Yeah, I know that it’s something of a rule of thumb to not read the comments underneath pretty much anything posted anywhere on the internet but sometimes it can be utterly hilarious. A fine example of this is the recent post on Io9 about the new Ghostbusters movie and one of the first photographs of the new team in their uniforms -complete with Ecto-1 behind them.
I saw the post on Farcebook and some of the comments were absolute gems. For example:
I’m not quite sure how Hollywood is interfering with this guy’s childhood -well, any more than it already has done by promoting harmful stereotypes and so on- but if someone in Hollywood actually has invented a time machine then they really are wasting it by using it so.
You know what, I think Ivan might actually be onto something here. Why not all of those things?
Because aye, the original 1980/90s Ghostbusters were the picture of health…
And then we have this corker.
Cheers bro, good story. I suppose women playing football or being doctors or doing anything beyond being housewives and whores does a disservice to feminism too?
^^^Got it in one.
In between the whining fuckboys, and the large amount of people laughing at them it has to be said, were a few people who did seem to be simply complaining about the plethora of Hollywood reboots and ‘reimaginings’. These people do have a point albeit a small and fragile one that they probably shouldn’t really be getting out in public- and it is true that there are at present rather a lot of retreadings of old ground by the movie industry. However this has, pretty much, always been the way of things. Stories have always been told and retold -tweaked for new audiences and even completely rewritten. I wonder if there were any neck bearded Greeks complaining about Virgil’s rebooting of Homer’s epic when he wrote the Aeneid? There probably were tbh…
It can be frustrating to see rehashes of films that don’t need remaking when there are so many cracking indy films being produced that could really do with having some Hollywood money thrown their way. Still, there have been some great reboots recently such as the new Planet of the Apes films, Carrie, and The Evil Dead (without which we probably wouldn’t have the new Ash vs. The Evil Dead series which is being released this year). Sure there have been some completely terrible films such as the Robocop remake but, for the most part, the reboots that I have seen have been fun to watch.
Also, these remakes and so on are able to remould older classic stories to make them suit a more modern audience. I’m not sure how many of those complaining will remember but the past, even the recent past, was a fucked up place with rampant sexism -outright misogyny in places, racism, homophobia and all manner of other barbarous bigotries proudly on display. I’m not saying that those things don’t exist now but things are most certainly better than they were. Those who know me, or who read my occasional wittering on this blog, will know that I’m something of a fan of HP Lovecraft. Now we all know what a cock he was with regards his racism but I still love his writing. As much as I love it I still find it off-putting when I come across his talking about ‘lesser races’ and referring to people in rather despicable terms. I wouldn’t want to have this stuff erased from HPL’s work but I am glad that the majority of those who have taken his mythos and who have written works inspired by it have, for the most part, not been massive racist dick bags. Their work is based on HPL’s work but it is thankfully sans his bigotry. There are also people who write work based on his mythos that are completely different in prosaic style and setting -there are even people who write Lovecraftian work featuring black and female protagonists! Oh the horror!
It therefore has to be kept in mind that this is not a remake of the original 1980s film and the plot seems quite different from what little has been revealed.
Erin Gilbert (Wiig) and Abby Bergman (McCarthy) are a pair of unheralded authors who write a book positing that ghosts are real. A few years later Gilbert lands a prestigious teaching position at Columbia University, but her book resurfaces and she is laughed out of academia. Gilbert reunites with Bergman and others when ghosts invade Manhattan and she and her team have to save the world.
~wikipedia
So this is a different film with different characters and a different story. I really don’t see what the issue is. Unless that it that the people complaining are just a bunch of man babies who don’t want to get girl cooties on their toys.
For good measure, and because everybody loves lists, here are some reboots, reimaginings, and remakes that have been pretty damn cool in recent years (in no particular order).
Battlestar Galactica
Star Trek the Next Generation
Star Trek Deep Space Nine
Star Trek (the new movie)
Star Trek into Darkness
Carrie
The Evil Dead
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Sherlock
Elementary
Doctor Who
Stargate
Stargate Atlantis
Stargate Universe
Dawn of the Dead
The Grudge
Ocean’s 11
Every Robin Hood film made since 1912
I am Legend
Yeah, I’m really sick of having all these ace things to watch…
What does get my goat though is when non-English language films get remade in English because apparently people won’t read subtitles. Fuck those people.
A (W) Baader 