ErikLundegaard.com - Cute Little Rebooties

Cute Little Rebooties

The big question about the rebooting of the Spider-Man franchise, which I didn't ask in my post yesterday, is whether the reboot will become the new norm. The point, in other words, is no longer to tell a story (the movie), or to continue telling the same story (the sequel) but to tell the same story over and over again (the reboot).

And who wants the same story told to them over and over again? Children. Young children. Our culture is definitely infantile but I'm sure it'll keep surprising me with how infantile it is.

One also wonders if Sony will take a page out of the “Dark Knight” playbook by making the first movie about the origin of the superhero while saving the best villain for the first sequel. I wouldn't be surprised.

What's interesting is that Sony's reboot is in direct contrast to what Marvel Entertainment/Studios is attempting to do with their characters/movies. They're treating movies like issues, and builiding toward the creation of The Avengers. They want the whole Marvel Comic universe onscreen, having new adventures, rather than telling the same story again and again.

Oh well. What are the Gospels of Matthew, Luke and John if not a reboot of Mark?

The reboot: Marvel was there first. “Tell us that story again, Daddy.”

Posted at 01:56 PM on Wed. Jan 13, 2010 in category Movies
Tags: Spider-Man, Reboots

COMMENTS

Uncle Vinny wrote:

Hmmm. I can see Matthew and Luke as reboots of Mark, but John was barely on the same spiritual plane, let alone the same franchise.

Comment posted on Wed. Jan 13, 2010 at 04:01 PM

Mister B wrote:

Wouldn't it be easier -- and cheaper -- to just do what "Wayne's World" did? A best=case scenario ending, a worst-case scenario ending and a Scooby-Doo ending? (or something like that -- it's been a while since I've seen the end of that movie)

Or they could do what "Clue" did. Three different endings and you have to pay to see the movie three times to see all of the different endings -- until the DVD comes out about four months opening day.

Comment posted on Wed. Jan 13, 2010 at 05:51 PM

Tim wrote:

The reboot: film's answer to the comic-book "retcon." Spidey has been severely "retconned" in the last few years to take his situation and supporting cast back to what it was in the '70s, more or less, which to me just smacks of lazy writing. Sure, I still read and enjoy the Spidey comics despite the retcon, some of the stories are pretty good, but it was a sledgehammer answer to a tweezer problem. Someone at Sony wanted to retcon the Osborns back to life or do Gwen Stacy properly or something (nah, that's giving them too much credit). Thing is, they're retconning away two of the best genre movies ever made, which is, frankly, stupid. Unless this script they want to produce is AWESOME. Which doesn't seem likely since Raimi wanted no part of it.