Reboot or Reset button ?

X-men First class has been out for some time now and the general consensus is that its quite good all around with both critics and the average film going dullard. I havnt seen it as of yet but make no mistake that can easily be remedied in due time.

From what ive gleamed of it so far, Its managed to not only be a superhero film thats entertained but also been effective in using the magic of time paradox to completely erase the 3rd x-men movie and the wolverine film ( which i actually enjoyed a hell of a lot more than the first x-men movie, a disappointment so colossal it symbolically threw my inner child into the Thames river with concrete galoshes, thanks Mr Bryan Singer you can kindly go screw yourself)

By this I mean, certain events of the movie indicate that what happened in these 2 movies never actually took place ie the start of x-men 3 were we see Xavier and magneto still quite good friends and recruiting the Psychotic Jean grey whose powers later manifest as some kind of universe altering PMS ( as we all know, a woman can never be mad unless shes on her period, its science)

So the films a prequel with some elements of a reboot in it, and having exhausted the supply of superhero franshises that the general public are familiar with, rather than dig deeper and start turning c-list superhero stories into their own films, hollywood has turned to rather reboot franshises that have already come out, the example being the upcoming Amazing spiderman with the social networks Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker.

In hindsight the spiderman films were actually pretty lousy when you think about them objectively so perhaps a reboot is just what the doctor ordered. Honestly I like this approach to film making, I think making translations of beloved characters is a serious hit and miss undertaking so if the first time you dont succeed, dont stress there will be another chance to start afresh. Unlike the old days were remakes took a good few years or even decades to filter thru the collective memorie before producers took a another stab at it, now the a reboot/remake can come out in the same decade!

Think of the Hulk versus the incredible Hulk, both movies I liked and both had elements that worked well in their own way. the first , while the special effects were phenomenally goofy

( hulk resembles some kind of survived abortion of a government sponsored scientific experiment to splice the genes of Shrek into a green gum-ball with play doe) but the whole story played out like some kind of contemporary Greek tragedy.The father being the main enemy desiring his sons power like some kind of freudian wet dream and also worked as a great analogy of child abuse and repressed memories that manifest later in life as a being of unstoppable emotional rage.

The second hulk boasts a bruce banner much more akin to the comic book version, with edward norton as the scrawny scientist and the Hulk , while smaller, looks much more realistically textured and his physique does indicate the potential for immense power. Also this time around we get to see the level of dexterity and strength the hulk possesses in his epic battle with Abomination. This one felt much more like a comic book movie and felt more centred than the last one which was all over the place ( Compare the fight scene with abomination to the battle royale with the ill tempered mutated french poodle of the last film)

A decent fight scene is needed to display the virtues of the character, especially one whose claim to fame is super strength. That why the wowless Superman returns fell on its underpants-on-the-outside arse because Superman never has a moment where he has to square off against a being of equal if not superior strength. Zack Snyder has been called in to clean up the whoopsies of Bryan Singers Super-flop, but if Sucker Punch has taught me anything , its never too late for a director to stop being good, but that is a tale for another time.

Reboots allow a magical get out of jail free card to studios and im all for them. Ive never been against remakes and anyone who disagrees, ill direct them to Batman and Robin and then remind them of Batman Begins. However , it should be kept in mind that its possible with this approach for film makers to perhaps become a little careless.

I mean , its like in the old days, when something interfered with a shot in a film , say a boom got in the way or the weather wasn't up to scratch, theyd have to reshoot or reschedule at some cost. Nowadays with the advent of modern editing and digital composition techniques , its possable for directors to not need to reshoot at all and just merely say " nah no biggie, we can fix it in post!" I know this tears sfx peoples hair out because it presents later complications which while they can be fixed but would have not been nessesary if the director or producer wasnt so keen to knock off at four pm.

In the initial period when comic movies were being translated to film, often they were in development hell for years , trying to find the best approach to the final product, and only 50 % of the time was the end result satisfactory. But now studios will lunge into developing these films with little thought with the knowledge that they can have another crack at it later. If this keeps up and the quality overall of these films diminishes, perhaps the call for remakes will fizzle out entirely because people have grown tired of seeing the same old format being recycled. Im not too concerned about this , since the general public seems to eat up the same "britains got talent " year in and year out!