Many times have I raised my fist in anger over unnecessary remakes. I would often question the existence of creation for letting some douche remake Yellow Submarine or cry in my pillow over the thought of The Thing remake. (Yes, I know it’s a prequel, but you can call a turd anything you want, it will still be a turd) I hated Visionary Director© Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake even though it got lavish praise. He took what creeped me out in the original and made it hip and lame and not creepy at all. To sum up, most remakes give me a Natalie Portman face...
Not all remakes are bad of course. Scorsese’s Cape Fear was excellent as was Savini’s remake of Night of the Living Dead. More recently, True Grit in my opinion surpassed the original. This is pretty much how I feel with a possible Logan’s Run reinvention.
Logan’s Run is definitely a flawed film. It was birthed in an era that could have cared less about sci-fi films and the effects greatly suffered because of this. Somewhere between 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars there was a great sci-fi malaise. Hollywood was young and edgy. The public wanted strong social commentary veiled in strained relationships and city streets, not futuristic tube transports and cardboard robots. Logan’s Run did well with the commentary; it was in the execution where it faltered.
Personally I enjoy the film, effects and all. It’s a great reminder to a time right before Star Wars where visual effects were new and experimental. The miniatures were blatant, the set design was painfully 70’s and Box… was, um… boxy.
So, why a remake? Why not? Logan’s Run is the type of film that sits somewhere between camp, cult and classic but doesn’t adhere to any one of those. It’s not sacred enough to warrant legions of angry Loganites to burn Hollywood to the ground and it’s not horrible enough to poke and laugh at. It would fit nicely into today’s blockbuster action sci-fi fare with dystopian deep political glazing. The actors would have to be young which is what Hollywood would do anyway. Stick Michael York as the Peter Ustinov character and you’d have yourself a nice homage to the original.
My only reservation on this idea would be their almost guaranteed overuse of CGI. I prefer to be a hopeless romantic and believe that the practical would outweigh but we all know that thinking is folly! FOLLY I SAY!
As long as they keep Box CGI free, that’s all I can ask for. You gotta pick you battles.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m late for Carousel.
I loved this movie. Saw it when I was a kid. Classic.
ReplyDelete"The Island", with Ewan McGregor & Scarlet Johannson, is obviously a remake. I thought it was well made.
Looking forward to a more true updated version though.
The quad-flame guns were awesome.
ReplyDeleteThe book and the movie are so different that I like both of them for what they are. Just checked the link and this one to a script for the reboot is still active. I always hoped that Amy Adams could be cast as Jessica but she's a bit old for the part now (especially if you return to the age for Lastday in the book).
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ugo.com/movies/logans-run-script-review-exclusive