In case you haven’t noticed, there is an epidemic going
through the entertainment world. With corporations, rather than creatives,
running movies studios, brands and known commodities are the order of the day.
In order to make money, studios rummage through back catalogs and profitable IP
in an effort to minimize risk. As this took hold of Hollywood, publications like The
Hollywood Reporter commandeered a word, and their lack of understanding of said
word has permeated our culture, making us all a bit dumber. That word, of
course, is reboot.
Everything that come before that is going to be again in
motion pictures is a reboot. The Force Awakens was a reboot. The recently announced Matrix film
is a reboot. There’s talk of the when we’ll see the next Daniel Craig James
Bond reboot.
Fucking enough, already.
The grasp of language is this country is already tenuous,
and what makes it worse is a written publication fails to grasp a simple
definition. So let’s review what reboot means. To wit:
REBOOT
(noun ree-boot) an
act or instance of making a change in order to establish a new beginning:
a
reboot of our product line.Dictionary.com
To the Hollywood Reporter and others misusing this word,
please read that definition again.
If you continue a series, starting at a later point, it is a
SEQUEL, not a reboot. When Eon Productions replaces Daniel Craig as James Bond,
they are rebooting the series. If Craig stars in the next film, it’s a
continuation of said series.
Nick Cannata-Bowman, another journalist who has fallen into
this trap, writes at moviecheatsheet.com:
Sony did manage to make two stellar Spider-Man movies with Sam Raimi, but then fell off a
cliff with the third installment in the trilogy. One
reboot and two average-to-sub-par Andrew Garfield-led Spider-Man films later…
Spiderman 3
was NOT a reboot! It’s part of Raimi’s Spiderman universe, therefore it’s a
sequel not a reboot. The Garfield films are the reboot. The upcoming
Spiderman: Homecoming is a reboot.
It’s no
wonder people are fatigued by Hollywood. They can’t grasp the language, how can
they be expected to produce original, thought-provoking yet entertaining films?
2 comments:
Interesting, Jason, and well-observed! Best wishes from Lita Brooker - a fellow member of KM Weiland's group, Wordplayers.
Thank you, Lita! Pleased to make your acquaintance, and best wishes to you as well!
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