Angelene Concepcion
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Are you still watching? The age of reboots, remakes and spinoffsHow hollywood is leeching off of nostalgia Angelene Concepcion
Illustration by Katelin Jaegers
With every remake, reboot and spinoff of a classic, Hollywood edges closer to tarnishing their empire and replacing it with sheer mediocrity. With Hollywood scrambling to produce content; reboots, remakes, and spinoffs are inevitable. The ‘regurgitation’ of classics has proven divisive for viewers, a double-edged sword that often divides viewers, with some keen on seeing characters and stories returning to their screens and others arguing that these releases ruin the original. While there is nothing more liberating than getting your fix from Hollywood, there seems to be a rampant obsession with nostalgia, where every “new release” is nothing other than a revival of existing media. While there is nothing wrong with revisiting the past, some may say that reproductions tarnish beloved classics. Films such as Charlie’s Angels (2019), Ghostbusters (2016), and Jumanji (2017), to name a few (the list goes on) have found themselves victims of this recycling phenomenon. Remakes, reboots, and spinoffs are all cut out from the same piece of fabric, trying to sew a dress that probably won’t fit. The difference between the three is simple: remakes directly parallel the original, allowing only cosmetic or trivial changes; reboots are remakes that allow for the introduction of new plotlines, characters and values; and spinoffs expand on certain aspects or characters from already existing media. Arguably, while all the forms of reinvention risk ruining the original, remakes fly closest to the sun. Really, it’s a hit or miss! THARU
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