Mini Thought - Do reboots need the boot? * Re-Upload*

(Written and published Jun 20, 2015)
 
Fantastic 4’s soon return is causing many divided opinions, yet this is far from the only reboot scheduled to arrive soon, even 60’s childhood classic The Clangers will will return to British television this week. Reboots are running wrought through this generation’s media but why is this the case? Is it laziness, Or a genius use of nostalgia?
The announcement of the Ghostbusters reboot, despite the originals already expansive continuing story via video games and comics, made many question the need of such remakes. The fact that countless films such as these are being announced with each passing day could be seen as a massive indicator of the draining creativity of Hollywood today.
Is their inability to create revolutionary new intellectual property being made up for via the recycling of anything that made even the slightest impact upon the cinematic scene in previous times?

The major issue of these retellings is that they lose the emotion of the initial experience, often becoming mediocre attempts to recapture excitement on rather outdated concepts. A prime illustration of this would be Total Recall, the 2012 reimagining being a rather bland experience for all involved.
The modern day special effects, bland acting – not having the extremely entertaining magic of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s amazing overreacting – and the 90’s quality of special effects made it a perfect example of this era of action movie, thus far more entertaining than the modern day film’s less than impactful debut.

Old films aren’t like food, they don’t go off overtime. If anything they are more like a time capsule of their era, ready to be reopened, should one want to be taken back.
However, despite my distaste of remakes I can appreciate their good points. Some remakes being of films so long forgotten the only way they are drawn to light is via these retelling. Another key factor is that of nostalgia. Parents are able to share the adventures they remember from childhood with their children, something the recent return of the Thunderbirds to ITV allowed for in spades.
Jurassic World was a very good example of positive reintroduction, being connected to the originals yet distancing itself enough to be a fresh insight into the franchise. Connective successors are far more appealing than that of reboots as they allow for years of content to still feel relevant.

This is something that the new Ghostbusters film – in its yet announced connection to the originals – lacks, feeling somewhat lacklustre in its payoff. A return off the remainders of the old team would have been a much more exciting premise.
People find comfort in familiarity, myself included, but reboots needn’t be the answer. new ideas should be top priority over any kind of remake.
Some films just need to be left in peace, they aren’t going anywhere and are just as exciting as ever.