Do All the Recent Reboots Cater to the Wrong Audience? | Heat Vision Breakdown - video Dailymotion

Hollywood Journal

With the recent fad in Hollywood being to reboot every franchise from the 1980s and ‘90s, it turns out the past really doesn’t have to die. This week on Heat Vision Breakdown, we look at the growing, and somewhat troubling, trend of franchises aging

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00:00Hello friends!

00:01Getting old sucks.

00:02Trust me, my joints sound like a Victorian era rocking horse that's crushing a stack

00:05of rice cakes.

00:06But holding onto the past can be unhealthy.

00:08This week on Heat Vision Breakdown, we look at the growing, and somewhat troubling, trend

00:11of franchises aging along with their fan bases, and often alienating younger audiences who

00:16were once their target base.

00:19Be it your childhood hometown, Susan Boitano at 10th grade prom, or the Teenage Mutant Ninja

00:25Turtles, eventually we all outgrow the things we once loved.

00:28Well, actually, maybe we don't.

00:30You see, with the recent fad in Hollywood being to reboot every franchise from the 1980s and

00:3490s, it turns out the past really doesn't have to die.

00:37Instead, it can be summoned from its grave by studio execramances, looking to wring a few

00:42extra million dollars from its corpse.

00:44This not only allows fandom to exist in a state of arrested development, I'm looking at you,

00:48guy who spent hours online complaining Luke Skywalker wouldn't mope around on an island

00:52for a decade.

00:53Wait.

00:54That's me.

00:55It might also be stunting the progress of art itself.

00:57In the past few years, we have seen big studio remakes and reboots of the Power Rangers,

01:02Transformers, Jumanji, G.I. Joe, even my beloved Ninja Turtles.

01:05Except Donatello.

01:06What a piece of garbage he is.

01:08Oops.

01:09While many of us millennials remember these franchises from our childhood, their reboots

01:13weren't primarily aimed at children.

01:14Sorry, Mackenzie, but you just can't appreciate the nuances of Optimus Prime's endless struggles

01:19with Decepticons on as many levels as I can.

01:21While the success of these grittier, more risqué reboots varies, Transformers and Jumanji were

01:26mega-hits, G.I. Joe and TMNT less so, they do represent an issue.

01:30That audiences crave nostalgia, but in a way that is aimed at them now, as adults.

01:34The notion of, this is for us, not for kids, has been tossed about for such films as Batman

01:39v Superman, Trial of the Century, and The Last Jedi, a troubling sentiment if not altogether

01:43unsurprising.

01:44At least My Little Pony is still safe, right?

01:46Right?

01:47Brody!

01:48George Lucas himself has noted that Star Wars was intended for 12 year olds, and indeed

01:53it was a big hit with youngsters in the 1970s and a new generation two decades later.

01:57But the latter trilogy, quality notwithstanding, infuriated older fans who wanted a more adult

02:02take on the universe.

02:03It's true that nostalgia has always been a part of pop culture at its finest.

02:07Best Picture winner Forrest Gump is literally a greatest hits of events from the 1950s,

02:1160s, and 70s.

02:12Back to the Future similarly played up a yearning for the 50s, while Star Wars and Indiana Jones

02:16are riffs on old serials that Lucas and Spielberg grew up obsessing over.

02:20But those stories also created something new, rather than simply aging up old properties.

02:24It might be said to be more analogous to today's 1980s set Stranger Things, creating something

02:28fresh by drawing upon the past, like putting a mustache on Donald Trump.

02:32To be sure, there's plenty of fresh ideas that have come thanks to fandom's refusal

02:35to grow up.

02:36The Marvel Cinematic Universe is helping give audiences a reason to go to the movie theater,

02:40rather than staying home to Netflix and chill.

02:42While Tom Cruise's refusal to stop playing a character he debuted more than 20 years ago

02:45is helping remind audiences what it looks like to see something that's not just CGI.

02:50Assuming Tom Cruise is, in fact, a real human being.

02:54And not every modern resurrection of once sensational properties has opted to appeal

02:59to adults.

03:00R.L.

03:01Stine's book series, Goosebumps, which led to a popular television series in the 90s,

03:04which scared the crap out of me, was adapted as a film in 2015.

03:07A sequel, Goosebumps 2, Haunted Halloween, a redundant title, is set for release on October

03:1112th this year.

03:12Ava DuVernay's A Wrinkle in Time is another film that struck a chord with younger audiences

03:16more so than adults who read the book series growing up.

03:19Of course, studios are not rebooting IP from millennials childhood just for the hell of it.

03:23They're doing it because it's selling tickets, so the only ones to blame are the viewers

03:26themselves.

03:27Yeah, the truth hurts.

03:28The issue with rebooting a franchise that ages along with its audience is that it can

03:32be an all-or-nothing gamble on a quick box office score.

03:34By making your film primarily to appeal to its pre-established audience, you run the risk

03:38of losing out on a new, younger one that could continue being fans into their twilight years,

03:43and take their own children to see Frabble Rock Reignited in a never-ending cycle of cute

03:47little kids struggling to handle gigantic buckets of popcorn.

03:51The overall point is, none of us actually own any of these franchises, unless your last

03:55name happens to be Lucas, Abrams, or Disney.

03:57It's probably not.

03:58These movies mean something to us because we grew up with them, and they helped, in whatever

04:01capacity, to shape us into the adults that we turned out to be.

04:05To demand that they age with us, and continue to appeal to our sensibilities only at whatever

04:08stage of life we are currently living through, is to deny that formative experience to the

04:13generation behind us.

04:14Not everything has to be made for you, and to understand and accept that opens the door

04:17to the realization that so much more of the world can be enjoyed by you and others.

04:22And that's what the Ninja Turtles would have wanted.

04:24Except Donatello.

04:25Ninja Cowboy!

04:26So what do you think?

04:27Do you like the trend of reboots?

04:28Would you like to see more?

04:29Have you taken issue with my slamming of Donatello and want to defend him?

04:32Let us know in the comments right down there, and check back here every Friday morning

04:35for new episodes of Heat Vision Breakdown.

04:41See you next time.

04:42University of Hora

Do All the Recent Reboots Cater to the Wrong Audience? | Heat Vision Breakdown

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