My Beef with Ghostbusters (and Hollywood)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3ugHP-yZXw

So if you haven’t heard, this summer they’re rebooting the Ghostbusters franchise. The film is a departure from the original films seeing as it features an all-female cast and seeks to tell a brand new story. Based off the trailer the movie looks funny and I’ll probably be seeing at some point. My problem with Ghostbusters, as well as a lot of other films coming out, is that they’re putting new spins on things that we already love.

In the past couple years we’ve seen the Spider-Man franchise rebooted (with a new franchise coming in the next couple years) , a new Star Wars film, Jurassic Park transformed into "Jurassic World," "Boy Meets World" turned into "Girl Meets World," "Full House" turned into "Fuller House" and the "Rocky" franchise rebooted with "Creed" among other numerous other films and franchises. While these shows and movies have been successfully received they aren’t original. They’re remakes and retellings of stories that we’ve seen before.

My fear is that we aren’t getting enough innovation. Reboots and franchises are all well and good, but we’re seeing a lack of real originality more often than not. Instead of giving filmmakers a chance to tell a unique story we’ve seen studios bank on proven franchises. I can’t fault them for that, but it’s scary to think about what this means going forward.

Feel free to let me know if I’m tripping but it seems like we have the potential to fall into an infinite loop of reboots and franchise resurrections. Think about the movies and TV shows that you loved as a kid. Go ahead, take a second and think about them. Now think about how you would feel if they were rebooted, you’d be happy right? Ok so you’d be happy that your favorite show was brought back for you years later while at the same time kids that weren’t around to remember your franchise may fall in love with the reboot the same way you loved the original. So, when those reboot loving kids grow up they’ll undoubtedly have nostalgic feelings about the reboot of the show that you grew up with. There feelings for the reboot would match your feelings for the original becuase to them the reboot is the original. Hollywood knowing this will reboot the franchise yet again to capitalize on the kid that is now grown, the adult (you) that enjoyed the original, and the kid that has no idea what that is. This cycle will continue forever until we're eighty years old watching the latest incarnation of the Ninja Turtles with our great grandkids.

Maybe I’m just being paranoid though. It’s not like there are no stand-alone movies anymore right? Go look at a movie schedule and let me know how many of those films are sequels, prequels or reboots. I honestly counted 22 before we even get to August. Hey I’m tripping though see y'all at the movies...