After seeing the Spider-man reboot it got me thinking what other hero’s deserve/need a reboot.
Hellblazer
First I’m going to start with the one I personally think needs the reboot the most. I may be slightly biased here as John Constantine is one of my favorite characters.
Dear god where do I begin here. The movie Constantine that came out in 2005 was just……well the problem is although I want to be mad with it I can’t because it was NOT a Hellblazer movie. The only thing that the character in the Constantine movie had in common with the Constantine from the Vertigo comics was his name. That’s it. It’s very hard to be mad at something that literally has no claim or resemblance to original character. The Constantine in the comics is a blond British guy with a cynical sense of humor and an incredible knack for getting out of trouble. The Constantine in the movie well just wasn’t……he just wasn’t.
I can’t even properly describe how I feel about it all I can say he was not Vertigo’s John Constantine at all. He wasn't British, blond and didn't have the sarcastic sense of humor I’m used to seeing in the comics. It’s almost as if the writers and producers sat down and said “lets make a movie about Hellblazer but let it be nothing like Hellblazer” which to me is completely stupid. Why adapt a movie from a comic if you don’t even want to use the material provided. If you’re going to do that go make an original character of your own don’t take another and change it simply because you feel like it. The comics have so many good stories (with 300 issues I should damn well hope so) you could use so there really is non rhyme, reason or excuse as to why they did what they did with Constantine.
Reboot it, set it in Britain and bring back the sarcastic Brit we all know and love.
Spawn
For its time Spawn was not a terrible movie. However it has aged horribly and the story/lines just don’t come across well now. This is one of the reasons Spawn deserves a reboot despite the fact it has aged badly you can still see the potential in it for a good reboot with the new special effects we have today. The casting in the original film was also good. White and Leguizamo played their parts well and despite its age the CGI for Spawn’s cape still looks awesome even today.
However the storyline and lines are what let it down badly now. Another thing that seems to plague the movie is the fact they attempted to cram too much into one movie. For example Malbogia is undoubtedly the big baddy of age 1 Spawn but he only really becomes relevant nearer the end. For a Spawn movie you don’t need to try to cram the big bag guy in the first movie. The first few issues of age 1 Spawn really highlight the emotional trauma Al Simmons is going through not to mention Violator causing him trouble at every turn. These two elements are all you need to make a good Spawn reboot there's no need to rush into trying to cram everyone into one movie. Let it play out naturally like in the comics, throw in the modern special effects we now have and I can see Spawn making a very good reboot.
Ghost Rider
There seems to be a trend appearing. Do people have trouble making superhero movies that have connections to the occult/horror?
The first Ghost Rider fell to the thing that kills most movies. The director and producers trying to make it viewable for all audiences. This has and will continue to kill movies for years to come. The problem with Ghost Rider is that he is a character who isn’t for all audiences especially young children thus to treat him as such is stupid and should not be done. Say what you like Ghost Rider is a dark and creepy character and should not be seen with a pearly white skull or drinking jellybeans out of a glass.
I had high hopes for Spirit Of Vengeance however they too were not met unfortunately. However there were some vast improvements. This Ghost Rider was dark and gritty just as he should be. Physically he was also a lot more imposing (no more pretty pearly white skull) and the CGI that accompanied him was great. Even Nicholas Cage’s performance as Johnny Blaze increased dramatically and his “freak out” was a pretty convincing interpretation of what it might be like to be possessed by daemon/angel. This was not enough to save it however. Although this movie did not fall into the “trying to please everyone” area (thank you Neveldine and Tyler) it was let down so badly by the storyline. Go back and have a look at the movie all the raw materials were there for a good movie but for some reason they just weren't assembled properly. Great effects, scarier/grittier Ghost Rider and it was definitely not aimed at all audiences.
What is needed is to take the raw materials they had in SoV and give it to a capable writer and although I thought Nic Cage’s performance had improved I still can’t get on board with him as Johnny Blaze so I would bring in someone new.
DareDevil
Well we’ve left the occult/horror behind us and are now back in normalish regions. There was so much wrong with this movie that I will only go into a few things that plagued me the most. One was the fact that they tried to put to many people in the movie some of whom weren't needed. Another thing that ticked me off was that watching it I got the feeling I was watching an Elektra prequel rather than a DareDevil movie. This only made things worse. The movie is called DareDevil for Christ’s sake before you include more people in the movie ground the main character first. Make sure the audience know who he is. After that you can start enlarging his universe and adding/buffing out more characters. The first movie of any series should focus on showing who the main character is not skimming it quickly in favor of adding more characters. Too many characters have a habit of ruining superhero movies anyway *cough*Spider-man 3*cough*.
Although some comic based movies have pulled off a good movie by changing the characters origin slightly (Iron Man is a good example) they nearly always showed a good connection to the original story. It’s not that DareDevil ignored this as such but a lot of elements such as Elektra’s death and Kingpin finding out Matt’s identity (which were all Millar stories I believe?) while good stories are not his origin and have no real business being there. Bullseye was a good choice of villain but we didn’t need Kingpin too. He is the big bad guy who should really remain in the shadows until the sequel when he can be revealed as the big baddy pulling the strings. The whole movie seemed very rushed to me as if they wanted to cram in as much as possible for no real reason. Again I think this is another movie that fell into the “wanting to please everyone” trap. DareDevil is not Spider-man and as such shouldn't have a light tone to his movie. DareDevil’s world isn’t very child friendly and if you’re going to make a movie about it don’t dumb it down for that benefit. Hell’s Kitchen is a pretty awful place filled with crime, drugs, prostitution etc.. and should have a dark tone to reflect this (the sort of atmosphere that you got when watching The Dark Knight or V For Vendetta). Another thing that plagued me was DareDevil's shiny latex-like suit. Replace that material now!
There are many ways this could be very well adapted in a way that would make a good film however if they truly are insistent making it child-friendly then push that rating as high and as hard as you can.
Nick Fury
Now I haven’t actually seen the original one so I can’t really go into how it could be improved however I don’t really need to. If Nick Fury gets a reboot it would be favorable to have absolutely no prior connection to the other what so ever. If there was ever a movie to act as prequel to the Avengers then it’s a movie based on Nick Fury. Get Jackson on board and make a movie about Nick Fury rising through the ranks of S.H.I.E.L.D make it a kind of Jame’s Bond meets Marvel type film. Heavily based on the spying and military intelligence aspect but with a few technologically enhanced villains thrown in (I’m talking Shocker type villains. Not superpowered but with advanced enough tech to show that it is situated in the Marvel-verse and not real life).
Elektra
This movie was bad…..really bad. Again this is another that has so many faults I’m only going to go into the parts that really annoyed me rather than rant for pages. You may also be wondering why I even think she should have a reboot. Unlike any of the other people I’ve mentioned she isn't a big player in her universe so why do I think she should get a reboot? Well because I want to see more female standalone movies. There are so many female characters that are good enough to have their own movies but for some reason aren't considered.
My hope would be that if the reboot was successful more female lead comic-based movies would follow. This was another movie that fell prey to cramming too many characters into one movie , not to mention bad casting, acting, costumes, choice of villains….i’ll stop there. Suffice to say there was a lot to be disliked about this movie. They should reboot this and completely scrap every idea they had for the previous version. Make the main bad guy the Hand. Not a group of superpowered people. A whole fricking army of ninja’s is enough of a challenge, no need to throw in a guy with living tattoo’s. This movie could also co-inside with DareDevil explaining Elektra’s origin before appearing in a potential DareDevil sequel.
Log in to comment