Rules for Reboots

Lately I have been seeing a lot of reboots of older or already successful movies, comic books, and other ideas as it pertains to consumer media. I think that is fine, but I also see a lot of people getting up in arms about certain things and it becomes a great war between those who support it and think its wonderful and those who don't. Now What I am talking about more than anything is those reboots that aren't just to give a fresh and more modern perspective to something that was originally set in a time where the ideals or technology don't hold up in today's world. I, of course, am talking about controversial reboots. Reboots that change a key aspect of the original piece, mostly in reference to the main characters. Things like changing the race, gender, sexuality, or something that takes a long standing iconic character and changes something about that character. Before explaining how I feel about it, we should probably visit the two perspectives on the matter.

1. Support;
These people say go for it. We need a fresh perspective and we need better representation for minorities. They see nothing wrong with these reboots under any circumstances and call anyone who opposes them racist, sexist, and homophobic. They think those who oppose these reboots are simply a dying breed and society will progress without them. I think these people are right sometimes.

2. Oppose;
They say it's never okay. These are the stories and characters of our youth. They say that these character becomes almost a brand that is identifiable and changing it takes away from those who grew up with it. They think anyone who is on board is taking from the creator of the original and call it a disservice to modern media. I think these people are also right sometimes.

Now, while I agree with some of what I am seeing in either argument, I don't feel either is entirely correct. We do need representation of strong, powerful, women saving the day. We do need to see black, hispanic, asian, and other minority races in relatable roles. We do need LGBT+ people in our films to help slowly erase heteronormativity, which I will further address in the future. We don't need to erase a long standing and complex universe to do so.

The new Annie is a great example. It was a broadway show brought to film twice. Annie went from a little girl with a curly red afro of hair to a girl with straighter brown hair. We changed it so we could keep this classic with the times. Both times the bones and integrity of the original broadway show was kept in tact. Orphan girl, evil woman in charge of the orphanage, rich man adopt the miserable but spunky Annie as a publicity stunt, then she slowly becomes a real part of his family all while the nasty woman at the orphanage tries to stop it. in 2014 we had another reboot, where again very few things changed. The orphanage became a foster home, as today we don't have so many orphanages and foster homes are much more common, and we have two key characters who went from white to black. The absolutely amazing Quvenzhané Wallis plays Annie beautifully, and Jamie Foxx is Will Stacks. Some people absolutely lost their minds about this. They hated the idea because of how classic Annie is and they felt it wasn't right to change her entirely. The way I see it, they didn't change her entirely. She was still a spunky and ambitious little girl trying to make the best of a bad situation and she is still an inspiring character for little girls. The only thing that changed was the color of her skin. Let's be honest, how many strong black characters do we have for African American youth to look too? Before the Annie reboot, I would have been hard pressed to name one. Then this little girl with dark skin and natural hair comes along and I think this was some much overdue representation.

Next let's look in to the future. We are all expecting to see a Ghostbusters reboot and it has once again sparked controversy. This one went a little bit further. Now the men who we are used to seeing doing this dangerous work are no more. Now we have a team of strong women doing the dirty work. And in this female led reboot with the amazing cast of Melissa  McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones, has taken it just one baby step further. This time, the men will be taking the calls while the women go get their hands dirty, Chris Hemsworth has been announced to be playing the secretary. Once again, this is an iconic piece that has a lot of buzz and controversy around it. I don't see a problem with giving some strength and some balls to a female lead. And what's better, an already well known film with multiple leads, all made female. I think it's great, and this reboot is scheduled to hit theaters July 22, 2016.

For me, these work because of what they are pulling from. Annie was a broadway show, and Ghostbusters was a few movies. That is all we are dealing with here, so it makes sense to adapt it to what is needed, be it in way or representation or modern terms and technology. However, this post is called Rules for Reboots, so you already know I have something to complain about.

I am of course going to delve in to comic books and comic book heroes for my argument. More specifically the Thor franchise has frustrated me. Things that are not okay to me are things like female Thor or black Heimdall. I am only going to touch on female Thor quickly because again this is something that will likely earn it's own post in the future, but comic books like Thor are something that have been long standing for years. There are entire universes built for each of these superheroes. So much goes in to their creation and backstory and you read about them for years and years in comics with pictures with clear depictions of the authors intention for this character, and to change them feels like a violation. As for black Heimdall, this is Norse mythology. I don't think I need to tell you that Norse people are fair skinned and it is therefore safe to assume that their gods would be shown the same. And it's not even just about the race or gender. I also don't like that in Jared Leto's depiction of The Joker in Suicide Squad is going to be tattooed. The Joker doesn't have tattoos! When there is lore and a whole universe and years of backstory developed around a character, there is very little you can do tastefully to change your interpretation of that character, and I think that is honestly something that is up to the actor and the way they choose to carry themselves and convey their demeanor.

The short version: Reboots are a great way to give representation to minorities and are welcome, unless you are going to basically take away an entire long developed and complex franchise for the sake of one movie. If you want a minority superhero, sit down and develop a universe and a backstory and a huge complex idea to put your unique and original minority hero in.