The 1980s were a time of excesses. While Oliver Stone’s Wall Street was a reflection, not the cause, one line summed up the corporate mentality; “[G]reed, for a lack of a better word, is good.”* Or, as Newhart‘s Larry, Darryl, and Darryl put it, “Anything for a buck.” Conservative governments in the US, the UK, and Canada embarked on deregulating and privatizing anything possible, regardless of the impact. During this time, the archetypical Cyberpunk novel, William Gibson’s Neuromancer was published, followed two years later by Walter Jon Williams’ Hardwired, both taking a hard look at the rise of corporate power and what it meant to the workers and the outsiders.
As the decade began to wrap up in 1987, the movie Robocop hit theatres. The film was billed as a science-fiction action movie, set in the near future. Detroit was bankrupt and was being bought out by Omni Consumer Products. The Detroit Police Department had been privatized, bought by OCP who turned the department into a profit centre through underfunding. OCP has a project in the works to replace the officers in the field with robots; in fact, there are two competing projects. The first is a fully automated law enforcement unit, the ED-209. The second is Robocop. However, the Robocop project requires a human base to be augmented.
Enter Alex Murphy, police officer, family man. Murphy worked on the police as a patrol officer on the dangerous streets of Old Detroit. How dangerous were the streets? Body armour was part of the patrol uniform. Murphy and his new partner, Anne Lewis, respond to a call that led to the chase of Clarence Boddicker, the leader of a criminal gang handling a bit of everything, including cocaine dealing. Murphy and Lewis separated, giving Boddicker the opportunity to kill Murphy brutally.
Lewis discovers Murphy, barely alive. OCP takes over Murphy’s trip to the hospital, leading to Alex being declared dead and a clause in his work contract getting invoked. Bob Morton then takes possession of Murphy, wanting to use him for the Robocop project. The ED-209, championed by OCP VP Dick Jones, had a setback during initial testing, leading to the shooting death of an intern after the prototype failed to recognize the intern had dropped his gun. Morton reveals the new Alex Murphy, Robocop.
Robocop, along with being a violent science-fiction action movie, was a satire of the politics and culture of the 80s. Underfunded police forces, privatization, high level corporate drug use, corporate politics, dangerous streets, anything and everything that hit the news, TV series, or feature films. Yet, today, Detroit is bankrupt and the average police officer on patrol is wearing body armour. While it wasn’t meant to be predictive, Robocop foresaw the rise of corporate power and the militarization of police services.
With the risk aversion in Hollywood studios and the appetite of foreign markets for known franchises, it was almost inevitable that Robocop was remade for 2014. With the original movie having had two sequels, a TV series, a video game, a pinball game, and even a cartoon**, the character of Robocop is a known figure. Over-the-top action transcends language. Robocop was ideal for a remake.
The new Robocop saw a few changes right away, mainly because of cultural and political changes during the intervening twenty-seven years. While Detroit wasn’t mentioned as being bankrupt nor being owned by OCP***, the city was still a dangerous place to live. Murphy became a detective instead of patrolman, as did his partner, Jack Murphy.
The movie begins with The Novak Element, a cable news program with high tech flash that wouldn’t be out of place on Fox or CNN. Pat Novak, played by Samuel L. Jackson, goes on a rant on how drones, being used for peacekeeping in American-occupied Tehran, can’t be used for law enforcement thanks to a popular law passed by Congress. Omnicorp, a division of OCP, is seeing hundreds of millions in unrealized sales, and a plan gets hatched to turn popular opinion against the Act. Raymond Sellars, CEO of Omnicorp, finds a loophole that lets him get his wedge; drones aren’t allowed, but a machine with a man inside isn’t covered. All he needs is a suitable candidate.
Meanwhile, Detectives Alex Murphy and Jack Lewis have been on the trail of Antoine Vallon, gang leader with fingers in a number of rackets, including selling guns from the Detroit Police Department’s evidence lockers. Hampering the investigation is the possibility that Vallon has several police detectives on his payroll. Murphy and Lewis arrange a meeting with Vallon, but have their covers blown. Lewis is shot and wounded during the firefight while Vallon escapes. Vallon later arranges for a bomb to be placed in Murphy’s car. The explosion all but kills Alex.
