply the product of calculated mediocrity, reduced to a profit-making formula based on nominal box office receipts for an audience under 30.

So that's mostly all Hollywood has to offer these days. Capitalizing on existing story lines, emphasizing that what Christoper Nolan did for Batman can be universally applied to most anything and everything. And to "wow" your audience with special effects rather than rely on superior acting and writing.

It's amazing that in spite of all this, a few good films are still occasionally being made.

 

[Spiller]

I totally agree with the previous posts on the annoyance of making films to a formula for profit, though I think there can be potential to remake good films well from the perspective of being a fan of the original.. I'm thinking of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The two new Star Trek films, made by people who greatly admired the original concepts.
I, personally, like to see ideas that fans have been kicking around for years creep into remakes, as well as new spins on the original films, so there is occasionally something to be said in favour of reboots. I'm certainly intrigued by the new Terminator film 'Genesys'..
There are also re-hashs on old ideas coming in serial form - I recently watched the series based on 'From Dusk Till Dawn' and thought it was really good, it explained a lot that the film just didn't have time to cover. I'm also following the series based on 12 Monkeys - not quite as good, but still interesting. I also thought 'The Sarah Connor Chronicles' was brilliant and couldn't understand why it ended so abruptly - there's so much rubbish around now, why does the good stuff always seem to suffer?

 

[Slithytoves]

In my "moviegoing youth" we still had plenty of variety. Studios were still willing to take a chance on creativity. For decades I would see a minimum of one movie a week.

In the 1990s the Indie market was booming, and lots of cool little films made it into limited distribution through locally-owned independent theaters. When they did well there, they had a shot at broader release. Those theaters are being priced out of existence, though, for the costs of screening a film and upgrading equipment and facilities. People like stadium seating, expensive sound systems and ample parking.

Malcolm McDowell made an interesting comment to me about the decline of the Indie. He said the death of Ismael Merchant marked a turning point in the Indie boom, from his perspective. Merchant-Ivory made a number of successful, high-quality dramas that were very different from the mainstream studio fare. The popularity of those films broadened the tastes of moviegoers, elevating the Indie as a latent result. The Anglophile element of M-I films paved the way in the U.S. for a lot of good titles like The Full Monty, Brassed Off and Waking Ned Devine, which also primed moviegoers to take more chances with their entertainment dollars. When Merchant, the producer of the pair, passed away, the Indie market lost a bridge between "big cinema" and small films that the major studios was quick to exploit. McDowell's thoughts, not mine, but I agree.

There are still some good movies out there. Odd films like Nebraska and Slumdog Millionaire occasionally catch on. Audiences may eventually get fed up with paying higher and higher admission to the same big-budget crap, and turn to the smaller, quirkier stuff again. Not holding my breath, though. I almost never go the movies anymore. The last film I saw in a theater was The Imitation Game, and I can't remember the one before that.


Edit: Grammar

 

[King_Oni]

I'm not particularly fond of reboots myself, but then again, there are so many movies they thought were a great idea back in the 70s, 80s or 90s and they looked terrible and probably hurt the franchise more. As it is I feel that movies of some kind of "intellectual property", be it a comic, a game or a book, should be worthy of it.

I guess, I'm happy that Tim Burton, back in the late 80s picked up Batman, otherwise we'd still have our Adam West Batman... which surely isn't why I like to read the dark knights illustrated stories. And I guess the same can be said about that crappy Captain America movie from the 90s, Spiderman back in the.. I believe 70s, and so on. I guess back in the day, it looked fine for fans of the theme/character, but I'm to believe that we're slowly getting to a level where some, not all, movies actually do the characters justice (and I'm looking at all those comicbook movies mostly). At least, from a technological point of view. We have the tools to make great CGI; I remember seeing the Power rangers movie in the theatre and those zords and the CGI back in the day... oh man... great as a teen, but compared to now...

It however, puzzles me that in less than 20 years, we see reboots of movies that feel more like "yeah, let's just reintroduce this character" rather than it actually feels like an improvement. Granted, that The 3rd Spiderman movie with Sandman and Venom wasn't the best overall, I felt that Sam Raimi's series at least had perfect casting; those characters actually looked like the ones from the cartoon for most part. That installment with Garfield now... ugh. Just that, makes me cringe... it's sad when the most interesting part in such a movie is Stan Lee's cameo.

