Enough With the Reboots Already

     It's cliché at this point to say that Hollywood is out of ideas, but it's also still accurate. Every day brings news of some reboot of an old property, whether it be some horror film from long ago or even classic films that honestly should have just been left alone. But, capitalism being what it is, the studios are out to make money and sometimes we buy into it. So what's the problem with reboots anyway? Well, let's actually define the issue first.

Yeah, how about no.

     There are actually three types of reboots that we've been seeing lately. There's a standard reboot, like Ghostbusters (check out my review of that here), which erases the previous movies and effectively starts over from the beginning. The other two types are a little strange, depending on the actual movie. There are prequel reboots, like the most recent (and excellent) Planet of the Apes films, which are meant to reboot the franchise without stepping on the previous films. By setting itself before the established films, a film can profit off of the name brand and tell a new story, even if certain details conflict with the older films. The last type, and one we've seen quite a bit recently, is the sequel reboot, which follows up a previous film from long ago and attempts to revive the franchise that way. This year's big examples are The Legend of Tarzan and Independence Day: Resurgence, which both received middling reviews. So now that we've got the definitions, what's the actual problem here? Why can't the studios just make some money and bring back franchises we all know and love?

     The main problem here is that Hollywood is becoming incredibly lazy when it comes to making these types of movies, and they still expect you to fork out your hard-earned cash for them. I criticize Marvel all the time for sticking to their formula and not doing anything new or interesting, but I get why they do that. Those films are the big money-makers now, and despite the overabundance of "cinematic universe" filmmaking, I get that Hollywood needs to make their money. No issue with that at all (when it comes to quality, that's another story entirely...)

My last day at the Marvel Studios offices.

 

     Reboots, on the other hand, primarily rely on pre-existing brands to sell themselves. They don't need a formula to draw people in, only a good marketing campaign and enough cool stuff that either A) reminds people of the original or B) looks intriguing enough for people to come in and see. While some certainly don’t have that (Ghostbusters), there’s still no reason for the studios to be so damn lazy that they just either remake the original or just use the standard blockbuster template for every single property they reboot. Do we really need to see the same third act climactic battle AGAIN? Why is it so difficult for Hollywood to be creative for just one time!

     Unfortunately, the answer is quite simple. For the most part, sameness sells. Two years ago, Edge of Tomorrow, one of the more original and unique blockbusters in quite some time, bombed in the US like it was in the Middle East. Overseas markets saved it, thankfully, but the fact is that no one in the States wanted to see something cool and new. What was the highest grossing movie of that year? Guardians of the Galaxy? X-Men? Winter Soldier? Nope. Freaking Transformers 4 did that. Plus, it was the only film of that year to cross a billion dollars worldwide. Which is an incredibly sad state of affairs, if you ask me.

This is YOUR FAULT, world!

     Take heart though, folks, because the summer of 2016 seems to be turning things around. Reboot after reboot has underperformed in the box office, along with sequels to original (and successful) first films. While this doesn’t look good for promising upcoming films like Star Trek Beyond or Jason Bourne, it does show the beginning of a trend against this lazy filmmaking that could produce a plethora of new and exciting content.

     I think that if you’re still reading this, you have one question: why is this guy ranting about these dumb movies anyway? People only see a few movies per year on average, so why shouldn’t they go and see something they recognize? Well, hypothetical reader, let me tell you why I have a problem with it. I have a problem with it because movies are freaking expensive, and for me to go and plop down ten bucks of my hard-earned money just for Hollywood to dump some lazy, stupid and insultingly bad turd of a film on me makes me pretty mad. Sure, I see more movies than most folks, but I would assume that even people who only want to go and see a movie every now and then want to put their money towards something of quality. And for the most part, I don’t believe Hollywood has really done that with this constant rebooting.

     This approach to making movies isn’t the end of the world, guys. There are plenty of important things happening that need to be addressed before the quality of motion pictures, and there are now several different (and affordable) avenues to get brilliant original content, like Netflix or Amazon. I still hold a special love for the movies, though, and if the studios want to survive financially I think it’s time to start putting a little bit of effort into it.

Not that any of you will notice, for obvious reasons...