Blog Archives
Men in Black International
Things have been slowing down a bit here, but I’ve still managed to make it to the theaters once again to catch the latest non-Disney Marvel movie that wasn’t Dark Phoenix. Ok, so technically it’s an extra step removed from being a Marvel movie since it’s the latest sequel in a series of movies that were originally loosely based on a Malibu comic that was purchased by Marvel comics. But this is kind of a rebootquel as it reboots the series with two new leads replacing Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, but still connects it to the previous three movies with references to Agents J and K as well as Emma Thompson as Agent O. The film was fun enough but it had a difficult time capturing the wonder of the first film while tossing in an undercooked mystery. And as this is a new release, I will be discussing the mystery in full so here’s your spoiler warning.
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Hellboy
Hellboy 2019
Reboots are often a dirty word in today’s movie community. Except in rare cases, they’re often seen as a cash grab in order to make money off a known property rather than give a chance to a new property. This is especially true when the original is beloved by many fans as is the case with Hellboy. While the first two movies didn’t garner huge box office numbers, they remain a well loved pair of films with plenty of support given to director Guillermo del Toro’s unique vision of the comic book world and the great cast. This time around the director is not nearly as much of a visionary and turns the interesting world of Hellboy into a world full of gore and swearing more akin to Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters than what you might expect from a Hellboy movie. And while I wasn’t expecting a whole lot considering the lack of early reviews and those that came out days before release were pretty awful, I still gave it a chance and while the movie as a whole failed, at least the heroes were characters that I could get behind and I still had fun with the movie. And as usual with new movies, this review contains spoilers so read on if you’ve already seen the movie, or don’t care.
Robocop
Robocop 2014
So I once again managed to make it out to theaters to catch a new release this year which brings my total up to 3, and while I didn’t make any official goal this year, it’s bringing me well on my way of reaching last year’s goal of 10 theatrical viewings which I only made it about halfway. I had a few reservations about seeing it, it is a reboot and these kinds of reboots of 80’s movies have had a pretty hit and miss track record. The early reviews coming in were mixed, so I had some hope there. And when I watched it, I quite liked what I saw. But when I discussed it for an upcoming Lambcast episode, it didn’t hold up very well to dissection. There is a great cast here, there are some updates that work quite well, from the drones angle to the conservative news show host, and even some nice little callbacks to the original movie. But there are also quite a few missteps in the movie, like the fact that while the satire is on a different topic and scale than the original, it also carries much less of an impact, and the final act doesn’t carry any of the same punches as the original. There’s nothing wrong with the movie by any means, but it’s not much of an improvement and like most remakes, it wasn’t really needed in the long run.
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FTMN Poll: What series should be rebooted?
The superhero/comic book/sci-fi landscape right now is filled with reboots, from Spider-Man, to Judge Dredd, to Robocop, to Total Recall, to Superman, to Green Arrow, and even Beauty and the Beast. Some may be good, some may be crap. And on top of that, some of the original’s are hard to live up to. I have no doubt that the new Dredd will be better than the original Judge Dredd, but Robocop is going to be a tougher sell for me. So far, I’ve liked everything I’ve seen from the reboots I’ve listed, although Beauty and the Beast feels like the weakest one for my tastes, they’re just moving too far away from the original Linda Hamilton/ Ron Perlman version and making it for the pretty faces of the CW audience.
But what I’m asking today is what series would you actually want to see a reboot of? I’ve listed several choices from the misguided take on Spawn, to ones that haven’t seen action outside of TV like Wonder Woman. Is there a comic actor today who could bring new life to the Mask or the Tick? The Ninja Turtles may have been squashed for now, but do they deserve a true to their origins style reboot? What about the Punisher, they’ve tried a few times and haven’t quite gotten him right yet? There’s also reboots of Fantastic Four, The Crow, and Daredevil in the works, though they’re all still pretty early in their productions and may still fall through, do any of them deserve a chance? Is there any others that I’ve failed to mention? Let your voice be heard, tell me what you think.
Are reboots of comic book movies more forgivable?
Before I get into today’s topic, I want to give a quick shoutout to At the Back who passed me the Versatile Blogger Award. I really do appreciate the award for what it is, he thinks this site is in his top 10 list of blogs. But I’m not going to participate in the meme. If you follow me on Twitter, you did get to hear 10 random facts about me, but that’s as far as I’m going with it. I’ll stick with my Follow Fridays to share the blogging love. But today I wanted to go back to The Amazing Spider-Man. It’s a great movie, did well in the box office, though not quite as well as any of the Raimi movies yet, and was received rather well critically. But the thing hanging in the air in almost every single discussion about the movie was that it was too soon for a reboot. So my question for today is, should we be more forgiving of reboots of comic book movies?
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 