Remakes in Moderation Please

Well I have to say that I have recently come across some mildly disturbing news thanks to Cracked. That is their lovely article here detailing how we have a slew of remakes to look forward to in the near future.

For those not willing to read the article, a short summary; here we have no less than three Peter Pan remakes coming out in the near future, four series that could only under a generous stretch of the imagination be called Wizard of Oz spin offs (of some sort), two new sets of Tarzan movies, and two films about Hercules, one staring the Rock no less.

And some other kid

Now let me get something off my chest, I'm not against remakes, not at all. I actually like many reboots or re imaginings of old shows. For instance I loved Tin Man's re imagining of The Wizard of Oz universe in a slightly darker and more adult version of the old Oz franchise, I am a huge fan of Peter Jackson's 2005 King Kong reboot, Death Race in 2008, The Godzilla remake in 1998, and I sincerely enjoyed the reboot of The Thing in 2011 (ok not technically a reboot or remake but still something cool finally done in the universe there). Hell until Disney acquired the rights to Star Wars I'd even been hoping to see some Star Wars remakes before I died.

However, there is a thing which makes reboots good, and what makes us want them, the fact that we haven't seen these things in a long time.

The upcoming Godzilla remake will have waited a respectable time (16 years) before putting a major Godzilla piece on the market again (and I say major in all seriousness, the Power Ranger esque Godzilla bits coming out in the 80s don't count) and that's what makes people look forward to it.

The TV series Once Upon a Time is fresh because no one has really done a grand new imagining of the old fairy tales in a long time, and not in such a fresh and fascinating way with a diverse cast of characters and an epic plot.

The upcoming sequel to 300 (300: Rise of an Empire) has waited a long time to reintroduce us to that crazy sword and sandals world we haven't seen in a while. I've been broadcasting all about it on my Facebook page for a while now and the trailers have been out on Youtube so if you don't know about it shame on you!

There's also the upcoming re imagining of the 47 Ronin which looks to be almost 300 in Japan, is a film to look forward to I would personally say with cautious optimism.

You know what separates these things from all the other remakes I've mentioned? They're years apart from each other, seem to be trying to breath new and innovative ideas into a creation, and they can act independently of each other. These remakes seem to not even care that they'll be competing with other remakes of the same story, as if the producers didn't stop and think "Hey we'll be flooding the market with a really similar product to the next guy!" making the potential interest evaporate as you see the same thing over and over again. Hell of all the items on the list the only one I would consider seeing is the one that puts a modern soldier in a post-apocalyptic Oz since that seems like an even darker version of Tin Man.

This is actually a problem I've been having with superhero movies recently. Yes their big flashy blockbuster productions what should I expect? Here's the thing though, we're being flooded with cheap (and sometimes tacky) remakes of films, for example, the Hulk films of the last decade are barely 5 years apart all so Hulk could be shoehorned into the Avengers (Don't get me wrong Avengers was great, but did they really need the remake? We know who Hulk is and he doesn't have anything original to contribute to the series like Iron Man, Thor or Captain America, but I digress). Now we're going to have to contend with yet another series of remakes for Super Man (whose films really can't do anything original to save their lives) and more Batman since it seems they intent on recreating the Justice League, meaning we will probably have to endure another Green Lantern movie (gack) and potentially Aquaman.

Now this version I would see

My issue with these is that they are basically just hashing out old ideas and trying to market them to a new audience. In some cases it works (for the Avengers especially) but for things like Batman and Superman, we're really just whipping the same dead horse and we'll probably be at it for the next decade.

Now although some of these remakes may not end up being awful (I'm willing to bet money they won't be great either) I'm not enthusiastic for their release.

To finish off I know that this blog would never get the ear of major producers, but is it seriously so much to ask of them to jump out of the cardboard box they've been in for the last decade and start trying to embrace some new ideas, writers, or scenarios? Hell would it be too much to ask that we could actually try and market a new superhero to people instead of just rehashing old ones?

If we're going to be dusting off old ideas, why not try some that really haven't been done before? Maybe some of H.P Lovecrafts numerous works in his mythos could be adapted (Aquaman optional)? Perhaps we could get a modern Dune series (yes we had the miniseries in 2000 but would a decent film with a good budget really be too much to ask for by 2020?). Or even say an adaption of the great novel Earth Abides? (Not starring Will Smith or Tom Cruise even).

What I suppose I'm trying to say if we have to dust off old ideas rather than attempt to embrace new ones, we could at least be dusting off old ideas that haven't been done before (or at least in a long time). Let's try fishing up some new fodder instead of digging up the same old corpse before it's body is even cold ok producers?

Until next time readers.

A Brief Note on Amazon Ratings

No this isn't an add.

Hello again readers! Here now I bring you a short and humble opinion piece. This piece has everything to do with writing a review of something on Amazon. Now personally I'm no stranger to Amazon reviews and have seen and been seen by many other inhabitants of Amazon. Though I really only browse the book and Kindle section I have noticed some trends.

The first trend I've seen is for people to give either really short positive, or really short negative reviews. This is something I personally abhor. Small barely three sentence reviews tell a casual browser nothing about the book other than that you liked or disliked it. I've seen reviews that are 500 characters that really only said, 'I liked it, the author did a good job' or on the flip side 'I hated it, the author can't write at all'. I'm sure I don't need to elaborate on how unhelpful either of these reviews are.

People who are browsing the review section are generally looking for something just a bit more than tiny snippets of opinion. Most of the highest rated reviews I've read on Amazon have been ones which are at least two full paragraphs of text. They briefly illustrate why a reviewer liked or disliked a novel and explaining what they thought overall about it. Sort of like a brief mini blog review.

