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Remakes/Reboots: What WOULD you wanna see redone?


Cygnia

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I would like to see a remake of Starship Troopers that wasn't a complete middle finger to the original book.

 

As far as The Princess Bride is concerned, I think anyone who suggests a remake should be put into the Zoo of Death.

 

(It's possible that I'm a little opinionated where these movies are concerned.)

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58 minutes ago, Pariah said:

I would like to see a remake of Starship Troopers that wasn't a complete middle finger to the original book.

 

I don't think that's possible.

 

The book is more about politics than fighting bugs, and the politics are... difficult.

 

Hmm... actually, it might be possible to make one at the moment. Authoritarianism is on the rise, so a film where the characters spend much of their time justifying a society shaped by a "patriotic" coup against a degenerate democracy might just be a success. At the very least it could become a cult classic.

 

But I wouldn't bother seeing it.

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The thing one needs to remember about the Starship Troopers movie us that Paul Verhoven grew up during the Nazi occupation of Holland--which means that some of his earliest memories were of bombs falling and artillery shells exploding, then all these big guys in sharp grey uniforms strutting around like they owned the place.  Under those circumstances, I would think it would be quite easy to become not at all impressed with military people and military culture the way, say, Americans tend to be impressed by those things.

 

Of course, Verhoven isn't the only filmmaker to take liberties with a book.  There was a Cold War thriller called Red Alert written by Peter George back in the early Sixties, about an Air Force general who learns he is dying of cancer and on his own authority orders his B-52 bomber wing to attack the Soviet Union.  What follows is a mad scramble to stop the bombers and prevent World War III. 

 

Nerve-wracking, nail biting stuff, right?  Serious as a heart attack followed by an indictment for murder, right?  But when Stanley Kubrick got a hold of the book, he turned it into the darkest comedy ever made--Dr. Strangelove.  But no one complains about the lack of fealty to the source material--or the fact that just about everyone in the movie aside from Group Captain Mandrake isn't quite playing with a full deck, especially the military men.

 

Granted, not that many people are familiar with the original novel or its author.  So let's select a better known author--Stephen King.  Kubrick took some rather flagrant liberties with his book The Shining, especially with the way it ended.  But very few people seem to take issue with the way Kubrick changed the movie, except for the die-hard King fans and King himself.  Granted, the movie has its moments--not to mention one of the most original (and most scary) trailers ever made.  But Kubrick seems to get a pass on this movie, just for being Stanley Kubrick.

 

Those are my thoughts on the subject--take them as you will.

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37 minutes ago, ScottishFox said:

A Champions PC game that is actually based on the HERO system rules.

 

I think this could work if you were running it as a turn-based strategy with autorun option, and running a super team instead of solo. Kind of like Baldur's Gate or Divinity: Original Sin crossed with Freedom Force conceptually.

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I think it would be trivial to make an adaptation of Starship Troopers that had no pro-fascist agenda lurking in the background, particularly since that's not in the book to begin with. And I think the Iron Man movies showed how to put your star actors in powered armor without losing the ability to see their faces and their emotions.

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7 hours ago, wcw43921 said:

Nerve-wracking, nail biting stuff, right?  Serious as a heart attack followed by an indictment for murder, right?  But when Stanley Kubrick got a hold of the book, he turned it into the darkest comedy ever made--Dr. Strangelove.  But no one complains about the lack of fealty to the source material--or the fact that just about everyone in the movie aside from Group Captain Mandrake isn't quite playing with a full deck, especially the military men.

Agreed with your point, but I would point out that at least he didn't call it Red Alert and give people the false perception it was based on a book they had read.

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On 9/22/2019 at 10:14 AM, zslane said:

Fantastic Four

Starship Troopers

The Hobbit

X-Men Dark Phoenix Saga

John Carter of Mars

 

 

 

Good list.  The worst of the bunch was Starship Troopers.  Beyond horrible.

I am aware of the claim it was a parody.  But Veer'idiots serious concept of any military or police is a parody of the real word anyway.  So at best itcwas a parody of a parody.  I've watched the show multiple times, and as Operation Bughunt.  But Starship Troopers it is not.

 

John Carter was just a miss.  They did a lot right (creature effects and such) but it could have been much better if they bothered to read the books.  Or if they did read them, a reading comprehension class is recommended.

 

FF and DP were just meh.  If they made new versions no one would probably realize another version existed.

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8 hours ago, wcw43921 said:

 

Nerve-wracking, nail biting stuff, right?  Serious as a heart attack followed by an indictment for murder, right?  But when Stanley Kubrick got a hold of the book, he turned it into the darkest comedy ever made--Dr. Strangelove.  But no one complains about the lack of fealty to the source material--or the fact that just about everyone in the movie aside from Group Captain Mandrake isn't quite playing with a full deck, especially the military men.

 

Let's be fair.  When the movie came out there was no internet to complain on and today 99% don't read books and probably wouldn't watch the movie because is was not in color.

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1 hour ago, Old Man said:

I often wonder if there aren’t two sharply different versions of the Starship Troopers book running around out there with the same cover. 

There are.  If you want to read Starship Troopers yiu need a copy from the 70's.  After that each version seems to drift until the last few versions seem to support the political views of the movie.

I did a side by side of a few key chapters back in 02 or 03ish and was fairly shocked at the blatant editorializing when they "modernized" the book for understanding.  But heck, in the last ten years fascism magically migrated from left to right, so what do I know....

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