Remakes and Reboots
Hollywood’s Obsession with Rehashing Familiar Favorites
Sometimes it is refreshing to see a movie be brought into a new light for younger generations to fall in love with the same way we did, and sometimes the movies are improved upon, made more politically correct, or even more lovable than the original. Remakes can breathe new life into a stale plot, but this becomes a problem when Hollywood seems to only be rehashing the same stories over and over.
This is not to say that all of these movies leave the audience less well off than the previous version; there are some pretty decent remakes. One example is Little Women (2019) up for six Academy Awards, but has been remade in 1918, 1933, 1949, and 1994. Another example is the recent remake of A Star is Born (2018) directed by Bradley Cooper and starring Lady Gaga. This remake was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. A Star is Born is the fourth adaptation of the story since 1951 — others include the 1954 and 1976 versions. The story is never exactly the same, instead it is adapted for its time while keeping the elements that make the story classically emotional.
Another pro to movie remakes is that they are able to take a previous version of a story and improve upon it. Dune (2020), directed by Dennis Villenueve, is currently in production and will be released at the end of the year. David Lynch had attempted to adapt the book into film in 1984, which gained a lot of criticism. Despite the previous failed attempts to get the story right, Dune (2020)’s stills already look promising. The fact that neither of these movies have seen a new film adaptation in at least three decades is promising as people are ready for a new version. Yet, even movies that have gone that long are considered bad.
Disney has become a major perpetrator of unnecessary movie remakes. Starting with Maleficent in 2014, a bold retelling of the Sleeping Beauty tale from Maleficent’s perspective, Disney started reusing their animated movies in “live-action” remakes. The remakes started out alright, like Cinderella (2015) and Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, yet quickly lost the inspiration and passion necessary for them to be good movies. The Jungle Book (2016), Beauty and the Beast (2017), Dumbo (2019), The Lady and the Tramp (2019), and Aladdin (2019), were all remakes that lost an element of their originality and vibrance with these live-action remakes. None of these are as big perpetrators as The Lion King (2019).
The Lion King (2019) was promoted to be one of the largest movie events of the year. People were getting excited for the extremely realistic visuals, but quickly found that something was missing. One of its biggest critiques is its lack of expression. The realistic looking lions singing and dancing was new and cool, but it lacked the emotion that made the original so beloved. Instead of expressive faces on lions, there was little emotion to be seen and to connect to. One of the limitations of this new technology that allowed for extremely realistic detail is that it lacked the creativity and fun in the visuals. Many of Disney’s remakes fell victim to this.
Sometimes, movie remakes have a supposed purpose or are rebooted in a new way to make them relevant. For the most part, these have been unsuccessful in pandering to certain audiences. Two examples of this are Ghostbusters (2016), which received a bad rap from the get-go just for containing an all-female ghostbusting team, and Charlie’s Angels (2019), which flopped at the box office. These movies were made as a feminist retelling of classic tales. Ghostbusters, originally featuring an all-male team, and Charlie’s Angels, originally about over-sexualized crime-fighters, have taken on a new light. The problem is that they are not done well, the message may be there but with little heart or sincerity behind it. These films were made simply for rebooting a franchise and making money off of them.
The list goes on and on for franchise movies with big budgets, but little heart. Some examples include Godzilla: King of Monsters (2019), Men in Black: International (2019), Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), and even Dolittle (2020), a 19th century twist on the Eddie Murphy classics. Even classic franchises such as Jurassic Park and Star Wars are money-grabbing films made just to keep people coming back. The most recent Star Wars trilogy was a mess of lazy plot-points and forced romance that didn’t make sense.
Movie remakes generally do worse than the original in terms of ratings. According to Remake My Day, a website that visualizes the comparisons of ratings of movies, 87% of originals were preferred by critics over their remakes, 91% of audiences prefer the originals, and 79% of the originals had higher profits than their remakes. It begs the question, if the remade movie isn’t going to be good, why remake it at all? This question has a simple answer: They make money.
Unnecessary movie remakes capitalize off of people’s nostalgia. People will go to see familiar movies at theaters for the sake of nostalgia, or even just to watch it in spite. Remakes are safe for companies, they know people will go see them even if it’s bad. Even though the soundtrack was bad and the animation was weird, Aladdin’s live-action remake gained $900 million at the box office. Movie remakes are the epitome of Bo Burnham’s lyrics, “we’ll stop beating this dead horse when it stops spitting out money.” Companies would rather rehash the same plots instead of invest in new original creations, which are more risky in terms of hit or miss at the box office because people don’t know them.
The issue with endless remakes and reboots is the lack of creativity, sincerity, and energy that these movies once had, is now dwindling. The competition of bigger production companies with streaming services has forced them to play it safe instead of take major risks that pay off, which they could afford to do with the huge profits they make off the movie. Instead of giving the audience a fresh story, companies do whatever will make them the biggest profit. Thankfully, since the movie industry is mostly paused at the moment, we get a break from these movies, but don’t worry, there are still plenty coming up, including The Little Mermaid, Mulan, West Side Story — which I am actually looking forward to — and countless others are being discussed. The remakes aren’t over, and probably won’t end until we stop paying for them.
