Time and time again: Rebooting a "dying" breed

Time and time again: Rebooting a "dying" breed

8 Reasons Why Movie Reboots Fail 

"You'd think remaking a movie might be easy. I mean, it's technically been done before; you can easily see what worked and what didn't, what mistakes to avoid, and ways you can improve upon the original. Right?  Yes, technically, but most movie reboots suck ass anyways. Here are eight reasons why we should probably leave the past in the past." 


Originality. Something that some may think lacks in the world today. Adaptions from comic books, books, tv shows, video games, and movies themselves. Let me put this is perspective. An idea is born. They write the script, pitch it to the studio, and develop the movie. It comes out and owns the box office. Now it becomes an instant classic spawning 5 more sequels, a comic book spin off, video games, and is stuck in people's memory. The question is however, will it survive the test of time. Can it still attract a new generation? This is when studios get ideas to reboot or remake old films such as Total Recall, Red Dawn, Spiderman, Godzilla, and Planet of the Apes. Why would do this? The ever simple answer to any question in the industry: MONEY! This attracts fans from the old films, but also attracts viewers from the new generation prompting them to see the old films by buying or streaming thus making the studios to feed from the old films and the new ones at the same time. 

For example, in 1984 The Terminator came out. This new science fiction movie that predicts the consumption of technology and machines in our world. A cyborg sent from the future to kill the mother of the savior of the universe. T2, T3, and Salvation came out after with the same continuity. In 2015, Terminator Genysis will come out. This time around, the movie changes the story from the first movie back in 1984, altering the timeline. This new movie acts as a sequel, prequel, and reboot. When the trailer came out, my own brother wanted to see the old ones. He loved them. An 8 year old loving a movie from 1984? Survived the test of time indeed. But why make a new? 

In recent years, we have seem more and more reboots being produced. The one aspect of each one that is consistent is, although the movie is successful at the box office it isn't successful with the reviews from both critics and fans alike. Rob Bricksen from the article, 8 Reasons Why Movie Reboots Fail, stated that, "Of course, most directors have plenty to add to their remakes and reboots, but seldom do they add anything worthwhile." You can add more CGI, set the movie in the present, add some big celebrities, have a famous pop singer do a song for the credits, but would that do trick? The reason some movies are famous is because of the time they were set in. Imagine this. You were a kid going to the movie in the late of May 1977. You enter to see this movie called Star Wars. A friend tells you this movie is going to suck-big time! The first scene begins and you see a title sequence with this new kind of music. The camera pans down to see this planet and BOOM! Spaceships, gun battles, aliens, robots, anything you could of think of was right there in front of your own eyes. 3 decades or more has passed. Think of it as a reboot? What's so new about it. What can you add to astonish the audience? Nothing, because back in those times the audience only dreamt of those things. 

Reboots are tricky business. You can get a "dying" franchise and try to bring it to a new age. Is it really dying or is it just an easy money machine? Studios should shy away from the franchises or cult movies that people can associate to and love and rather focus on other movies that can be tons better with the right elements to add. Like Terminator, studios shouldn't focus on rebooting a successful franchise but add more story to satisfy audience's thirst of that world or focus on other movies, like The Last Starfighter or The Rocketeer, adding more spectacle to a story in need of that. The one thing that the movie has to worry about again if it can survive or have its story be 'terminated". 

Relatable Charcters

What Makes a Character Sympathetic? This Video Essay from Screentakes Explains

http://nofilmschool.com/2014/06/what-makes-character-sympathetic-video-essay-screentakes


"But instead of being concerned with making your character likable, perhaps a better approach would be to make them sympathetic"

"One of the most challenging aspects of screenwriting is creating multidimensional characters that your audience can identify with, relate to, and be entertained by."


Is making you're character "relatable" and "likable" the right way to go? In this article from No Film School, the author discusses why we end up liking the characters of a movie, even if they have a dark side. 


Jordan Belfort, Michael Corleone, Jake LaMotta, and Henry Hill. What do these characters from iconic films and tv shows have in common? Bluntly, they're all scumbags. They represent the dark side of humanity. Violence, drugs, anger, hateful, vengeful. All the list goes on. But why do we like them? Is it because we find them relatable? Not necessarily. Being a relatable character doesn't mean you can connect with the audience. Not everyone has suffered some type of tragic loss. Not everyone has trained in a secret organization of skilled assassins and of course not everyone is a billionaire that fights crime at night in an ultra cool suit. Like Batman, most characters aren't relatable. The audience, however simple sympathizes with them. 

Even if the characters are total scumbags like the bunch listed above, the writers use the exposition part of the story to make you feel connected with the characters. Sympathizing with them and making the audience rooting for them to make the right choices. So instead of making characters that are relatable, make characters that the audience can connect with in a sympathizing way. 

The Distribution of Stories

History Of Storytelling 

http://www.storytellingday.net/history-of-storytelling-how-did-storytelling.html



"The Storytelling history is quite ancient, lost in the mist of time. Nobody knows when the first story was actually told. Did it happen in the gloomy recess of a cave around a flickering fire told by primitive hunter? Well, we may never know." 

"Today, stories are an intrinsic part of our societies and culture. Movies, books, music, news media, religions, architecture, and painting, you name it and the influence of storytelling is to be seen in all aspects of our life" 


A short essay about the theories and analyzing facts to what made humans discover storytelling and how it has shaped our destiny forever.

Storytelling is the chain that binds all humans together. We all tell stories. Stories of wonder, stories of joy, stories of laughter, stories of horror, and stories of sadness. It what makes us human. Since the first story ever was told humans have invented the ways we tell them. From word of mouth, to the written language, and the visual image humans have integrated this form of art in our every day lives.

In the turn of the century, several notable figures innovated a new way to share stories. Like dreams projected in reality, films showed a new path and created the foundation on how media is being distributed. The distribution of stories has created new pathways in the form of news media, movies, tv shows, music videos, and commercials. We all have a story to share.