Respecting Property
Two of my favourite recent movies placed in long-running franchises are Logan (2017) and Joker (2019). Logan tells the story of an older Wolverine, now struggling with health, and trying to take care of Professor Xavier, who’s suffering from dementia. Joker is a possible origin story for arguably the most recognisable comic-book villain there is. Both stories sit in well-defined, well-populated franchises. Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine has appeared in six X-Men movies, cameoed in one other, and appeared in three Wolverine-only movies. Although X-Men has been (softly) rebooted, the universe largely remains the same: same characters (just with younger actors), same feel, and the same type of adventures. Writer/director James Mangold…
Respecting Canon
Warning: this blog contains a spoiler for Terminator: Dark Fate. (However, the spoiler covers the opening minutes of the movie, so it’s not that much of a spoiler!) Who started the Hollywood reboot? I’ve been trying to puzzle this out – who’s truly responsible? We’ve always had remakes of movies – although I’ve never understood why. If you have a good movie (or a good song), why remake it? Wouldn’t it be more logical to take a property that didn’t quite work, and remake (and fix) that? I understand the financial implausibility – a studio is unlikely to fund a remake of something with no proven commercial viability, but…