Hollywood is officially out of original ideas
Hollywood needs to get it's act together
With the recent announcement of the sequel “Top Gun 2,” it leaves moviegoers bewildered as to why Hollywood wants to reboot old movies. Why make a sequel to a classic movie and ruin its reputation? Sheldon from “the Big Bang Theory” is getting a prequel, “Game of Thrones” hasn’t even ended yet but is already getting four potential spinoffs (sequels, spinoffs and prequels). These shows are good, don’t ruin them by trying to expand because they will most likely fail.
Hollywood is leaning too much on the past to make money for the present. Rebooting old movies, and TV series, shows that there is nothing original coming out of Hollywood.
Hollywood has no new ideas and is relying on the hits from the past because they know those already sell. They assume their audience has seen the original and hopes for the best with it. But if the original was so good, why remake it?
Yes, everyone shows their kids the movies and TV shows they grew up watching, but most kids can’t stand the dorky haircuts and flannel shirts. In this case, reboots such as “Girls Meets World” and “Fuller House” were a success, but they appeal mainly to kids.
Recently, ABC aired their terrible remake of “Dirty Dancing.” That casting director should be fired for not switching Abagail Breslin and Sarah Hyland’s roles. Patrick Swayze is literally turning in his grave. If the kiddos of today watch this, it brings embarrassment on the film, and if they actually enjoyed it, there is no hope for the future of the youth of America.
One example of a good way to reboot a series is the new “Baywatch” movie. I have not seen this yet, but I was a huge “Baywatch” fan when it aired. By moving the reboot to a film, and adding the comedic element, it is not supposed to be taken seriously. Critics will probably hate it, but like most comedies, the audience will be entertained for 90 minutes. I mean, it’s The Rock and Zac Efron, you can’t really go wrong.
When reboots go bad, they go really bad. Writers assume their audience is of the millennial age and does not know the story – so they change it up to fit their audience’s preferences. Younger generations are not interested and do not respect the classic movies.
Millennials are obsessed with horror movies, adrenaline junkies, but in general, do not like the horror classics because they are too campy. Movies such as “Friday the 13th,” “IT” and “Scream” are too cheesy and have been remade to appeal to the younger crowd by making them scarier. That’s the fun thing about horror movies, they’re campy. Sorry, they’re not cool enough for you, kids.
Hollywood not only has been stealing from the past, but now they are adapting books into movies. This is not anything new, because books have great story lines. These book-to-movie adaptions are popular today, and they just seem to be adding to the list. Don’t get me wrong, I love it because it encourages the audience to actually go out and read the books, but most book-lovers hate the adaptions and constantly complain about the movies. That’s another story for another day. Popular shows like “Game of Thrones,” “13 Reasons Why” and “American Gods” have been very successful in their adaptions.
Some reboots I’m actually excited to see are the movies and shows based on a video game series. “Tomb Raider” is always an interesting tale to continue on with because it’s always a new adventure. I don’t think the “Assassins Creed” movie did that well, but hopefully “Uncharted” will do better in a sense of non-stop adventure while treasure hunting. Netflix is adapting “The Witcher,” a video game series that is based on a book series, into a Netflix Original series.
Netflix has been extremely successful in their originality of series and movies, and will probably continue to do well because they keep pushing out original stories.
All in all, I think Hollywood keeps rebooting old series because people are afraid of change. Audience members like to watch what they know, because it is nostalgic. It kind of defeats the purpose if they change the original because then it just annoys the audience because everything is different.
Hollywood needs to get their act together and hire some good writers. Take a chance on that aspiring writer who submits a screenplay instead of catering to the big production companies. Gen Y kids are more open to new things than they get credit for.
*I am generalizing the younger crowd as millennials, or Gen Y, even though I am one myself.
Click here for a list of all the reboots (and sequels) for 2017.
Though I agree Hollywood faces a tough question of what sells these days. There are reasons why audiences are resistant to modern writing — it hurts us. This has nothing to do with taste and everything to do with writers using personal catharsis as a sadistic spear into the audience heart.
Writers kill characters we care about, and we HATE them for it. Hence, our preference for stories where we know if a character will live or die. Long ago, writers were not so hell bent on the preposterous notion that killing is always great writing. It’s just lazy and hurtful. I don’t even watch TV anymore because of rampant character death. “Safe” stories where I know the sidekicks won’t be killed for “feels” are much more appealing. I have only so much time in my life and don’t want to gamble one second of it on a bad horse that will feel worse than real life, which itself is not so rosy.