Is anyone else getting reboot fatigue?

[Zontar]

So watching the new Independence Day trailer it's finally dawning on my that it probably will be successful given they've jettisoned Will Smith since they know he and his children have become a liability in movies now coupled with the fact it looks like a typical summer blockbuster that makes 500 million easy at the bank at least by the end of its run.

This means that Roland Emmerich will probably be given his Stargate reboot he's wanted for years that no one has asked for or wants to see happen because the infinitely superior television series is one he openly despises (despite its existence being the only reason a reboot is even being considered). And thinking about that made me realize just how little science fiction hasn't been rebooted in recent years.

Star Trek got the treatment in 2009.
Star Wars effectively got rebooted this year.
Stargate will probably be getting it.
Fant4stic got it this year.
X-Men got it last year.

That's just those I can name off the top of my head within science fiction, to say nothing of other big budget properties. With everything going through reboots I just can't make myself care anymore, I can't even muster up the strength to be angry about it.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

So watching the new Independence Day trailer it's finally dawning on my that it probably will be successful given they've jettisoned Will Smith since they know he and his children have become a liability in movies now coupled with the fact it looks like a typical summer blockbuster that makes 500 million easy at the bank at least by the end of its run.

This means that Roland Emmerich will probably be given his Stargate reboot he's wanted for years that no one has asked for or wants to see happen because the infinitely superior television series is one he openly despises (despite its existence being the only reason a reboot is even being considered). And thinking about that made me realize just how little science fiction hasn't been rebooted in recent years.

Star Trek got the treatment in 2009.
Star Wars effectively got rebooted this year.
Stargate will probably be getting it.
Fant4stic got it this year.
X-Men got it last year.

That's just those I can name off the top of my head within science fiction, to say nothing of other big budget properties. With everything going through reboots I just can't make myself care anymore, I can't even muster up the strength to be angry about it.

Star Wars hasn't been rebooted so much as it's been pulled from the grave and reanimated and made to dance for our entertainment. I mean yeah the EU got relegated to the status of "Legends" but that happened back when Disney bought Lucas Film.

Still I've been sick of reboots for years now, I was sick of them back when they were still remakes. Because it's basically Hollywood going: Remember that popular thing? Lets redo it again to milk the cash cow again. What do something new? Are you insane!? That's risky!

 

[Zontar]

Star Wars hasn't been rebooted so much as it's been pulled from the grave and reanimated and made to dance for our entertainment.

Star Wars was never dead though, the last live action movie was only 10 years ago, and it's been just as prolific in our culture since then as it was before outside of the movies themselves.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Getting?

But yeah, it's like there's a rule that new stuff shouldn't be made, just rehashes, reboots or remakes or existing stuff. If you want to watch movies that's not based on previous movies, you'll end up watching ones based on books or comics instead.

I don't mind adaptations so much, as a rule, but endless reboots are tiresome. Especially rebooting stuff that recently flopped. They will keep making, for example, Fantastic Four movies until somebody likes them.

And, Batman is the least interesting member of the Bat-family, make movies about people that aren't him already.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

Star Wars hasn't been rebooted so much as it's been pulled from the grave and reanimated and made to dance for our entertainment.

Star Wars was never dead though, the last live action movie was only 10 years ago, and it's been just as prolific in our culture since then as it was before outside of the movies themselves.

Trust me, to most Star Wars fans the prequels killed the franchise, George Lucas saying that RotS was the end of the movies was him officially putting the bullet in the franchise's head as a mercy killing. 10 years without a new installment is a safe enough period of time to declare a franchise, or part of a canon dead, which is why we see so many reboots. Hollywood is chronically afraid of letting proven money making franchises die, while at the same time they're terrified of taking said franchises into new territory, so they reboot to sponge off the nostalgia. Hell Star Wars resurrected is actually a good thing, because they're taking the franchise into new territory, the path might be comfortable and well worn, but at least it's something new.

 

[DefunctTheory]

Star Wars isn't getting rebooted. I know, 'new cast, EU replaced, blah blah,' but the original cast is in it. It follows directly off the original trilogy. Don't cheapen a legitimate, aggravating phenomenon like rebooting by including Star Wars.

As for reboots... some are good, most are bad.

The Star Gate one is a literal spit in the face to the fans and the people who made the SG-1 series. The people making it hated the TV series and are going out of the way to invalidate it, which most (If not all) Star Gate fans loved, so this is probably one of the few movies in recent history that is objectively a bad idea at its very core concept.

The X-Men one was a bit weird, but I liked it. It makes sense internally from a story perspective, and externally from a 'lets get rid of all these junk X-Men films' standpoint.

Star Trek was... I honestly don't know. I actually liked the movies, but the reboot was weird. I don't know what to say about that.

Fantastic 4... I don't think we need to talk about this.

Additional Reboots:

Robocop. Fucking Robocop. For fucks sake.

Dredd - Needed it. Was awesome.

Overall Opinion - Yes, reboots are getting aggravating. I wish they would stop. Rebooting is a tool that should be used when a) the original product had a good idea, but it was poorly executed, or b) everyone who would care about the original is dead.

