When Did Remakes Go Bad?

[Drtooth]

Personally, I like to call the Mr. Magoo remake Naked Gun 4: The Senile Years.

 

[WalterFan1234]

Wizard of oz

 

[Drtooth]

The Wizard of Oz series is perfectly stuck in the shadow of that one movie made that one time. The books are almost non-existant, apparently. That's a real shame. It was only Wicked (moreso the musical than the book it was based on, and even then the Musical ties into the movie) that broke that barrier.

Special mention goes to other things that are based on the movie. The cartoon series especially. It was actually pretty good.

 

[Dominicboo1]

Oz is actually much like how Disney handled fairy tales. It was at a time where children's stories were played down. Take the Brothers Grimm storries and then compare them to Disney. The Wizard of Oz book is actually quite similar.....some scenes involve the Tin Woodsman chopping off the head of a wildcat to save the Queen of the Field Mice, bees attempting to sting Dorothy and her friends to death, the witch ordering wolves to tear them to pieces, and the Tin Man became tin after chopping his own limbs off...this is hard to make child-friendly on screen, so the changes were necessary....

 

[Drtooth]

That stuff doesn't bug me as much as reading up on the whole issue of movie goers supposedly being too freaking dumb to get the reveal that Dorothy could have crossed back and forth to Oz, and had it as a dream instead. Of course, it does work for a solitary stand alone film, and it gave way to a an overused spoof reference.

But the problem isn't so much that Wizard of Oz is best remembered as a movie rather than a book, it's that ALL adaptions have to live in the shadow of that film. Even ones based on continuations of said book. Which is a shame, since more Oz really should be seen in film.

Anyway, I also forgot to mention that I detest the term remake when it comes to using a book/novel/short story/etc as source material. Unless you're directly trying to remake the movie, it's technically called a retelling. There's a difference between Remake (filming something that was already filmed using the original film as its source), Reboot (telling a completely new story with older characters to reestablish a new continuity), and Retelling (basing a film off of the original source material literature, but interpreting it differently than the first film based on the same book). A Christmas Carol has been told many times, but each slightly different than the last. All retellings, not remakes.

On that subject, Saban wants to launch a series of Power Ranger films. While I guess you could call this a "remake" (hard to tell if it's a full blown reboot or it's just a remake of the original series), one article lists it as "A Power Rangers Live Action Remake." What's wrong with that statement is obvious, but they realize that there has never been an animated Power Rangers series... no matter how hard Disney tried.

 

[Bridget]

I personally cannot judge the film being that it has yet to be released. But usually when I get a very dull feeling about a movie- I'm correct. Perhaps it is just me being a sour little one, but is anyone else feeling a certain way about the new Annie remake? I don't know about you guys, but they've remade that movie enough times in my opinion. I hope this one is worth it. "Maybe".

 

[beatnikchick300]

I'm really just sick of remakes, and not only because I don't think most of them are very good (to be fair, I never liked most of the Jay Ward cartoons to begin with, although I did enjoy the George of The Jungle movie), but because it seems that about 75% of all the movies that come out are either remakes, adaptations, or sequels. Is Hollywood really so devoid of creative writers and directors that no one can genuinely come up with a new idea?

 

[Drtooth]

I grow tired of the fallacy of "Hollywood can't come up with new ideas." That's a glib interpretation, actually. It removed the even worse and more cynical truth behind sequels and remakes.

It's not that Hollywood isn't out of ideas (at least in the sense of storytelling tropes that have been worn out since the days of storytellers and early theater), it's just ideas that make money will always trump "originality." If a film really hits, they tend to make films exactly like it. Everyone loves to complain about remakes and sequels... how about movies that are exactly the same as each other? I mean, sequels and remakes are at least honest. You know they're coming from somewhere. Ripoffs are ripoffs. I mean, there are only so many plots and stories out there, but then there are the films that intentionally rip something off.

And by no means is this follow the leader stuff new. Remember the era of Western film?

 

[CensoredAlso]

The problem with sequels is they're usually incredibly unnecessary. The first movie ties everything up nicely and there's nowhere else for the story to go (Looking at you, Pirates!).

Same with the majority of remakes, they just aren't necessary. And if they try to be different, they usually just embarrass themselves for their presumption, hehe.

 

[Drtooth]

It depends. Seems like they're trying to make movies now for the sequels and trying to make a full series of movies. And there's really something to that. For the longest time, the first movie is made, then years later they decide on a second one that seems sort of connected. And if there's a third one (This is called the 2 part trilogy) that connects to the second one, barely to the first one. Something even the original Star Wars was guilty of. Yeah, I love that film series like everyone else, but I still don't get why they'd rebuild the Death Star a second time with the same exact fatal flaw.

Seriously, there's so much irrational hate for The Dark Knight Rises (because it was slightly disappointing), but I respect the heck out of that movie for tying into the first film better than the second and closing the entire thing out instead of passing it off to someone less than talented... you know, like the last time.

When if comes down to it, I'll take a remake or a sequel to a serial numbers filed off clone. That's something we get quite a bit too much of as well, and it's a far more cynical move.