To celebrate the release of the Sony Pictures film, The Amazing Spider-Man, coming to theatres this July 3rd 2012 I have decided to speak about the subject of reboots and remakes that make or break a franchise. For those of you who do not know, a reboot is where a piece of narrative is discontinued and therefore lists the continuity of that original film or series of films to be non-canon and stats with new and fresh ideas. Whereas a remake is the opposite, it uses the previous films as a base for its source material and uses the same storyline while adding other elements and themes which usually updates a film to match a modernised setting. Now that is cleared up, let me give you a few examples of each remake and reboot; some good, bad and darn right ugly.
Reboots
Alright, first let's start with the reboots.
Best
We never get tired of 007, even though the Bourne movie franchise reinvented what it means to be a spy in the 21st century. Producers of Casino Royale (2006) booted Pierce Brosnan out and birthed the MI6 agent with a whole new face and hardened image in the form of renowned actor Daniel Craig who was praised for his performance in Layer Cake (2004). Stemming closer to the Ian Flemming novels of yesteryear, Martin Campbell envisioned a blood-thirsty and less charismatic Bond. With mission after mission of exonerating talent from the main and supporting cast members and fast-paced action, this Bond spawned a less received sequel Quantum of Solace (2008) and 23rd Bond 'Sky Fall' (2012) with Sam Mendes (Revolutionary Road) at the helm.
Fine
After Director Ang Lee's (Brokeback Mountain) effort with "Hulk" (2003) made the green giant seem like a laughing stock with irrelevant melodrama, as borish as Shakespeare's Hamlet, Louis Letterier (Transporter 1 & 2) decided to make the Angry Man whole again with a new back story, cast and Marvel having creative control. Even the actor in the lead pitched in to make the script deviate from the previous movie as much as possible that created a less weepish, heroic and smarter Bruce Banner (Edward Norton). The script was tighter with some "easter eggs" found on the silver screen but was boggled down with intense special effects and CGI that turned it from soap opera to popcorn flick. However, the movie had its high points that shone brighter than its low points.
Worst
I will admit, I never watched the 1994 film based on the video game series but this reboot of the movie does not give me the incentive to watch the last one. Starring Kirstin Kreuk as the titular character, very few adaptations of very well known games can translate very well in cinema and Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li (2009) is not one of them. Although the concept was good, I just felt the producers Patrick Aiello and Ashok Amritraj either did not care about the source material or did not try hard enough. Badly casted and terribly choreographed with less than inspiring plot and characters, Kreuk's Chun-Li I'm afraid did not carry the film. This film made Dragon Ball Evolution (2009) look better than it did. Oh well, at least we have the game to fall back to.
Remakes
Now for the remakes, here they are.
Best
First of all, I did not even know Scarface (1983) was a remake. Well if so, it is a very successful one at that and is actually based on the 1932 film of the same name. The well over 2 hours long crime film tells us the story of Cuban refugee, Tony Montanna (Al Pacino) who becomes a drug crime lord in Miami, Florida with "Manny Ray" (Steven Bauer), it lets us know about the rise and fall of their infamous drug cartel organization. With a great structure, acting, themes and well envisiged direction by De Palma, this cautionary tale scripted by Oliver Stone allowed us to dig deeper into the psyche of Montana and is arguably one of the best gangster films of all time.
Fine
A remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Internal Affairs, The Departed (2006) was directed by Martin Scorsesee and starred such big names as Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg and Jack Nicholson. Brilliantly scripted, well sliced together and strong acting, this jumbled thriller told a story of corrupt cop (Damon) who is placed on the police force as an informant for mob boss, Costello (Nicholson) and Costigan (DiCaprio), recent graduate of the police academy, grudgingly agrees to go undercover as an enforcer for Costello. This confused mess was hard to digest and was thankfully unpredictable, although the message behind the film could not be clearly defined plus the character of Costigan is a bit underdeveloped in terms of his links to his criminal past.
Worst
Directed by the great Tim Burton in 2001, and based on Pierre Boulle's book and the original 1968 film, the Apes riding the King's Horsemen came up with Planet of the Apes. Aboard a space station, sometime in the late 2020's, Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) sends a Chimpanzee into a freak storm and he pilots after the primate. Davidson and crew find themselves on a barren wasteland in a world run by humanoid Apes. Great premise but weak execution from direction, prosphetics, structure and downgraded plotlines, the movie itself eventually became a paradox of it's own doing. The tone was just so bizarre and silly, even the final showdown and climax that ended it all was over the top and it did not make any sense and reminded me of the excuse of an ending from Terminator 3.
Well, that's it for reboots and remakes. I will come back to you next week with what I got planned for all of you.
- Written by Andre Farquharson
