The Gilroy 07.23.08: Urgent! Need Help!

Posted by Ben Quick on 07.23.2008

Please Batman My Franchise!

Well, with The Dark Knight destined to be one of the most successful franchise movies ever, it got me to thinking. Batman Begins didn't do so hot at the box office really. At $205 million, obviously it didn't do bad, but not too great for what used to be one of the biggest franchises around. For a point of reference, War of the Worlds and Wedding Crashers came out that same summer in 2005 and made more money. What Batman Begins accomplished, and those other two films failed at, was being really good. After the lackluster(putting it mildly) installments of Batman Forever and Batman and Robin not many people were too excited about another Batman movie. Well, as I said previously, Batman Begins was really awesome and it set up the hype that would deliver what will probably be the biggest movie of the year in The Dark Knight. This wasn't luck or anything. Christopher Nolan took a franchise that was once good and breathed life back into it. All it took was a good movie.

See, if something was once successful, there was a reason for it being so. Nothing can kill a franchise more than a bad movie(though jumping on Oprah's couch doesn't help). Since Batman proved it could be done, some franchises are following its lead. James Bond jumped on the bandwagon by going with that series' most thought out and best movie. Rob Zombie tried to do the same with Michael Myers, but not everything can be successful. The point is, even if the franchise is deader than Sonny Corelone, one good installment can revive it. So, here's a look at some franchises that could use a little of that Batman magic -



The Terminator

Most of you probably know from seeing the new teaser trailer a new trilogy for this franchise is being planned. This post/-Arnold installment takes place in the future where the infamous machines try to terminate(sorry, had to) humanity will be kicked off in Terminator Salvation. So far what I've heard of the upcoming movie sounds both promising and not so promising. Christian Bale has signed on for the movie, and he's just about always good in whatever he does. The problem though is that out of all the directors that could've been picked the producers went with McG. If it were me and I was trying to revive a franchise that wasn't only tired, but that will be missing the star that the franchise was built with, I'd probably go with somebody who didn't direct Charlie's Angels. Still, the terminator image is very strong and the premise is kind of interesting. I may drag myself to go see the movie in 2009 and all along the way I hope I'll be writing a column someday about how excited I am for the sequel. Oh well, this does sound better than the Robocop remake that's in the works.



Jason, Freddy, Chucky... Take Your Pick

Uh, where do you start? The Friday the 13th franchise was never really good, but at one point it was popular. The same could be said of the franchises that produced Freddy and Chucky. Jason and Freddy last showed signs of a heartbeat when they went at it in Freddy vs. Jason. The movie wasn't really that good, but it was successful, especially for a horror movie. Apparently there's a remake in store for Jason, but I've only heard slight chatter about a prequel idea for Freddy. Friday the 13th can easily be improved upon, so I'm up for a new vision of the hockey mask wearing killer. Robert Englund will be just about impossible to replace, so Freddy might do with another installment with some fresh ideas. As for Chucky, talk about a franchise prime for a remake...



Mad Max

I never liked these movies. I felt they were just plain boring. The Road Warrior did have one hell of a chase sequence towards the end, but overall, not a fan. Mel Gibson is getting too old to make a comeback to the role that originally made him famous. Besides, he doesn't seem to into acting anymore. The character of a policeman fighting criminals in a post-apocalyptic world is still a cool idea. The original film had that good idea, but was severally flawed. Now does that sound like a rich environment for a remake? Come on, Gerald Butler needs something to do that doesn't include Hillary Swank. If they could get a good director and a strong script people would go see this. I know I would...



Superman

Yeah, I know this was kind of tried with Superman Returns. The thing is, I don't think that was a total failure. Obviously no one will be dying for the collector's edition anytime soon, but I think people would be open to seeing another Superman movie if it was good. The one suggestion I would have is, that if a sequel is made, they go dark. I'm not talking about Sean Penn dark, but something a little more threatening to Superman than a green rock. Superman has freakish level of fan boys, so a big change up probably wouldn't be welcome. Still, I'd like to see it.



Mission Impossible

Even though the last movie was the best in the franchise, it under performed at the box office. That probably has to due with the fact that a lot of people won't go watch Tom Cruise because they think he's crazy. Most people will probably say that it's best that Tom Cruise let this franchise die. I mean, the movies were never really that good to begin with. Still, I think this may be Tom Cruise's best shot at turning things around for himself, at least somewhat. Another Mission Impossible is the only viable project that could still probably make money even though Tom Cruise is in it. One big problem is that Matt Damon and Daniel Craig are kind of dominating the spy world with movies that have story and character development, rather than just stunts. If Tom Cruise could incorporate the lessens that the Bourne series taught the James Bond franchise into Mission Impossible, maybe people would like the movie and Tom Cruise could start to rebuild his image.



Alien

It's been a rough few years for the creature that bleeds acid. The two AVP movies sucked, but not quite as much as the last time the creature hooked up with Sigourney Weaver in Alien Resurrection. The Alien vs. Predator idea could've been a great way to bring back both characters to the big screen, but the movies were bad. I don't see a remake being a possibility because you'd have to keep the same creature as the alien and that would kill any anticipation for what it really looked like. To me, the best idea would be a whole new story. I still would like to see the aliens take over that outpost that was skipped over in James Cameron's Aliens. There's plenty of ways that you could go with this guy. The alien is such a disturbing image. All you need is a good story and I think people would be happy to flock back to the theaters.

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So what did I miss? Those were just a few ideas of the top of my head. Do you guys have any franchises you'd like to see brought back for more? That's what the comments section is for.

Oh, I promise next week I will write something that never mentions Batman! Hopefully anyway...