Alex’s wife, Clara, is approached by Omnicorp to keep him alive. There’s not much after the blast and the fourth-degree burns, but Omnicorp and its division Omni Life have made strides with cybernetic technology. Murphy is rebuilt, augmented, and turned into Robocop. The movie takes the time to cover Murphy’s transformation from barely-living to cyborg law enforcement officer. The conflict between Murphy and Omnicorp also grows; to the corporation, Murphy is product.
The original Robocop was known for its satire and for being over-the-top violent, almost getting an X-rating from the violence. At the same time, the movie had its moments of humour, despite the grimness of the setting. In the new version, the satire is still around, but it hits closer to home. Drone use by law enforcement is a hot issue, and today’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicles aren’t the combat model EM-208 and ED-209 robots of the movie, just remotely piloted aircraft missiles. Likewise, corporate influence on government is a concern; Omnicorp’s manipulation of public opinion and rules-lawyering is a little too close for comfort. Whether that’s a plus or a minus is up to the individual viewer; satire is a way to get a message across but does need a deft hand.
One big difference between the two movies is the level of violence. As mentioned above, the original movie was violent and brutal, setting a mark for other movies of what could and couldn’t be done and still stay R-rated. The remake, however, went for a PG-13 rating. PG-13 hits the sweet spot for blockbusters; it allows younger audiences in to watch the movie while signalling that it isn’t sanitized. An R-movie prevents viewers under seventeen in, losing a major market. To get a PG-13 rating, though, the level of violence had to be toned down. Robocop’s primary pistol is a variable-setting taser instead of a beefed-up machine pistol. The amount of blood and gore shown is minimal; there is no one getting doused in toxic waste then splattered across the the front of a step van like in the original. To make up, the fighting became more personal. Murphy isn’t showing off his shooting skills; he’s hunting down his own killers, defending himself, or fighting the combat drones.
As its own movie, the Robocop remake holds up well. It’s a science-fiction action movie that reflects its time. As a remake, that reflection creates a few problems. It’s not the almost cartoonishly violent movie that the original was. Nor does it take the theme of what it means to be human. Instead, the remake looks at the human spirit, what keeps a man going despite everything that has happened to him. It also looks at the degree of leniency that corporations enjoy today, something the original just scratched the surface of. The remake is Robocop, but it’s the Robocop of the new millenium, not of the 80s.
Next week, a look at methdology used when writing Lost in Translation.
* It was lost on people championing the line that the character who said it, Gordon Gekko, was indicted in the film for insider trading.
** The 80s were known for seeing R-rated movies getting cartoons. See also, Rambo.
*** A deleted scene from the remake does have the CEO of Omnicorp making an offer to the mayor of Detroit to buy the police department.
Stargate still being rebooted.
Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin are returning to the Stargate helm with a reboot trilogy, as was reported back in September here. Details have still not been announced beyond the trilogy being a reboot instead of a continuation.
Spinward Traveller TV pilot on Kickstarter.
d20 Entertainment is working to put together a pilot episode of Spinward Traveller. The show, based on the Traveller RPG, follows the exploits of the free trader Beowulf in the Spinward Marches of the Third Imperium. The Beowulf‘s fame in the game comes from the distress call on the back of the box of the classic edition of Traveller.
Starship Troopers reboot/remake could be in works.
Still unconfirmed, but Megan Ellison of Annapurna Pictures had some interesting tweets involving the work.
Magnificent Seven being remade.
Denzel Washington may star in the remake. This leads to the chain of remaking an adaptation; the original Magnificent Seven took The Seven Samurai and placed it into the American frontier.
Speaking of Denzel Washington…
The Equilizer is set to hit theatres in September. The movie is a remake of the CBS TV series starring Edward Woodward that ran from 1985 to 1989 about a semi-retired spy who freelanced as a troubleshooter for people who needed help.
Sonic the adaptation
The speedy hedgehog is getting a combined live-action/CGI animated movie. Little has been released other than Doctor Eggman will be the villain.
Magic School Bus rebooted to Netflix
Miss Frizzle rides again as the series gets rebooted thanks to Netflix. The original Magic School Bus aired on PBS as an educational series where Miss Frizzle took her students in the titular bus to visit various locations, such as Egypt, space, and the human body.
Lion King spin-off Lion Guard
The series will follow Kion, the second born of Simba and Nala, as he leads the Guard. While other characters from the series may appear, new characters will compose the cast.
