Aaah, another reboot. Another attempt to create a franchise. Another one of those ‘let us revisit the old, tie them up with a fancy ribbon and present it as something fresh to a new audience’. This time, they aren’t even going that far back. Oh well, maybe two decades is considered a time long gone by some. So as Hollywood Reporter reports, the movie that is supposed to get a makeover this time is the 1994 sci-fi Timecop. A movie I haven’t seen yet, but now intrigued, for Timecop is considered quite a commercial and critical success, something you usually don’t say on a Jean Claude-Van Damme movie. Imdb is surprisingly not that lenient with its votes; a mere 5.7 is what Timecop has received. The plot of Timecop seems to carry the same time-twisting enigma that movies of this genre have, with Van Damme playing a cop who regulates time travel and has to take on a rogue politician who wants to misuse it. The success of Timecop also led to a TV series and then a low-budget sequel.
A plot that seems could pull off some lovely sci-fi moments, which it apparently did. Back in 1994. So I’ll watch that one. I don’t even have to go back in time to do so. Why mess around with it? Beats me. Reboots / remakes, just like re-runs, are something I’m not particularly a fan of. A reboot of a 50-year old movie makes sense. While keeping the memories of the old one alive, the new director gets to spin off another tale for the modern times. Aka Django. Reboot of a franchise when it loses steam brings in its own charm. Aka Star Trek. Rebooting an old movie that itself failed to impress and make it better, is bold. Aka Judge Dredd. And a reboot could be the only option left when the original team packs up their bags, and you are clueless how to take it forward (not a big fan of this, though). Aka Spider-Man.
But the laziest thing to do is pick up a successful movie, not even that old, cast a new team, not even make the effort to shake up the storyline much, and then say, voila, here is a new movie! Aka Total Recall. One of the weakest movies of 2012, Total Recall did nothing more than ruin the name of the original of 1990. Hope that is not where Timecop is headed to! And to answer the original question, as to why do this, it still beats me. There is no dearth of good fresh scripts in Hollywood, no dearth of quality writers, no dearth of good directors. But what maybe is amiss are bold studios, who believe in creating classics for future generations to exclaim about, something that 50 years later would call for a remake. Studios encouraging something new, something different, showcasing to the audience a new theme, a new story to ponder upon. All that recreating the previous hit movies would do, alas, is lead to comparisons with the original. Will it be for the better or worse for Timecop, only time will tell…
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