On the flip side of all that though, there are people who post entire blog reviews on the review section. Now from a personal perspective I don't mind this nearly as much as other people, I want deep insightful reviews which give me a look into what I'm buying, but some people merely want brief snippets of the good and bad. This is what generally makes me think the 'blog format' review on Amazon is a bad idea. Most people will skip over such long reviews it seems and simply look for shorter, less intense pieces.

These are the two extreme's that I find in the review section on Amazon. So in my own humble opinion I think people ought to try and meet somewhere in the middle.

Shorter, neat and concise reviews giving the straight up honest likes or dislikes (and importantly, reasons)  of a reviewer are best. They are honest and tell people what to expect when reading the book. More importantly they generate lots of either good or bad publicity for a novel, and drawing publicity (in any form) are incredibly important to aspiring writers.

Sadly I myself am guilty of some of these very same things, and I will be working to improve upon them and write detailed, well thought out, and ultimately fair reviews in the future. So look forward to me practicing what I preach, and rightly call me out on it if you see otherwise!

Here is an image of what I consider to be a good review done by myself (unfortunately, yes there is a spelling mistake in it, but I really can't go back and fix it):

So there we go readers! Some Amazon etiquette and a mini-review of a book from me all in one! I dare say that it was a productive post! Take some time to browse my own humble reviews if you like, and remember this little piece of proper discourse on the internet when you next go to write something!

Until next time readers, until next time!

The Weekly Word #3

Though the title here is a bit inaccurate (I am insanely behind scheduel) and I apologize, I promise in the coming weeks I shall make up for my tardiness with many a blog post!

I suppose though I ought to get this quickfix out of the way and on with something of more substance though eh?

Now of course as everyone ought to know, Canada has a new future monarch in the form of the young Prince George (I actually had the name right btw) and he is such a cute little baby prince! Hopefully he will someday sweep another common girl off her feet and continue what seems to be a good pattern amongst the monarchy and bring in some fresh blood and establish a strong tie with the people.

He's also adorable

Many people of course took the opportunity of the hype surrounding the royal baby to bring out their rabid hatred of the royal family whether they had a legitimate point or not. I am a firm supporter of the monarchy and since many of the people who hate them seem to think that the royal family's biggest sin is either a) being a royal or b) being wealthy I can't stand the uninformed and idiotic criticism. Much of it is also hypocritical in my opinion since I saw far fewer people complaining over the media circus which was the birth of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's daughter, North West.

Long live the Queen and hail to the new born prince I say!

In other less happy news, it seems that the military take over of Egypt is going nowhere. Mind you the Muslim Brotherhood wasn't exactly a bastion of democracy and liberal values, and Morsi probably deserved to go. My greatest criticism of the military is for their brutal crackdown and rather ugly handling of the protests which have been dispersed with liberal ammounts of tear gas and bullets.

This in many ways though is like the French Revolution, there was no real power structure ready to take the place of the monarchy in France when they overthrew the king, and likewise when the protestors topples Mubarak the only group which had the political apparatus and popular support in place was the Muslim Brotherhood, who much like the National Assembly proved unpopular and were consequently overthrown. We can only hope that the military government in Egypt however, turns out nothing like the French Committee of Public Safety.

In news from around the internet and popular media I am pleased to announce that the first trailer for the new film 47 Ronin is out. Though I was a little disapointed it would not be the historical thriller about the true forty-seven ronin I had been expecting, I will admit the film looks to be the Japanese version of 300, and that could be something. It seems like it is worth watching, but here look at the trailer and decide for yourself.

Speaking of 300, the sequel, Rise of Empire continues to astound us with a lovely parade of teaser trailers which merely make me want to see it more. See for yourself!

In other news Matthew Quinn is releasing a slew of short stories right now. I've just finished his most recent story in the Afrikaner verse, Picking up Plans in Palma which I will be reviewing soon. It is a wonderful espionage thriller. Taking place in a world where a hyper-Calvinist South African federation/theocracy faces off in a cold war between a larger US it details one agents plan to pick up where his predecessor failed to obtain battle plans for a new orbital space station mounting space planes and kinetic weapons.

Its a fun read and a great universe with a fascinating alternate history!!

The World in question.

Combined with that he is doing a series of short stories centering around the ubermenshe Andrew Patel. I have yet to read these stories but I would recommend picking them up for sure! His writing was already wonderful, and thus far it is only improving.

As a final note I would like to share something my fellow blogger Korsgaard has also shared. There is an attempt ongoing right now to create a mini-series on kickstarter called The Confederation. The series deals with the question 'What if the Confederacy had won the Civil War?' Now this is of course one of the most often asked and contentious questions asked in alternate history, it is an interesting answer this project provides.

In this scenario the Confederacy is bogged down in a brutal Vietnam-esque occupation of Cuba and is fighting a guerilla war to keep a hold on the island. It follows a group of female snipers (showing the Confederation is really pressed for manpower) and former slaves as they tromp across the island in a savage war for control of the land.

It is an interesting take on a war series and an awesome bit of alternate history, I sincerely hope it gets off the ground.

This is a link to their Facebook page and website. It doesn't seem to have the support they need so I would ask that people please look into it.

Though I must note they seem to be going through some trouble right now so the project may simply be on hold. Only time will tell though.

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Well readers this caps up the 'Weekly' Word #3. I have some new posts coming up, and God willing I will keep up with the Weekly word scheduel now! Thank you for your patience and please keep on reading!