Grumpy Cat gets Christmas Special
Internet celebrity and meme source Tardar Sauce, also known as Grumpy Cat, will be getting a Christmas special that will air on Lifetime. The cat earned the nickname because of colouration and facial features that made her look like she was perpetually grumpy. When asked about the the special, she said, “Let it – NO.”
You new too, Scooby-Doo?
Warner Bros. to reboot Scooby-Doo, most likely as live-action movies. No cast is attached yet; the reboot of the adaptation movie is still in pre-production.
“Demon With a Glass Hand” to be adapted for the big screen.
Harlan Ellison’s episode for The Outer Limits will the basis for the upcoming movie based on the classic TV series. The episode involved time travel, aliens, and a man with a computerized hand.
Once again, the day will be saved…
… thanks to the Powerpuff Girls! Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup will be returning to Cartoon Network in 2016.
True Blood: The Musical.
With the TV adaptation wrapping up on HBO, Charlaine Harris’ The Southern Vampire Mysteries may become a stage musical. Nathan Barr, who worked on the TV series, has composed the musical.
Pacific Rim returning hard.
The sequel to the movie has been announced for April 2017. In the meantime, an animated series and a book series based on the movie, the latter having begun with Year Zero, are in the works. The original movie centered on fighting an invasion of kaiju, or giant monsters, with giant mecha and did far better outside the US than in it.
Before I get into the review, I want to go through a quick bit on how I decide what to review. The past few weeks, I’ve gone to see movies in the theatres that were based on or a continuation of an original work. Other times, I pick up a movie on DVD that looks like it would be interesting to review, good or bad. Then there’s how I chose The Mechanic; I picked up a DVD to watch for just entertainment and discover that it’s a remake of an earlier movie or based on a novel or short story. There are many movies throughout the history of Hollywood that were based on novels, short stories, and plays, and the output of film studios over the course of a hundred years means that I may not recognize a title as a remake. The discovery that a movie I’m watching is an adaptations means that my normal approach to reviews needs to take into account that I didn’t experience the original first. There’s a chance that the new order could skew the review.
The Mechanic, also known as The Killer of Killers, was released in 1972. Charles Bronson was known for his tough guy roles in movies like The Dirty Dozen, The Magnificent Seven, and Death Wish before starring in this movie. Playing Arthur Bishop, the titular hit man, the movie shows him going through two kills, the latter being his old friend, Harry McKenna. The McKenna’s son Steve, played by Jan Michael Vincent, seeks out Bishop to learn the trade. Bishop accepts Steve under his wing and starts teaching him not only his methods but his philosophy. However, the people who pay Bishop decide that this departure of the rules needs to be punished, setting up a conflict between mentor and teacher.
The remake of 2011 sees Jason Statham take on the Bronson role, with Ben Foster as the student Steve. The plot remains the same; Statham’s Bishop kills the father of Foster’s Steve and takes the kid under his wing. The difference comes in pacing. Bronson’s Mechanic is very much a character study of Arthur Bishop, a look into what makes a paid assassin tick, how he approaches his life. The 1972 movie is very much related to the earlier spaghetti westerns and samurai movies; Bronson’s Bishop has rules, both his own personal set and the set imposed by his employers, that he follows and is punished for breaking. The movie builds up suspense and drama, and takes its time showing who Arthur Bishop is. Statham’s Mechanic, however, is very much an action movie, and moves the focus from being a character study of Bishop to the mentor-student relationship between Bishop and Steve. The pace is faster; in the time it takes to get Bronson’s version to receive the order to kill Harry McKenna, Statham’s version has started Steve’s training. Both, however, keep the same ending for Steve.
As an adaptation, the 2011 remake changed the feel from the original. This is not necessarily a bad thing; as previously mentioned, a shot-for-shot remake will just have audiences wondering why they just didn’t watch the original. Changing to an action movie could draw in a larger audience, one that isn’t as used to the slower pace of the original. The focus on the relationship allowed the remake to explore a different aspect; instead of a samurai, Statham was more workman-like, professional, but doing a job instead of adopting a full lifestyle. Ultimately, it will come down to what a viewer wants, a character study of a hit man or an action movie involving the teaching of a specialized skill to a protege.
