Things I Think Should Be Rebooted
As a general rule of thumb, I'm against the idea of reboots because it just fuels Hollywood's weird of obsession with being uncreative. However, it's not like I can't see an appeal; seeing something that you really like reinterpreted in a different way is really fun and can even lead to better interpretations than the one you liked before. The new version of Voltron on Netflix is pretty good and even though none of the reincarnations of the Transformers franchise has been perfect (my personal favorite being the Japanese Cybertron run on TV), each one always had at least one new, cool thing that they could bring to the table and add to the mythos. I personally do have some things that I'd like to see rebooted, meaning made better by a reinterpretation, and even have some ideas of how they could work.
The Lone Ranger
After the disastrous Armie Hammer/Johnny Depp film you'd think it was time to lay this franchise down the bed for another 50 years. However, I still think it's got gas in the tank as long as they don't try to make a comedy out of it. Don't try to make Pirates of the Caribbean, just be The Lone Ranger. By that I mean just be a Western. Westerns are all about the difference between wilderness and civilization and the Lone Ranger himself was always the best of both worlds. He was a man with a sense of righteous justice while also being free to roam the desert as he pleased with ties to nobody except Tanto. Make the film like that one episode of Bonanza where the mysterious stranger comes into town and nobody really knows who he is or what he wants. Have him and Tanto go after a gang of murderers or bank robbers or some other wild men you'd find in the Western American wilderness. We don't need to know where he got Silver or why he uses silver bullets or where he met Tanto or anything else like that. We just need to know that he has those things and we want to see what he's going to do with them against the villains.
The Legion of Superheroes TV show
Even though this one goes pretty much unremembered now it was a big favorite of mine when I was a kid. It focusses on a group of DC Comics superheroes residing in the 31st century. There were plenty of interesting character arcs, great villains and a killer cliffhanger that they never got to wrap up because the show was cancelled after season 2 (is this sounding familiar, Young Justice fans?). They could at least do what they did with Samurai Jack, updating it to have darker themes, but still keeping the light action and fun of the original. In fact, if they just took the whole show, showed it on Cartoon Network and continued the series from there that'd be awesome.
Eon Kid
Another forgotten favorite of my childhood, Eon Kid had a pretty cool set-up if you were a ten-year-old: a one-hundred-year-old magical fist-weapon and robot ninjas trying to steal it. The show in itself was utter gobshite, but then again so was Voltron and they managed to make that at least interesting. There's got to be somebody out there that could take these characters designed to sell toys and make them compelling (again, see Voltron).
Sherlock Holmes Movies
Right now, the definitive Sherlock Holmes incarnation is Sherlock on BBC, but that's not going to last forever, especially with the fourth season having received poor reception from its fans and critics. This is the time for the films to sneak in and quietly snatch up Sherlockians that are quickly jumping off the Sherlock train. I actually quite liked the Guy Ritche Sherlock Holmes movies, but I think with a writer/director who actually understands and respects the source material Mr. Holmes could become the dominating force at the movies once again.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
I, as well as the rest of the Rick Riordan fandom, are still pretty sore about the Percy Jackson movies. I know it could be good in a visual format because it's action and adventure, a genre practically made for the screen. Instead of doing it as a film, however, I think it would be better as an animated series done by the guys who did the Avatar: The Last Airbender since the writers actually know what they're doing when handed a set of diverse characters who don't always get along and they know how to pace an overarching story. Personally, I'd like to have each book be a season, but the weird thing about the books is that they're paradoxically too long for a film and too short to fill out a 22-episode TV show. Maybe just do, like, 10 episodes a season.
The Boondock Saints
When you really get down to it The Boondock Saints has a great premise for an action film but it was just poorly executed. An action/comedy about two Irish-Catholics going about Boston dealing out vigilante justice would be great if they could hire a seasoned director who knows what they're doing instead of a ripe amateur with a lot of passion, but absolutely no skill. Personally, I'd choose somebody like Matthew Vaughn, who can balance action, comedy and drama like a circus performer can balance plates on sticks.
What dead or worn out franchises do you think would be better rebooted? I'm sure there's some I forgot.
The Lone Ranger
After the disastrous Armie Hammer/Johnny Depp film you'd think it was time to lay this franchise down the bed for another 50 years. However, I still think it's got gas in the tank as long as they don't try to make a comedy out of it. Don't try to make Pirates of the Caribbean, just be The Lone Ranger. By that I mean just be a Western. Westerns are all about the difference between wilderness and civilization and the Lone Ranger himself was always the best of both worlds. He was a man with a sense of righteous justice while also being free to roam the desert as he pleased with ties to nobody except Tanto. Make the film like that one episode of Bonanza where the mysterious stranger comes into town and nobody really knows who he is or what he wants. Have him and Tanto go after a gang of murderers or bank robbers or some other wild men you'd find in the Western American wilderness. We don't need to know where he got Silver or why he uses silver bullets or where he met Tanto or anything else like that. We just need to know that he has those things and we want to see what he's going to do with them against the villains.
The Legion of Superheroes TV show
Even though this one goes pretty much unremembered now it was a big favorite of mine when I was a kid. It focusses on a group of DC Comics superheroes residing in the 31st century. There were plenty of interesting character arcs, great villains and a killer cliffhanger that they never got to wrap up because the show was cancelled after season 2 (is this sounding familiar, Young Justice fans?). They could at least do what they did with Samurai Jack, updating it to have darker themes, but still keeping the light action and fun of the original. In fact, if they just took the whole show, showed it on Cartoon Network and continued the series from there that'd be awesome.
Eon Kid
Another forgotten favorite of my childhood, Eon Kid had a pretty cool set-up if you were a ten-year-old: a one-hundred-year-old magical fist-weapon and robot ninjas trying to steal it. The show in itself was utter gobshite, but then again so was Voltron and they managed to make that at least interesting. There's got to be somebody out there that could take these characters designed to sell toys and make them compelling (again, see Voltron).
Sherlock Holmes Movies
Right now, the definitive Sherlock Holmes incarnation is Sherlock on BBC, but that's not going to last forever, especially with the fourth season having received poor reception from its fans and critics. This is the time for the films to sneak in and quietly snatch up Sherlockians that are quickly jumping off the Sherlock train. I actually quite liked the Guy Ritche Sherlock Holmes movies, but I think with a writer/director who actually understands and respects the source material Mr. Holmes could become the dominating force at the movies once again.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
I, as well as the rest of the Rick Riordan fandom, are still pretty sore about the Percy Jackson movies. I know it could be good in a visual format because it's action and adventure, a genre practically made for the screen. Instead of doing it as a film, however, I think it would be better as an animated series done by the guys who did the Avatar: The Last Airbender since the writers actually know what they're doing when handed a set of diverse characters who don't always get along and they know how to pace an overarching story. Personally, I'd like to have each book be a season, but the weird thing about the books is that they're paradoxically too long for a film and too short to fill out a 22-episode TV show. Maybe just do, like, 10 episodes a season.
The Boondock Saints
When you really get down to it The Boondock Saints has a great premise for an action film but it was just poorly executed. An action/comedy about two Irish-Catholics going about Boston dealing out vigilante justice would be great if they could hire a seasoned director who knows what they're doing instead of a ripe amateur with a lot of passion, but absolutely no skill. Personally, I'd choose somebody like Matthew Vaughn, who can balance action, comedy and drama like a circus performer can balance plates on sticks.
What dead or worn out franchises do you think would be better rebooted? I'm sure there's some I forgot.
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