Earlier this year, two trailers were released respectively for Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and Jurassic World (2015). The two are clearly a broad window into the vast number of continuations and revisitations of classic films that have become staples in pop culture.
Much in the way that the new Star Trek films have reinvigorated the series’ silver screen presence, more and more well established titles are being taken from the shelves and dusted off.
Free of the misguided taint of George Lucas, this continuation of the iconic space opera is obviously J.J Abrams’ Star Wars. It feels very crisp and clean like much of his filmography with the exception of his vice.
If you have ever seen an Abram’s film, his love of lens flares rivals that of Michael Bay’s love of explosions and low camera angles almost to a point to where you have no idea what is going on in a scene. It is a blessing that this film will be devoid of all the unneeded flashes and glares.
Set thirty years after the original saga, Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher return as Han, Leia and Luke alongside some fresh faces. There is something magical knowing that a whole new generation of kids will be introduced to Star Wars in a non-rebooted format.
Jurassic World stars Chris Pratt (Parks and Recreation) fresh off of his Guardians of the Galaxy success as well as Bryce Dallas Howard (The Help). The trailer is complemented by a broken down version of the original theme. This is set twenty two years after the events of the first film.
Formerly known as Jurassic Park, as envisioned by John Hammond, Jurassic World is a massive family friendly theme park that is allowed to exist despite the events of the previous movies.
There’s a bit with Chris Pratt riding a motorcycle amongst a pack of velociraptors through the forest to in the trailer that is most likely there to distract you from the realization that this film centers around yet another ‘playing-God” twist.
Yes it’s funny, but why are they engineering dinosaurs again? True to the spirit of the franchise, this scientific advancement for the sake of entertainment this concept backfires horribly. What would Jurassic Park be without a little child endangerment?
Ghostbusters (2016) in all its plasmic glory is also making a comeback with an all female led ensemble that comes across as an extended Saturday Night Live parody. Coincidentally, the cast is composed mostly of SNL members.
Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate Mckinnon, Cecily Strong, Leslie Jones are all in unspecified roles. As of now it has not been made clear if this movie will be a complete reboot of the franchise or if it will just take place within that cinematic universe.
Mad Max: Fury Road (May 15, 2015) stars Tom Hardy (Child 44, The Dark Knight Rises) as Max Rockatansky, a man of few words who is out on a mission of revenge. Charlize Theron (Prometheus) also stars as Imperator Furiosa, a character that sounds like a rejected Harry Potter spell.
There has been much debate surrounding the film as to whether it is a reboot of the franchise or some sort of halfway sequel that takes place between the first and second installments of the original movies that starred a younger less haggard looking Mel Gibson.
The original director George Miller has returned to his chair, stating that while Hardy has taken Gibson’s place, the film is not a reboot.
From the looks of the trailers Mad Max comes across as an epic feature length desert chase devoid of plot. If anything it should be an insane grandiose popcorn thriller.
Directed by Alan Taylor (Thor: Dark World), the new Terminator movie involves Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) teaming up with John Connor’s mother Sarah (Emilia Clarke) and an aging terminator to try and stop Judgement Day. This is the most confusing out of the bunch.
Half of that confusion stems from the purposefully misspelled title but mostly over the plot. As if the first teaser wasn’t mind boggling enough, a new trailer was recently dropped that featured Sarah Connor as no longer a damsel in distress but the one actively aiding Kyle Reese and John Connor as a robot.
While I know very little about Terminator canon, this seems like a very odd twist. Much like the new Star Trek installments, this movie falls into a slightly different timeline than the originals, creating some fun deviations from storylines that we have already seen.
Unlike the voiceless, pile of CGI muscles from Terminator: Salvation (2009), the real Arnold Schwarzenegger returns as T-800.
With Alien 5 tentatively on the horizon, what other movies do you think would be cool to revisit? What movie shouldn’t be perverted?
Zhana Johnson
Senior Features Editor
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