As usual first thing each day I open up my Ipad and check on the daily news. I do this every morning, regardless of where I am as I feel it’s always vital to see what has happened during the night. After reading the rather negative political events, my attention turned to the entertainment news.
I read that MTV are showing a TV series of Teen Wolf, based on the original 80’s hit movie starring Michael J Fox as a high-school student who is also a werewolf. After watching the trailer I had to write this blog as, being a writer, I am becoming more disillusioned with the state the film industry is heading.
If you look at the past decade, it has been an eventful decade for this genre. Movies such as Avatar, Lord of the Rings, Batman Begins & The Dark Knight, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, Spiderman and Twilight have been the top-grossing films of the decade, and rightly so. Yet amongst these gems there have been some expensive flops. The Hulk and Superman to name but two. It does seem that the “re-boot” machine is in full flow.
Firstly I have nothing personal against a reboot, take Batman as an example. After the rather tedious George Clooney movies, Christian Bale has turned in two excellent performances so far, and both movies have shown that a different approach to a classic can make all the difference.
Yet when I see that there are planned reboot of Top Gun, Highlander, Robocop, Beverly Hills Cop, Superman (again), Spiderman (wasn’t the last one only out in 2007?!), Alien, Flight of the Navigator, Cliffhanger, Judge Dredd, Mutant Ninja Turtles, Tomb Raider, Predator, The Fantastic Four and, for me, the most surprising of all The Crow.
I guess my main issue is that several of these movies were only made in the past decade. The Fantastic Four were two highly enjoyable movies. The Crow is only 17 years old and Tomb Raider just over ten. This begs the questions “Has Hollywood ran out of ideas?” to me it certainly seems so. One argument is that technology has moved on so much that the originals look dated and don’t appeal to a newer audience. Fine. But why not just come up with a new script or storyline that can utilise this technology in a way that Avatar did?
Then there are some classics that for me should not be touched at all. Highlander and The Crow being two. The Crow was a brilliant adaption of a not so well known graphic novel that was an instant hit. The fantastic portrayal by Brandon Lee of Eric Draven was one that, for many reasons, should not be touched. Nor should Highlander. The emotional performance by Christopher Lambert made that movie what it is and in both cases, no amount of CGI graphics or effects can replicate those performances.
Hollywood has some brilliant writers, so why are they not churning out anything original?
All in all some remakes work others don’t. Yet if we keep recycling the same story lines then the true essence of script writing will not last much longer.
