A lot of movies these days are based on previous intellectual properties or are part of large franchises, sometimes even both. Within these franchises, movies are often remade or the franchise as a whole experiences a reboot. As someone who watches a lot of movies, my opinion on reboots and remakes is split.
One of the most prevalent areas where remakes and reboots work is in the superhero franchises. Some of the more popular superheroes, like Spider-Man, Batman and Superman, have had their stories redone several times. However, they often have new takes on the hero, their origin story or even their villains, just to keep it fresh. Now, this is a little biased because I’m a huge fan of Batman, but I think a perfect example of the power of reboots is in the Batman movies. I can’t imagine a world where they haven’t remade the Batman movies. Tim Burton’s “Batman” is a classic, but without reboots, we wouldn’t have gotten Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy. Without reboots, we also wouldn’t have Heath Ledger’s legendary Joker performance. Yet, the Batman movies also show how reboots can improve prior installments. Not all of the Batman reboots were winners. “Batman Forever” and “Batman & Robin” are both very dated and flawed movies that are now, luckily, only painful memories.
What also makes a remake great is if it utilizes new movie technology and has a lot of care and passion put into it. A great remake that I think does not get enough credit for being a remake is actually the Denis Villeneuve “Dune” movies. I don’t think many people, especially of my age, know that the “Dune” movies are actually a remake and that there was actually a “Dune” movie from 1984. Obviously, based on the books, the 1984 “Dune” does an alright job of retelling the story, but it is severely limited due to the technology of the time. “Dune” required a modern remake to fully explore the intricate details and beauty of its sci-fi world, which, in my opinion, Villeneuve did because the movies are absolutely visually stunning and told the story of “Dune” very cohesively.
Even though I enjoy remakes and reboots a lot, I can also see some of the very prevalent issues with them. Sometimes movies are remade solely to make money and get people in seats. For example, I find a lot of the Disney live-action remakes to be cash grabs and too bland for me. Other than the fact that they are making animated classics into live-action movies, I don’t really see them adding more and making them unique. It feels like they do the bare minimum. Yet, clearly, doing these remakes works; Disney continues to do them and makes a lot of money off them.
Another issue remakes and reboots can run into is not living up to the original. A perfect example of this to me was the 2024 reboot of “The Crow,” which is a really niche movie. The original “The Crow” came out in 1994 and is a total cult classic, which is well deserved. Other than the fact that it’s a really gritty supernatural anti-hero story based on a graphic novel, it had a great soundtrack and is so utterly 90’s that it is almost too much to bear. The movie also had a really tragic production. The lead actor, Brandon Lee, son of martial artist Bruce Lee, was unfortunately killed on set due to a prop malfunction. They still completed the movie as a tribute to Brandon Lee, using stunt doubles and editing new and unused footage together. They did make sequels with other characters and continued the franchise, but none got the same level of fame as the first “The Crow.” However, in 2024, Lionsgate remade the first “The Crow.” The 2024 remake had huge shoes to fill, which I had hoped it could at least get close to the original. Instead, the movie flopped and had almost no similarities to the original other than the names of the characters. Now, this does go exactly against what I previously said about uniqueness and taking old stories in new directions, but the 2024 “The Crow” went too far to the point it wasn’t even recognizable.
Remakes and reboots aren’t going anywhere: they are too easy and make a lot of money off people’s nostalgia. However, I do still believe that some remakes and reboots work and the number of good remakes definitely still outweighs the number of bad ones.
