Guest Post: Wrath of the Reboots

Hello there. Today we’ve got a guest post from the Barnes Bros discussing reboots. Hope you enjoy it and don’t forget to write a comment!

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Here’s a question: Once you’ve told a story (whether it’s a movie, comic book, video game, or whatever) what is the next logical course of action? Move onto a different story? Of course not! You reboot the mess out of that story!

At least, that’s what executives in the various entertainment industries seem to think. After a story has been told and all the sequels, prequels, and possible spin-offs have been created, the next thing that happens is a reboot. All of the elements of that awesome (?) tale are reworked into a new, fresh, and hip version that fits the new generation.

Now, that concept in and of itself isn’t so bad. The original black-and-white King Kong was something I couldn’t get into as a kid, but when the Peter Jackson version was released I was in awe of all the giant gorilla-dinosaur action. Whether or not everyone liked the movie, whichever studio called for that movie met their goal of making a new King Kong story for a new generation. But, see, that’s the key phrase: new generation.

On the flip side, we have The Amazing Spider-Man. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m excited to see that movie, but the last Spider-Man movie was in 2007. That’s only five years ago. Unless you were born in 2007, you remember the last Spider-Man movie. It was called Spider-Man 3 and it starred a whole different cast of actors. Five years is not enough time to justify a reboot. Now, I know why Sony did it: money. They can make more money by keeping the rights to Spider-Man and making movies every few years, and since some of the old actors and crew didn’t want to return they said “What the heck? Let’s reboot it!”

But don’t take this as a manifesto against reboots. No, no they have their place and can be very useful. DC Comics did a very controversial universe-wide reboot of all their ongoing titles. The results have been mixed, but there are some characters (e.g. Wonder Woman, Aquaman) that are the better for it. Overall, I think it was the way-to-go. Things were getting stale at DC, why not take a risk and shake it up?

And sometimes a reboot gives a nice, new spin on an old, beloved character. The new reboot/prequel of Tomb Raider looks to give a promising new tale for Lara Croft that I’m excited to see. This could be just the thing to reinvigorate the franchise and pave a bright future.

So, reboots can be good or bad. Personally, I think it lies in the motivation. Are you making this reboot to tell a new compelling story, or are you trying to make a quick buck? The former tends to yield better results in my opinion. Overall, I just hope that reboots don’t kill the arrival of new franchises. If in 2020, the only options I have at the movie theaters are Superman: The Untold Story, The Beginning of The Planet of The Apes, and Transformers: Arrival of The Transformers, I might scream. Without new franchises, we wouldn’t have these great stories and characters to reboot in the first place. So reboot, but just reboot responsibly, okay?

So are we done here? Cool. Who wants to see Man of Steel? I’m buying.

-Jalen Barnes

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