Ever get the feeling that Hollywood's just thrown up its hands at some point and gone "you know what? I can't be bothered anymore. Can we just recycle everything until people forget that originality exists in cinema?" It's not difficult, given that every other film is an adaptation, a reboot, or a remake.
The problem with this is that it's the old opinion of "nothing is original", but taken to extremes. Please, filmmakers - make something. About anything. I don't care whether it's a film about penguins invading the White House or the X-Men attempting to win a partypoker tournament while waiting for Magneto to come and shake things up again. I just want something new.
There's a big difference, however, between the majority of rehashed ideas we get, and the few remakes/reboots/adaptations that have been truly impressive. The Thing and Batman Begins have proven without a shadow of a doubt that taking something that wasn't done in a serious or modern manner and reworking it into something else entirely can really work.
Let's take a closer look at both examples. The Thing was a flop, commercially, but when you consider that it released within a fortnight of E.T., and on the same day as another sci-fi novel adaptation by the name of Blade Runner, it's not hard to see why most people were choosing other films. But the special effects, fantastic storytelling and different approach to the 1952 literature it's based on, in comparison to the film that was made that same year, is obvious. Even now it's around thirty years old and still a fantastic watch in which the SFX stands up perfectly.
Batman is a given, and that goes for any film fan or critic. Christopher Nolan took what was great about Batman - the locales, the outfits, the characters - and gave them a sense of realism that had never before existed. Nothing in those films can't be done in real life - it's all technology that exists, or is viable in the future. The Joker goes from comical to terrifying, the Sandman from a man who likes nightmares to the wielder of a bioweapon. Perfect.
But then we end up with oddities like the upcoming remakes of Oldboy, Blade Runner and Akira. Baffling. What's worse is the American remake of Let the Right One In - a film released, in Swedish (subtitles exist, people), two years before the remake, which doesn't really make Hollywood look very foreign-friendly, I'll say that much.
So do the film industry a favour, and vote with your wallets! If they don't get the money, they won't make the films - so pay for originals and great reboots, and let's leave the unoriginal blockbusters in the dark.
[This is a sponsored article.]