Ah, the movie reboot, a term that’s become fashionable in the last five-or-so years, as Hollywood becomes more creatively stagnant than ever.
Of course, it’s important to establish quite what a reboot is, as many tend to confuse it with a remake; a reboot is a new take on a franchise that has run itself into the ground (typically featuring new characters or a bold new aesthetic) whereas a remake tends to be closer in tone and style to the original film, such as the impending new take on horror classic Carrie, for instance.
Though reboots do allow a little more room for invention, they’re still largely cynical exercises, an attempt by Hollywood to shock a tired property back to life, and as last year’s The Amazing Spider-Man has proven, too often they’re made out of sheer necessity to prevent the rights reverting back to the original proprieter.
These reboots are doomed to fail for a multitude of reasons – lack of necessity, a troubled production history, and just downright braindead creative ideas – and rest assured, we’ll be saying “I told you so” when they inevitably do.
Here are 10 upcoming movie reboots doomed to fail…
10. Lethal Weapon
Though the project is still in the early stages, scribe Will Beall is reportedly hard at work updating the classic buddy cop franchise for 2013, after plans for a fifth film fell through following Mel Gibson’s latest dash with embarrassment.
Though the film is expected to retain the same rated-R tone of the original film, one has to ask – how relevant is Lethal Weapon in contemporary pop culture?
When it was released, the original film felt fresh and the buddy cop formula had not yet grown mould, such that the only films of this type that really work now are those that satirise and mock the genre (21 Jump Street, The Other Guys, Hot Fuzz).
Furthermore, the reboot plans to feature the characters Riggs and Murtaugh, a terrible idea what with our well-rooted associations of the characters to Gibson and Danny Glover. Given how superb their chemistry was throughout even some of the lesser sequels, it’d be best to introduce new characters and let us give them a chance rather than use those classic ones as crutches.
It probably won’t be the worst reboot we’ll see in the next few years, but expectations are not high.
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6 Comments
Christ, Child’s Play? The only way to revitalise that is with a crossover. And, even though it would probably suck in terms of a plot, it would be cool to see at least.
I think Daredevil will work though, if it’s done, given the success of the Disney/Marvel movies thus far.
Hollywood likes making money with very little effort thus their attraction with reboots since they (supposedly) have a built-in audience. But what about just re-releasing the originals? I know, I know. Instant, on-demand video have pretty much killed any chances of old movies gaining wide theatrical re-releases simply for the fact that studios would be spending millions in advertising for something a person with a Netflix account can already watch at home in HD. But still, it’s a better idea worth visiting in my opinion than remaking already great films.
May be stupid, but i actually kind believe Robocop will be good. Padilha is proved a good film maker. But maybe it will not look like Robocop…
Daredevil is one reboot i’m really waiting for. But i dont really have hope it will be good (it could…)
I think it will be!
The MCU movies have all been good so far. If they’re wanting to team him up with the Avengers, I think they’ll make sure they do a good job of it.
Being within a potential minority who HATED Verhouven’s “Starship Troopers”, I wouldn’t mind a reboot that sticks closer to the novel.
Several 80′s movies would make great movie reboots. I would like 80′s horror movies rebooted again. What do you all think?