The Oldest College Newspaper in Pennsylvania

The Lafayette

The Oldest College Newspaper in Pennsylvania

The Lafayette

The Oldest College Newspaper in Pennsylvania

The Lafayette

Go go power remake: Remakes are blight upon modern film and need to stop

A human being thought that the Power Rangers needed to be remade into a darker and edgier film. So, in 2017, we will be subjected to the fresh hell that is angsty teen superpowered “Breakfast Club.”

This trailer marked everything wrong with the modern rush for remakes. Or, rather, the rush for bad remakes. This is a trailer made by a team that thought that “The Dark Knight” was good because it was dark, not because it was well-considered and well-made. The washed out color palette that we became accustomed to during the absolute travesty that was 2015’s “Fantastic Four” remake.

To be fair, this film could end up being good, in the same way that you could win the lottery. But whether or not it is good is almost beside the point. With “Power Rangers (2017)”, “Magnificent Seven” (2016), “Ghostbusters” (2016), “Blair Witch” (2016), “Point Break” (2015), “The Force Awakens,” “Amazing Spider-Man,” “The Lone Ranger,” “The Force Awakens,” “Mad Max: Fury Road” and countless other reboots and remakes throughout recent years, even the very high quality ones are starting to feel tired and worn. The remakes are endless, and it feels as though there is nothing original under the sun.

It is made worse by the fact that many of the remakes, rather than rip off their source material with any degree of fidelity, choose to take any spark of creativity of the original and drive it into a generic pit of mediocrity from which it never recovers. Movies like “The Force Awakens,” which is indeed almost a shot-for-shot remake of “A New Hope,” manage to hug the source material with such fidelity that it manages to maintain a degree of the original’s quality and make the experience fun and nostalgic. However, the baffling decisions made during the production of the mortal sin that is known as 2016’s “Magnificent Seven” that take it farther away from its absolutely brilliant source material (that itself was a faithful remake of a classic Kurosawa Samurai film) make the movie almost unwatchable, with the only saving grace being that it is boring enough to serve as a tool for a nap.

However, even remakes that have been universally adored, like “Mad Max,” are symptomatic of the endless churning of remakes that is feeding on the nostalgia of America to make a buck. Remakes are not inherently bad, and there are several that are downright impressive, but it is the case that the endless torrent of recycled ideas is truly intolerable.

It doesn’t even stop there. Every superhero movie these days seems to be a remake of other superhero movies. The same characters in the same stories with the same tropes and the same dialog, but a little less magical every time. That’s because there are seven superhero films a year. And they keep making money.

Hollywood is content to churn out remake after remake after remake until the cows come home, and make each less unique than the last. When the selling point of a “Power Rangers” movie is that it looks a heck of a lot like other dark gritty reboots, with the power armor and MegaZords being incidental, Hollywood is truly out of ideas.

Get ready for five more TMNTs, eight more Star Wars, and an endless continuing parade of 80s movies with more mundane plots, less compelling heroes and a significantly more boring production, because this problem doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.

Lord have mercy on all moviegoers.

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