Remakes, its very much a love hate relationship. I love looking forward to seeing a new take on some of my favourite films/series, and hate when they are s***.
There are legitimate reasons for a remake. A lot of older films really didn't have either the budget or technology to make them as visually appealing as they could have been. Some very popular films from around the globe get a remake to make them more relate-able to our society (or simply because people don't like subtitles). A live action remake of a cartoon can be entertaining on occasion.
I am not suggesting these are good reasons to remake a film or series, but at least they are a reason. Simply remaking something because you have the legal rights to do so is not a reason.
Remakes
I suppose there have been successfully remakes of every type although in my opinion some of the best have been horror films. The Ring, The Grudge and The Amityville Horror were all quite good. Saying that, recent remakes of major classics like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday 13th have been pants.
The best remakes come from directors/writers who have a new interesting take on an older film or series, although this is quite rare.
American remakes of British programs
American remaking of English programming is an especially weird phenomenon. When I see a good American TV Show I don't think "oh that looks good, I can't wait for the English version" mainly because we speak the same bloody language. Clearly it is acknowledged that these are good series, so why not just watch the series that you think is good? I wouldn't watch an English version of Friends or How I Met Your Mother because it would be stupid! Part of what makes these series what they are is gaining an understanding of the world in which they are set. Apart from The Office most of these series appear to have fallen flat, because they have been terrible.
Reboots
So many film series have had one slightly less than successful entry and that's it, reboot! Just because one film was crap doesn't mean we need a whole new (younger) cast with a different style, maybe we just wanted the next sequel to be good! (Spiderman 3 comes to mind).
It appears to me that rebooting a franchise is a desperate act to try and breathe new life into something that hasn't quite hit the box office quota that was expected. Are people fooled by the "new is better" approach? If the new film is crap it should fall flat just like a sequel would have.
Summarise!
Films and series should be made because someone has a vision and wants to create something for a reason. Remaking/rebooting something lacks both imagination and balls unless you have a real reason.
I think this represents a real problem for modern media because if things keep going this way we will just end up watching the next rehash of the last rehash over and over again, isn't the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?
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