Today, when you hear the word "reboot" you unconsciously roll your eyes and groan. After all, reboots always suck, right? There is no way you are going to even consider watching a rebooted TV series or movie. The simple fact that the industry couldn't come up with a new idea turns you off from the idea.
Plus, if an original film was so good, why reboot it and potentially destroy everything it is known for?
Look at Overboard (2018), Ghostbusters (2016), and Fuller House (2016) whose reboots totally missed the mark. These films only resulted in destroying people's brains, leaving them at the end thinking: What the fuck did I just watch?
Reboots can ultimately fail due to the talent being worse than the original cast and crew, nothing is added to the original story to make it stand out from the original, a plotline, idea, or character being added that ends up only harming the film, and the film no longer working as the original was a product of its time.
Although it is rare for a remake to outdo the original, it is worth it to take the chance. This is because when reboots and spin-offs hit the mark, they become massive hits. Look at Star Trek: Discovery (2017), Ocean's 8 (2018), and It (2017). They turned out utterly amazing.
Additionally, often times many above-average films are taken for granted because they are defined as a reboot. Such films should invest in more creativity to discard that association for it would make a great difference in its success. This can easily be done by making a film completely innovative with similar types of basic ideas that other films have explored, or into a spin-off.
Therefore, instead of being a reboot, such films could just be influenced and inspired by past original films.
For example, look at Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) and Charmed (2018). Alone these films could have been considered spectacular. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle could have easily been its own creative movie. It is a marvelous movie but being associated with the original Jumanji – an absolute classic – forced people to instantly reject it before even seeing it.
On its own, it could have been a huge hit as it was only a reboot due it using the mere concept of the game. However, other than that the movie was entirely different. If the movie had only been slightly changed so that the characters got sucked into another world by another means, it most likely would have been a massive hit as everything else was based on new, fresh ideas.
Similarly, the new CW series Charmed is a phenomenal show all by itself. However, being associated with the original Charmed, whose cast already expressed their dislike of it being made into a reboot, made many people not even give it a chance. The series would have done much better if it had been a spin-off series in that it took place in the same magically world as the original, but had different characters and plotlines.
Because reboots have such a bad reputation, individuals automatically go in seeing them as something bad. Plus, people are too slavishly devoted to the original, not bothering to give another film a chance, no matter how good it possibly could be.
With that said, Illumination Entertainment founder, Chris Meledandri, best known as the producer behind Despicable Me and The Secret Life of Pets, is going to be reboot Shrek and its spin-off Puss in Boots. He hopes to develop original adventures to reintroduce our beloved soft ogre, hilarious donkey, and sassy cat to create "something that really does feel like it's not simply yet another film in a series of sequels."
For once hit the big screen with an open mind. If it sucks, it sucks, but hey at least you tried. If you must base your opinion on a movie over what others said, then you will never know if it was truly shitty or not.