Next week, Muppets Most Wanted.
Some time back, I reviewed Spider-Man, the Sam Raimi helmed adaptations of the comics. Since then, the movie series has been rebooted, turning the new movie, The Amazing Spider-Man into an adaptation and a reboot at the same time.
The history of Spider-Man was covered in the previous review, but a brief recap of Amazing Fantasy #15 wouldn’t hurt. Nebbish, nerdy Peter Parker, a high school student, was bitten by a radioactive spider during a field trip. The venom interacted with Peter’s blood, giving him the proportional strength and agility of a spider and a preternatural sense for pending danger. As he learns how to handle his powers, he uses his knowledge and skills to create web-shooters; wrist-mounted devices that shoot out artificial webs. Peter then patrols the streets of New York as the Amazing Spider-Man.
For the movie, The Amazing Spider-Man, the writers returned to the classic stories instead of using Marvel’s Ultimate universe. The difference, beyond the source of Spider-Man’s powers*, is the love interest. The Raimi film used Mary Jane Watson, who, prior to One More Day, was Peter’s wife in the main line comic. However, early Spider-Man stories had Peter paired with Gwen Stacy, a fellow geek. The new movie explores their relationship, especially in light of the job Gwen’s father has, a police captain looking for the new spider-themed vigilante terrorizing New York. And, as in the comics, Spider-Man’s foe is someone that Peter has gotten close to; this time, the classic villain, The Lizard who is Gwen and Peter’s mentor, Dr. Curt Connors.
As mentioned previously in Lost in Translation, superhero comics tend to intertwine, making it hard to adapt everything the character has been involved in. Thus, the concept of various related-but-separate universes, such as the DC Animated Dini-verse and the Marvel Cinematic Universe of The Avengers. While Marvel Studios was busy with The Avengers Initiative, it had to work with Sony, owner of Columbia Pictures, to get the Daily Bugle into a shot in The Avengers**. Right now, Sony has the rights to Spider-Man and related characters, so cameos by other characters other than Ghost Rider is unlikely.***
The Amazing Spider-Man/ holds up on its own as a movie, without needing prior knowledge. All the characters are introduced, Spidey’s origin is shown again. This time around, the writers remembered that Spider-Man doesn’t just fight; he talks at his opponents. The comic version of Spider-Man always maintained snappy patter, in part to psych himself up and in part to keep his opponents off-balance. The rebooted version also had the patter, the insults, the taunts. The nature of the threat kept with the theme of runaway science that appeared in the comic; the Lizard looked to change the residents of the city into his subjects.
The movie does represent the core of Spider-Man well; the responsibility, the dangers of misusing science and radiation, and the heart of the character. Allowing the movie to create a new cinematic Spider-verse, separate from the prior Raimi films and from the Avengers-verse, allowed the filmmakers to explore what placing the duties of a superhero does to a teen.
Next week, the October adaptational news round out.
* Genetically altered spider versus radioactive spider. Both reflect the fears of the era the comics were created in.
** Ultimately, the shot wasn’t used.
*** Ironically, Spider-Man made guest appearances in every new Marvel title to establish that the book belonged to the overall universe and to bring attention to the title.
The 2012 television season saw a number of adaptations and remakes. One of the new crop followed the trend of adapting fairy tales, joining Grimm and Once Upon a Time. The new Beauty and the Beast is a remake of a previous adaptation of the classic fairy tale.
The original fairy tale told a story of how a young woman saw through the outer ugliness of a man to find his inner beauty. In 1987, the TV series Beauty and the Beast took the idea and brought it to the modern world. The beauty, Catherine Chandler, played by Linda Hamilton, was a District Attorney. The Beast, Vincent, played by Ron Perlman, lived as an outcast. A chance meeting between them after Catherine was attacked and left for dead introduced her to the World Below, a sanctuary for those who do not fit in the mundane world. Beauty and the Beast built on top of Gothic romances as popularized by authors such as Anne Rice and could be considered the prototypical paranormal romance. The series explored the relationship between Catherine and Vincent, revealing the inner beauty in each of them.
