I’ve been a huge movie buff since I can remember. I’ve seen my fair share of good and bad movies. I’ve seen amazing sequels like The Empire Strikes Back, Godfather Part II, and The Dark Knight. I’ve also seen some pretty bad ones like Superman IV, Batman and Robin, and Sicario: Day of the Soldado. Likewise, I’ve seen some really good remakes and reboots, as well as some of the bad ones. Sometimes, though, you come across a sequel or reboot that had so much hype built up that it just completely shits the bed. For this post, I’m going to go over the sequels/reboots that completely missed the mark, despite all the build-up and hype. Before I begin, I should mention that not all of these movies are going to be bad movies. Far from it, some of them are pretty good from my perspective, they just failed to understand what the original film tried to do. I’ve written posts about best sequels and reboots and some bad ones, but this one is a little different. So, let’s get this train-wreck off to a good start, shall we?
Hellboy(2019)
This one is very recent, and you can check out my review by hitting the reviews tab. I went into this one with pretty low expectations, considering all the negative things that I’ve heard and read about it. Is it as awful as everybody says? No. In fact, there’s a bit about it that I actually really like. The level of violence is pretty cool, along with the creature designs, but all the good stuff is hampered by really lousy writing as well as some questionable casting decisions. Everybody is in agreement about the fact that Guillermo del Toro should have been allowed to do his third and final film in the Hellboy films starring Ron Perlman. Sadly, the only way they would be able to do that would be to animate it.
The Godfather Part III
This is one film that a lot of film enthusiasts wish didn’t happen. It certainly didn’t need to happen. The first two Godfather films are masterpieces in their own right, with each one winning multiple awards including an Academy Award for Best Picture. How could you top two of the most iconic films in cinematic history? Simple answer: You can’t. It’s not a terrible movie, and as far as third entries go, it’s still better than a lot of films, but in the Godfather series, Part III is woefully inadequate, with some really lousy performances. Al Pacino is still fantastic as Michael Corleone, but even he goes over the top sometimes, and it ain’t pretty. Francis Ford Coppola’s daughter, Sofia Coppola is horribly miscast and delivers one of the worst performances of the decade. Unlike the first two films, Godfather Part III plays like a typically generic gangster movie. It doesn’t work, at least, not in the context of the previous stories.
Ghostbusters 2016
I don’t think it would surprise anybody that this one would find its way on to this list. The concept behind this film was pretty good with having female characters take on the role of the Ghostbusters, but the execution was all over the place. The performance of the female leads, especially Kate McKinnon were pretty good and they save the movie for me, but the overall writing and direction by Paul Feig tanked the whole damn thing. He didn’t really have a clue how to write a Ghostbusters film that wasn’t self-referential. The reason that the original film worked was because the film played it straight. This one takes time out of the film to remind you that it’s a Ghostbusters film. Ultimately, I thought it was a fun film that worked when it was doing its own thing and not being a Ghostbusters movie. As it stands, an official Ghostbusters III is now in the works and is going to ignore the 2016 film entirely, as it should.
Psycho 1998
Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is considered by many to be one of the quintessential thrillers of 20th century film, and they aren’t wrong. The 1960 film is an absolute classic in every sense of the word and was the pre-cursor to the modern-day slasher film. So, would a remake be a bad idea? On paper, no. If done right, it could work if they changed up certain things. Somebody forgot to tell Gus Van Sant that, because he remade Psycho shot for shot. As a result, anybody who had seen the original film would know exactly what’s coming, when it’s coming, and how it’s coming. This was so ill-advised on so many levels. Vince Vaughn was no Anthony Perkins and as a result, the film failed on every single level.
Martyrs 2016
I don’t know what it is about American film-makers trying to remake foreign movies for American audiences, especially when they don’t need to be. Martyrs was a French horror film from 2008 that was unflinching in its brutality and its message. It was very bleak and had a mean streak a mile wide. I’ve only seen the film twice since I picked it up ten years ago, that’s how impactful it was. When I learned that the film was being remade for American audiences, I was legitimately curious. I wanted to see if the film-makers would retain the level of intensity and sheer viciousness of the original film. Sadly, that isn’t the case. It’s a very watered-down horror film with an ending that it didn’t earn and feels out of place in terms of the story. The way the original Martyrs ended was shocking, but there was a reason for it. The movie was a commentary on the dangers of religious zealotry and fanaticism, but that message got lost somewhere in translation. I didn’t hate the American version. I thought it was fairly well shot, if not well written. If you like your horror movies with a serious mean streak, stick with the original Martyrs, it’s far more meaningful and stays with you much longer.