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

Honestly, not really.

What can I say? I like seeing what other people do with certain source materials, and even if it ends up sucking there's still the original I can fall back on.

Also I find people who constantly ***** about reboots, remakes, and "lack of originality" to be more annoying.

Although, there are some reboots / remakes that I question (The Raid? Just... why? How? And FLCL, too? That still holds up perfectly. It looks better than 90% of anime now.)

 

[Queen Michael]

This far in the thread and nobody's mentioned Spider-Man? For shame.

Also, there's Jem. A planned movie series that isn't going to happen.

All in all, I'm getting tired of reboots, but a few individual ones are good.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Well maybe, but aren't reboots because the previous films were bad? I mean Star Trek is a reboot, but remember the last TNG movie? It had Picard on a four-wheeler jumping out of a space shuttle with Data and Data's twin. Wasn't exactly Treky, it me point.

Likewise Star Wars. Jar-Jar Binks anyone? Really want to let that guy be the most memorable, and worst, part of the most recent Star Wars movies?
Same with Batman! Yeah, Batman Begins was a reboot. But remember Batman and Robin? And the Bat-CreditCard?

X-Men, Fantastic 4, Judge Dread, Mad Max, James Bond...its a good bet that if Hollywood is doing a reboot, its because the last movie or two of the same franchise tanked.
So am I fatigued? Maybe a little, but I'm not going to complain if Hollywood keeps making better versions of franchises I love.

 

[visiblenoise]

I do joke about how they seem like they're running out of ideas, but I watch them anyway like a good consumer. On Redbox.

Ultimately, they're usually no less enjoyable than some other new action movie with a random story, so it's all the same in the end. I am no movie connoisseur.

 

[happyninja42]

Star Wars hasn't been rebooted so much as it's been pulled from the grave and reanimated and made to dance for our entertainment.

Star Wars was never dead though, the last live action movie was only 10 years ago, and it's been just as prolific in our culture since then as it was before outside of the movies themselves.

Trust me, to most Star Wars fans the prequels killed the franchise, George Lucas saying that RotS was the end of the movies was him officially putting the bullet in the franchise's head as a mercy killing. 10 years without a new installment is a safe enough period of time to declare a franchise, or part of a canon dead, which is why we see so many reboots. Hollywood is chronically afraid of letting proven money making franchises die, while at the same time they're terrified of taking said franchises into new territory, so they reboot to sponge off the nostalgia. Hell Star Wars resurrected is actually a good thing, because they're taking the franchise into new territory, the path might be comfortable and well worn, but at least it's something new.

And yet the Clone Wars tv show went on for years after RotS, as well as many games, video and tabletop, and a new tv series Star Wars: Rebels. I wouldn't call that the death of a franchise, when said franchise is still putting out new content on a regular basis. Now you can debate the quality of said content sure, but it's hardly dead.

OT: Eh, I don't really have an issue with reboots, or legacy continuations of popular storylines, like Star Wars. I personally really enjoy legacy stories, where they take the elements of something that was good, and use them to tell an original story, but with the same feel as the source material. It's a hell of a lot better than forcing everything to be linked back to the same characters like the prequels did.

If the reboot can be done well, then I'm all for it. The trick is if it can be done well. Most aren't able to do it. But the Nolan Batman reboot was good, the Daredevil reboot is great, so there are positives to go along with your negatives OP.

And I would disagree with the statement that the Stargate tv show was better than the movie. xD I couldn't stand that show, or it's offshoot Atlantis. Only one that I could stomach was the one where they were stuck on the starship travelling through space. Whose name escapes me at the moment. Stargate: Universe? Eh, whatever it was called.

 

[Zontar]

And I would disagree with the statement that the Stargate tv show was better than the movie. xD I couldn't stand that show, or it's offshoot Atlantis. Only one that I could stomach was the one where they were stuck on the starship travelling through space. Whose name escapes me at the moment. Stargate: Universe? Eh, whatever it was called.

Yes, it's called Stargate: Universe, and you're outnumbered by orders of magnitude for preferring the movie over the shows.

 

[happyninja42]

And I would disagree with the statement that the Stargate tv show was better than the movie. xD I couldn't stand that show, or it's offshoot Atlantis. Only one that I could stomach was the one where they were stuck on the starship travelling through space. Whose name escapes me at the moment. Stargate: Universe? Eh, whatever it was called.

Yes, it's called Stargate: Universe, and you're outnumbered by orders of magnitude for preferring the movie over the shows.

That's fine, I don't really concern myself with what others think about entertainment stuff. We all have different tastes. The fact that the show was popular doesn't actually mean it was good. But to each their own.

 

[DefunctTheory]

And I would disagree with the statement that the Stargate tv show was better than the movie. xD I couldn't stand that show, or it's offshoot Atlantis. Only one that I could stomach was the one where they were stuck on the starship travelling through space. Whose name escapes me at the moment. Stargate: Universe? Eh, whatever it was called.