The new Beauty and the Beast has Kristen Kreuk in the role of Catherine and Jay Ryan as Vincent. The new series changed Catherine’s job from District Attorney to detective. The approach drops the urban fantasy of the original series. Vincent, instead of being born a beast-like being, had undergone top secret experiments while in the Army, akin to Captain America‘s super-soldier serum. An ongoing plot-line involving Catherine’s mother and the experiments was added. Vincent doesn’t have a beast-like appearance; but, because of the experiments, can experience animal-like rage.
One of the big criticisms of the new Beauty and the Beast is Vincent’s appearance. As mentioned, the fairy tale was about looking past the outside to see the person within. The new Beauty presents an attractive Vincent with an ugly, dangerous being inside waiting to explode out. Also gone, the urban fantasy and sense of wonder from Catherine discovering a hidden world. Time will tell if the writers can explore the relationship while managing the police procedural elements and the subplots involving Catherine’s mother and the experiments on Vincent.
Next time, a new year dawns.
With the phenomenal success of Star Wars in 1977, it was inevitable that studios would want to ride the renewed interest in epic space operas. Glen A. Larson was one of the first to get a project out. In 1978, Larson’s Battlestar Galactica aired on ABC and was released to theatres in Canada and Europe. The pilot episode received high ratings. The show detailed life after the Cylons, a mechanical life form, destroyed the Twelve Colonies and the survivors escaping the destruction lead by the titular starship.
The show did well in the ratings, at least at first. However, the network, not happy with the expense of the series, was inconsistent with scheduling, often letting Larson’s production company know only at the last minute if an episode was needed. Given the time slot, Sundays at 7pm, the show could be pushed back or even pre-empted for sports, especially football. Eventually, ABC pulled the plug.
The show was expensive. Special effects were all miniatures based. The bridge set of the Galactica was filled with Tektronics computers. The nature of some effects required precision timing on the part of actors involved. At the same time, the show was a hit.
In 2004, Ronald D. Moore, who had previously worked on Star Trek: Deep Space 9, developed a reimagining of the original Battlestar. The two-part miniseries aired on the Sci-Fi Channel and covered about three-quarters of the original series pilot movie, namely, the destruction of the Twelve Colonies and the gathering of the survivors into a rag-tag fleet. The tone of the reimagined series was notably bleaker than the original. ABC’s Galactica had a current of shining hope that the fleet would find Earth and escape the Cylons. Moore’s version had people wondering who would destroy the fleet first, the Cylons or the refugees themselves.
The mood shift wasn’t the only change. While Moore did use the names from the original, he didn’t necessarily bring the personalities over to the new Galactica. Some changes that annoyed the fandom even before the miniseries aired included gender swapping Starbuck and Boomer (both went from male to female), minor changes to the Galactica’s design, and adding human-form Cylons. The new series also added a focus on how the survivors were coping, the needs of the last humans to survive as a species, and difficult choices being made.*
However, the mood shift reflected the change in the general demeanor of society and the demands viewing audiences had on television. Gone were the days where everything got wrapped up neatly at the end of the day, with the cast having a laugh before the final freeze. The new Battlestar very seldom had things tied up in a nice bow.
This isn’t to say Moore completely ignored the original series. With the new Galactica lasting four seasons, he had more time to develop the setting and the history, both of the Colonies and of the Cylons. The characters moved away from being archetypical (ace, gambler, wise commander) and made them human, with flaws and quirks. The new ship looked much like the original, as did the Vipers.** The original theme became the Colonial anthem.
So, was the 2004 Battlestar Galactica a successful adaptation? With the number of changes made, no, but the core idea remained strong and the creators’ respect for the work could be seen. But, as seen two weeks ago with Real Steel, a not-so-good adaptation can be well worth seeing, and the new Galactica not only fits that bill but also won a Hugo***, several Spaceys****, several Saturns*****, and several Emmys.
Next week, anniversary!
* The first episode, “33” started /in media res/ with everyone on duty suffering from sleep deprivation and ended with Commander Adama having to decide if a civilian vessel that got lost several light jumps back had to be destroyed.
** In fact, two different makes of Vipers appeared. The older model, based on the Vipers in the original /Galactica/ were to be museum pieces from the Colonial-Cylon war fifty years prior to the mini-series before being put back into duty. The new model had problems due to the Cylon ability to hack networks and surviving planes had to be downgraded before being put back into service.
*** For the episode “33”.
**** Presented by the Canadian specialty channel Space
***** Presented by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror Films