I saw a movie poster for the new Fantastic four the other day... the person who was best portrayed on that poster was The thing. And the idea that Dr. Doom is some kind of hacker now... really?

What irks me with reboots is they stray so far from the source material it's not even funny anymore. Heck, it's not even a bad joke either. Kudos for creativity if you can make it sound and look good; but I don't know if anyone remembers all the rage when that Turtles movie was announced last year or so. One of the first tidbits was that they would be aliens, not mutants. Despite the movie is based on a comic, cartoon and toyline called "Teenage mutant ninja turtles".

I guess I'm also partial that some movies worked great in a certain era. The zeitgeist of that era summed it up perfectly. Some just translate terrible to this day and age (even if it's just, say.. 20 years later). I found some appeal in the Ninja turtles movies back in the 90s as a kid, because it oozed (pun intended) all kinds of late 80s/early 90s stuff. I think it's among the reasons why it worked and was quite popular.

A final thing I'll add about reboots that doesn't sit well with me is when specific directors get their mits on it to film it. Some directors, as good as they are in their craft, just don't have the right "style" to suit it IMO. I mean... Bayformers...

But in defense, there have been a few decent reboots/remakes I suppose. I already mentioned Captain America. Spiderman (the Sam Raimi trilogy), Batman (both the Tim Burton ones and the Nolan ones; I shall not speak of Batman forever or Batman and robin). And actually... one of my favorite movies, which has been "remade" in it's own weird way, The thing. John Carpenters The thing was already a remake by a 1950s movie called The thing from another world. So back in 2012, word had it, it's a remake from the Carpenter one. However, it's not e remake, it's a prequel. Still I guess it made the movie slightly relevant again in general (The thing, as a body horror flick, not neccesarily just Carpenters iteration). And I quite liked Robocop that came out last year or so. That movie is a good example of 80s style all over it which might've done well with a bit of a modern day rehash.

And now a remake of "Mad Max" is about to be released. It never ends!

Ahem... that is no remake... it's the fourth movie in the series.

 

[Judge]

The Anglophile element of M-I films paved the way in the U.S. for a lot of good titles like The Full Monty, Brassed Off and Waking Ned Devine, which also primed moviegoers to take more chances with their entertainment dollars.

I loved all three of those films!

 

[Flinty]

There Is one thing that is really annoying me is all these movie reboots or remakes that are constantly coming out these days,I recently heard that they are going to reboot spiderman for the third time and he will back in high school,also there might be a remake of the crow,have Hollywood seriously run out of ideas and plus some movies don't need to be rebooted,what do you guys that think do you think there are too many remakes?

It's simple - it's what makes money and can by hyped with trailers. (If there's one thing I hate, it's anyone that is constantly going Did you see the trailer for...??? Why, no, I didn't because I try to be useful with my time, and some of that footage isn't going to end up in the movie.

(Disclosure: I've been to exactly three movies this decade. Two of them were Woody Allen works.)

 

[Judge]

Ahem... that is no remake... it's the fourth movie in the series.

Yeah...just read about "Fury Road". Even has George Miller back to direct it. Well that's allowed!

 

[BigTimber]

It's part of a '3 Phase' plan that started in 2008 and will end in 2019. Notice that one producer attached to everything? That's Kevin Feige, the President of Marvel Studios.

I haven't liked any of the movies so far. So, I won't be bothering with the rest of them. When you break it down, they're simply not good movies and won't survive the test of time. The script is usually poor quality, so they make up for with gimmicks and ****** CGI that defy physics and reality. That's not going to wow a viewer in 10 or 20 years.

 

[tree]

Imagine 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'
Jane Russell, Marilyn Monroe 1953
remade starring:
Miley Cyrus, Beyonce, 2015.
The 1953 movie was adapted from
the Broadway musical starring Carol Channing 1949
which was based on a novel published in 1925.


I used to think that all stories & plays were original, the idea of one person: unique and never repeated. When I began to read Greek tragedies on my own, not at school, I was surprised to find out that the yearly drama competitions gave prizes for the best rendition of an already known story.

And that Chaucer & Boccaccio were revered not so much for presenting heretofore unheard tales, but for coming up with the best versions of plots already known.