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In Episode 83 of GeekCast Radio join Steve Megatron, TFG1Mike, and Doug Abel as they delve into the topic of remakes and sequels. Are they good? Are they bad? Do we even need them? Hear this and more! Be sure to leave your feedback in the various mentioned ways and as always “UNLEASH THE GEEK IN YOU!”
Geeks
Mike “TFG1” Blanchard
Steve “Megatron” Phillips
Doug Abel from Talkin’ Bout My Generation
Hey, guys. Great discussion. I feel that in general remakes and sequels are just bad ideas. Most of them are not very good, and definitely do not live up to the original…The Matrix, anyone? Some film franchises can buck that trend, like the James Bond movies, but those are a rare exception. And I even believe that Star Wars and Star Trek fall into that category, although the Star Wars prequels were completely unnecessary and horrible movies…yes, even the third one. But, they did revive the franchise, whether that is positive or negative. Yet, I am still excited for the new movie…well, somewhat. I know what happened with Into Darkness, so I am a bit apprehensive.
And I am getting burnt out on reboots, for the most part. Mad Max is a movie I am very excited to see because I like that world, and with George Miller directing and Tom Hardy playing Max, I think it has a lot of potential. In general though, I think reboots are a bad idea. I’m a huge Ghostbusters fan. The first movie was great. The sequel…not so much. They created The Real Ghostbusters cartoon that spawned so many great stories and fleshed out the characters more. That worked perfectly. Other movie properties did that too, and I think that often works well. And it is better than trying to recreate the success of the film with a sequel. And therein lies the problem. Sequels are often just ‘cash grabs’ as Steve says. The writers try to come up with a formula that lives up to the success of the first film, which is difficult to do. When there is already a story to tell, I think it works better. But we don’t need reboots for the most part. Want to watch Gremlins? See the original. Same with Goonies, Gone With The Wind, or Ghostbusters.
Another topic you touched on are sequels that come 20 years too late. I thought Ghostbusters 2 was late by waiting 5 years. Now we get sequels 10-20 years later, like Dumb and Dumber 2, which I have no intention of seeing. It’s too late. Move on.
Oh, and I hate these excessively long movies. And they’re often the ones that are wrapped up in franchises or universes: The Hobbit/LOTR, Avengers/Marvel movies, Twilight, Hunger Games, Harry Potter, etc. and it is a deterrent for me. It lessens the re0watchability as well because who has 3 hours to sit and watch movies? Finding an hour and a half is sometimes tough these days. Sad. But true. And honestly, most films can be condensed to two hours or less and be much better paced and more enjoyable… yes, Transformers films, I am talking to you.
Oh man you are awesome haha. I totally agree with everything you’ve mentioned there.
My pleasure. It was a great topic and you had a good group discussing it. I enjoyed it a lot.