Summer 2011: Attack of the Remake?

2011 has been called, by some, the year of the remakes. And the upcoming summer full of familiar movies is usually used as evidence to back that claim. While I completely disagree, I can also understand the sentiments that lead to such a broad sweeping statement. With the revamped "Arthur" coming out, it's tempting to shake your fist to the sky and give out a loud battle cry of, "In my day, movies were original!"

Movie audiences, myself included, are road weary. But despite popular opinion, the remake is not the lone culprit of our film frustrations. No, for that we can also point the finger of blame at the sequel and the adaptation. Adaptations especially have catapulted to new heights of potential absurdity with the recent studio scramble for rights to everything from board games to toys of the eighties. (What, you didn't know that "Battleship" and "Candyland" are headed to a theater near you? They are my friend... they are.) I think when people issue warning about 2011 being the year of the remake on message boards and on Facebook, what they're really saying is, "I'm tired of movies that feel recycled and I want to see something new."

But when we look closely at the upcoming summer movies of 2011, the time of year typically used to reinforce this argument, there's nary a remake in sight with the lone exception of "Conan the Barbarian." As for sequels, prequels and entirely new editions to franchises? Well, that's a different story. This summer will see the release of studio tentpoles that continue the storylines from popular movies of recent years. This summer you can see...

- "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides"
- "The Hangover Part II"
- "Kung Fu Panda 2"
- "X-Men: First Class"
- "Cars 2"
- "Transformers: Dark of the Moon"
- "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2"
- "Winnie the Pooh"
- "Spy Kids 4"
- "Final Destination 5"

At first glance, that list may induce eye-rolling if you are one of the remake weary huddled masses. But if you look at each movie individually, you may begin to feel more forgiving. "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" is being advertised as a wild departure from the most recent (and much darker) "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End". Like our man James Bond, Captain Jack Sparrow now gets to live some stand-alone adventures. In other words, you'll be able to go see this movie and know that it's truly over when the credits roll. No carry over, no cliffhanger, a one and done adventure flick. That's not to mention the fact that despite some familiar characters, the storyline will be entirely new. New locations, new threats, and fresh-faced cast members.

"Winnie the Pooh" isn't exactly new ground content-wise, but this film will approach the beloved stories of A.A. Milne with the same quality of animation usually reserved for Pixar's computer animated pals. If the previews are any indication, these familiar characters won't feel old or stale in the least. If anything, Pooh, Eeyore and Piglet may be getting the loving artistic attention they've deserved for so long and a debut to younger audiences who may not know them as well as they should. This begs the question, have some moviegoers taken their frustrations out on perfectly innocent movies?

2011 summer releases may be familiar, but familiar isn't enough to constitute a true "remake". Even the X-Men get a new decade in which to play and battle and blow things up. In other words, studios are listening to the demand for new stories. They're just delivering them by bringing audiences characters they love in new formats and situations. If past summer box office totals are any indication, customers are going to support that in droves yet again.

Despite all the criticism, entire genres seem to escape this kind of close examination. Consider the classic black and white horror movies of the silver screen. When the characters of Dracula or The Mummy show up in a modern film, do we feel insulted or grateful? I usually feel grateful. Showing my niece "The Mummy" from 1999 breeds in her a natural curiosity about where the story began. That train of thought leads all the way back to 1932, to Boris Karloff and then like a gateway drug to popular films of an era she may never have even considered before.

Suddenly, remakes and sequels don't seem so bad. By adding to the library of films that reference beloved material, doesn't that just draw more attention to the original source?

If it were really remakes, sequels and prequels that we were angry with then films like J.J. Abrams' smash-hit "Star Trek" would've crawled out of theaters after a lackluster week or two in 2009. We wouldn't be clamoring for information on "Pirates of the Caribbean" 5 and 6 before even seeing the fourth one. We spend good money on these movies every summer, usually whether they're rehashed material or not. We speculate about what they will be like years in advance and most importantly, we are the ones that decide they'll head to the big screen with our purchasing power. Buy a ticket, buy a Burger King toy from a summer movie, and it's as if you just made a trip to the polls to cast your vote to the studio heads for what you want to see. What disgruntled fans really take issue with, and rightfully so, are bad movies or movies that patronize audiences.

Will 2011 bring us the summer of remakes? Absolutely not. But if you find yourself frustrated by a lack of new films, here are some coping strategies. Consider that film as an art form is barely a century old, practically a baby compared to the ancient arts of writing and music. Like comic book movies, maybe we should learn to look at remakes as a certainty. Each generation will tell its own version of popular stories.

Also, remember that movies contain archetypes of characters and myths that get repeated over and over again anyway. There is the hero's journey, the rags to riches transformation, and overcoming the monster. At their core, films often contain the same lessons just like folk tales, fine art and every book in the library. So perhaps some films feel more familiar or referential than they really are.

Last but not least, consider that maybe your tastes have changed. The easy thing to do in the face of the film industry's natural transformation over time is to rant and rave on message boards at websites like AintitCool or RottenTomatoes. Easy, but not helpful. The helpful way to combat remake fatigue is to switch genres. If you're frustrated by the way that most adventure films seems to borrow liberally from the Indiana Jones universe, switch to mysteries or drama. If you can't see the appeal of any summer releases, track down your local art theater and start catching some independent film.

Also, know that movies will never be the same as they were when you were a kid. Many who decry remakes and sequels do so because they're living in the cinematic past, unable to accept the movies of the present simply because, "They don't make them like they used to." Whenever that may have been, get comfortable with the fact that we all wear the nostalgia goggles for the films of our youth. But that doesn't mean films should never grow or change again just so we can see what we liked.

I think back often to movies like "Monster Squad," a movie that I love. But when I watch it now as an adult, I often laugh at some of the extreme violence and I think to myself, "How did this get made?" But it was just a different world back then. I'm biased, so I often think it was a better environment for filmmaking. But just imagine, that new generations of kids are going to grow up feeling the same way about comic book movies or Pixar. They won't be able to imagine a world without these films. (There wasn't a decent comic book movie in sight during my childhood until Tim Burton's "Batman" and even then it took several years for the explosion of them that we have now. This summer alone there are four, an unheard of amount in the eighties.) The point is, films are cyclical. Maybe this just isn't your cycle.

That's the real beauty of the movies though. There's always something new to see...even if 2012 turns out to be the real year of the remake. You won't have to wait too long for an indie or an Oscar candidate if the remakes are driving you crazy. Then again, there's always Netflix.