I remembered a quote that summarises how I feel about rebooted movies franchises when the director doesn't really get it : the alleged last oracle of Delphi to Justinian the Apostate. Justinian tried with a vengeance to reinstate worship of the old Roman gods. He may even have really believed in them, few others did. The old gods were effectively dead, and no amount of effort could ever bring them back. It's an uneasy sense of tragedy, like seeing fake Roman ruins in the grounds of an English stately home, or an 18th century painting showing the old myths with modern eyes. The artists were trying desperately to capture a sense of lost mysticism that they could never really understand at more than a superficial level. The vital essence of what the old beliefs meant has been lost forever.
Melodrama over, that's what I think when I watch the latest attempts to reboot almost all TV and especially movie franchises. Notable exceptions : Doctor Who, which if not exactly like the original does feel like a logical evolution from it, the fundamental morality of the show remains unchanged; Spectre, which feels to me like a modern version of the classic Bond films (unlike Casino Royale, haven't seen the other Craig films yet) - not exactly the same, but still fundamentally Bond. Also the Nolan Batman films, though those are remakes rather than attempting to continue the story.
Abrams, for me, is the worst offender. I rather enjoyed Super 8, which was his own original work, but when he tries doing Star Trek and Star Wars it really is like he's trying to hear the voice of a dead god. The soul of the films has gone. This was also true of Indiana Jones IV, Terminator IV (and to a lesser extent Terminator III), Stargate Universe and in some ways also The Hobbit (although I might attribute that to poor management rather than the director(s) not really getting it).
Rant over, you may go about your business now.
What did you think of the rebooted Battlestar Galactica?
ReplyDeleteThat was excellent. Mind you I'm not very familiar with the original series. I gather the new one is a remake rather than a continuation.
ReplyDeleteYes, it was very much a remake. They kept the overall concept and - interestingly - they kept and expanded on the metaphysical stuff from the original series. Even though I grew up on the original, I greatly prefer the remake.
ReplyDeleteNow that I'm thinking about SF TV I enjoyed as a kid, I'd be very interested to see a reboot of Space: 1999. I'm not sure how effectively that could be done without some major changes, but creative minds could come up with something. Heck, some high-energy particle physics experiment on the moon goes awry with hilarious results, or something.
ReplyDeleteI guess maybe there's an uncanny valley of remakes/reboots which turns me off. If it's sort of trying to be like the original but failing then that's a no. Or if it seems to be mocking the original then that's also a no. If it only superficially resembles the original but is clearly doing its own thing, then that can work.
ReplyDeleteI saw a little of Space : 1999 but I can't really remember anything of it. I'm told that Blake's 7 could also work as a remake.
I've only ever seen the first episode of Blake's 7. I need to find it on one of the streaming services.
ReplyDelete