Remakes, Re-imaginings and Reboots

After watching Casino Royale last night, it came to me that this could be where the trend of rebooting franchises stemmed from along with Batman Begins. These have been done well, but look over at Superman Returns which carried on from where the original Superman films started and just stuttered and fell to the ground as though struck by a hunk of kryptonite.

Studios see the love of characters, franchises and they need them to be successful, so why not just try again? Hulk was released in 2003, with OK reviews, but generally the public weren't happy with it, especially the comic book fans. 5 years later, The Incredible Hulk was released, is it a sequel? well, no not really, it doesn't make it clear though. It's more of a reboot of the franchise, replacing all of the characters and putting lots more action in.

Now, re-imaginings are something altogether more confusing! Really, it's the same as a remake, but a re-imagining is said to be where they take the original film and completely change it to their own way of thinking. Halloween would be a prime example, it would be sacrilege to do a straight remake so Rob Zombie decided to do it his own way and make his own set of films. No one quite knows the point of it, but the studios love it. Especially when it comes to horror films, hence the slew of classic horrors coming back to us (Friday the 13th, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street).

Terminator Salvation is released this week and again we have the same problem, yes it is a sequel or is it a prequel? Because of the way time has confused us, is it a prequel because John Connor hasn't told Kyle Reese to go back in time and have sex with his mum? or is it a sequel because it's after Arnie has destroyed pretty much everything in his path? Really it's neither of these things, because it's meant to have a whole new feel to the film. Instead of being a rampaging machine, we've got a Mad Max looking barren wasteland. Reboot? Sequel? Who knows?

After recently viewing the original Psycho, it shows just why so many people scream and shout everytime something is remade. It may seem boring now, but this film is where the majority of modern horror takes its style from, in some or another it leads back to it. So, what was Gus Van Sant thinking when he decided to direct an exact shot for shot remake with Vince Vaughn in the role of Norman Bates...This is the same Vince Vaughn who stars in Wedding Crashers, Four Christmases and Dodgeball. I needn't go on.

A really genius way of doing remakes now is by not even acknowledging the fact they are a remake, in the way of Disturbia and Eagle Eye, D.J. Caruso is taking Hitchcock films and bringing them into the 21st century, with impressive results. So, it can be done well and appease the general viewing public.

Really, it's all a money game for those big Hollywood producers, but at last take the time to watch the originals or their predecessors before telling your friends it's 'the best film everrr, omg, wtf, so good, loved it 4evaaa'.