Star Trek Into Darkness
I really like the new Star Trek films. I think they’re a lot of fun and are extremely well-made. There were a lot of problems with the second movie, Into Darkness. The first problem was the worst-kept secret in cinematic history: Benedict Cumberbatch playing Khan Noonien Singh, the legendary villain from the origin series episode, Space Seed and subsequent film, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The problem with Into Darkness, as a whole, is that it’s nothing more than a glorified remake. It follows a lot of the same beats as the original film, especially in the third act. Don’t get me wrong, Mr. Cumberbatch is fantastic as Khan, but the film doesn’t really do a whole lot new with the character, and some of the writing was awful. I still had a lot of fun with it, but this was a sequel that needed to be a lot more than it was.
Quantum of Solace
James Bond has been a fixture in cinema since the early 60’s. Played by Sean Connery, Roger Moore, George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig, James Bond is one of the most iconic characters ever written. Quantum of Solace is the first direct sequel to a James Bond film, which makes for some interesting possibilities. Quantum of Solace was a victim of bad timing. There was writer’s strike back in 2007-2008 and that affected a lot of movies during that period. As a result, a lot of the film had to be re-written on the fly by the film’s director and Daniel Craig in an attempt to get something out to audiences. While I don’t think it’s a bad movie at all, you can tell that the writer’s strike had a negative impact on the quality of the film. That being said, in terms of quality, it’s still better than Moonraker.
The Predator
This one hurts. A lot. The film was being directed by Shane Black, who starred in the original film and wrote other films like Lethal Weapon. He was also a pretty decent director with films like Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang, The Nice Guys, and Iron Man 3. So…what happened? Fred Dekker and Fox Studios are what happened. Going by his filmography, Dekker didn’t have a lot to his name outside of some TV shows. This was not a guy that really understood the franchise whatsoever. The whole thing was a massive misfire that that ended up being nothing more than a CGI monster fest. Granted, some of the action was pretty good, and some of the characters were somewhat interesting, but the whole film felt amateurish at best. This is not the kind of film the Predator franchise needs. I don’t hate it, as I found it to be fairly entertaining, but when stacked up against the last three movies, it lowers the bar so far to the ground that it trips over it.
The Mummy 2017
If you really want to talk about a misfire, look no further than 2017’s The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise. Oh, man. This was going to be the first movie to launch the new Dark Universe series of films, but it ended up killing the Dark Universe instead. It was going to be a new cinematic universe featuring the classic monster from the early days of cinema: The Invisible Man, The Mummy, Dracula, and Frankenstein. In fact, the next movie in the series was going to be The Bride of Frankenstein, a remake of one of cinema’s most celebrated sequels and monster movies. Is it going to happen? Most likely….not. The decisions made with this movie were really, really stupid. The first mistake was announcing the Dark Universe before even having a first movie to see if it would work. Nope. Alex Kurtzman and five other writers couldn’t come up with a compelling story or reason why this movie should even exist. I liked Sofia Boutella as the villain, as she was the most compelling part of it, but the film spent too much time trying to be self aware. The humor didn’t work and the action was average at best. The visual effects weren’t even that good, although the plane sequence was awesome. It’s got that going for it. This one missed the mark by a thousand miles.
Alien Covenant
When Prometheus was released back in 2012, it was an unexpected film. People were anticipating a legitimate prequel to Ridley Scott’s Alien, but what they got was something very different. I loved Prometheus, so when a sequel was announced, I was looking forward to seeing the further adventures of Dr. Elizabeth Shaw and the android David as the searched for the Engineers, aliens that created humanity. Was that what we got? Nope. We got a film that was attempting to be both a sequel to Prometheus and a prequel to Alien but failing at both. Not only that, Ridley Scott had the fucking audacity to kill off Shaw between movies, effectively sweeping Prometheus under the rug. This film was a massive disappointment to so many people. We got this one instead of Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5, which would have been a direct sequel to James Cameron’s Aliens. To that, I say this: Fuck you, Ridley Scott. I love his movies, but at this stage in his life, his ego has gotten the better of him. Now that Fox Studios has been bought by Disney, there might be a possibility that we’ll get an Alien film that’s actually worth a damn, if Disney lets the property continue to be R-rated.
Well, those are some of the sequels and remakes that I feel just blew it. Again, I don’t necessarily hate these movies, but in terms of their respective franchises, the completely missed the mark. Hopefully, they didn’t do any permanent damage.