Stargate: Universe, a TV show about a bunch of assholes and socially retarded malcontents being jammed into a decrepit space hulk, canceled after two seasons, and about 3 good episodes in a row where they finally found some sort of workable rhythm.

I'm not going to sit here and pretend the TV shows were objectively better then the movie (The movie was pretty damn fantastic, and gets a lot of points simply because YOUNG JAMES SPADER), but I think most people can agree that it is questionable to give a franchise reboot to a bunch of guys that actively spewed hate over 95% of the previous creators/managers work and spent decades trying to tear the whole shebang apart, considering it was popular enough to last for a combined total of 17 years of TV and two DVD movies.I don't think there's a huge group of people saying 'That Stargate TV series was absolute, unrecoverable trash, but that one standalone movie was absolutely magnificent and we need more of that.'

EDIT: To clarify, it seems like a dumb plan financially, regardless of personal preference.

This far in the thread and nobody's mentioned Spider-Man? For shame.

That's gotta be the most insulting thing you can say about Spider-Man - It's been done so badly that no one even cares enough to complain about it.

 

[HybridChangeling]

Yeah I am, and I have been for such a long time. To be honest the only reboot I loved or even liked was Fury Road. Anything Abrams or Bay touches just fills me with sadness for what was once an ok franchise. I don't want my favorite stories modernized because they don't need to be modernized. I don't need them rebooted because I can guarantee there is a 99% chance you will never strike lightning twice. I do hope that the past generation (the one working in Hollywood as we speak) will someday learn that the icons of their childhood were popular and great because of what they were already, and not because they were "hip and modern" for that time frame.

Its like 90s movies. Almost half of them are hard to watch, because they are so insanely dated that it is painful (yes I was alive in the nineties but nonetheless you cannot deny the level of dating that happened in that time). Now imagine 15-20 years down the line we watch Doctor Who comparing monsters to wi-fi or talking about tumblr constantly, or all the Pg-13 reboots of R movies from the 80s. It's just more of the same, or at least will be someday.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

This far in the thread and nobody's mentioned Spider-Man? For shame.

They can keep rebooting Spiderman until they stop fucking it up. They can do one a year for all I care.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

And yet the Clone Wars tv show went on for years after RotS, as well as many games, video and tabletop, and a new tv series Star Wars: Rebels. I wouldn't call that the death of a franchise, when said franchise is still putting out new content on a regular basis. Now you can debate the quality of said content sure, but it's hardly dead.

As far as movies went the franchise was dead, after Force Unleashed 2 the games were essentially dead too, Clone Wars hit in 2008, but Rebels came from Disney. Still to fans Clone Wars was an affront and might have well not existed. The franchise was effectively dead until Disney bought it.

Edit: Dead to fans.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Depends which films that is getting the reboot.

Bad-
Terminator Genisys (it may not count but it did rebooted it by the end of it)
Amazing Spider-man
FF
Robotcop
The Karate Kid
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Good (in my view)
Star Trek
Dredd
Godzilla (to a certain extent)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Batman Begins

 

[DefunctTheory]

And yet the Clone Wars tv show went on for years after RotS, as well as many games, video and tabletop, and a new tv series Star Wars: Rebels. I wouldn't call that the death of a franchise, when said franchise is still putting out new content on a regular basis. Now you can debate the quality of said content sure, but it's hardly dead.

As far as movies went the franchise was dead, after Force Unleashed 2 the games were essentially dead too, Clone Wars hit in 2008, but Rebels came from Disney. Still to fans Clone Wars was an affront and might have well not existed. The franchise was effectively dead until Disney bought it.

Edit: Dead to fans.

I wish you'd stop saying 'dead to fans.' My friend is a massive fan of Star Wars, and he loved Clone Wars (As do I, though I'm not a massive Star Wars fan). Book releases continued well after the last movie. SWTOR came out in 2011, and while its no WoW, it's still popular enough. Multiple games have been released since the last movie was released.

The franchise never died. It's been in continuous use since A New Hope was released. It's fine if you don't like the new stuff, but you are not the entire fanbase. Please stop speaking for it.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Another awful recent one was the Spiderman reboot. The Sam Raimi trilogy, as well as being great (third wasn't as good, granted), wasn't even a few years old and they rebooted it. From the beginning. Telling the origin story of a character who'd just had one not long ago. Superman and Batman also had to have origin stories because it's not as tho there were any films with them prior.

I know comic books do it often too, frequently restarting at #1 again and again. My understanding is that the "fear" is that potential readers are put off by approaching a series already at #132 or whatever. By starting at #1 again they reinvent, reboot, cut old continuity (and remove continuity errors) and make it accessible for new readers while hoping they don't alienate existing ones.

I don't know what to think. On the one hand, when something is honestly good and enjoyed, I would happy with more of it, particularly when I feel there's potential for more without retreading the old. OTOH, we have AssCreeds and what have you that need to be put down, they're so long in the tooth, decrepit and stayed long past their welcome. I would prefer it if more "original" things came out, but companies don't want to gamble.