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  • I don't care what anyone says, the worldbuilding that was done for the 1990s Super Mario Bros. movie was awesome and if the movie had lived up to it, it would have been great.

    Remember that when the movie was made, Mario was a plumber that jumped on mushrooms and turtles to save a princess and he had a brother named Luigi that did the same thing. That was pretty much the entire storyline they had to work with.

    • Video game movies in the 90s were always shit.

      We had studios seeing green with franchises that had significant canon (remember, SMB, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat all had significant backstory in their manuals, but writers/directors who knew nothing of them except that it was something their kids/nephews were obsessed with.

      MK was the only one to actually use a good portion of that canon, and it was by far the best of the three. Though the soundtrack did a lot of work for it too.

      Super Mario Brothers would’ve been a fun movie if they didn’t try to tie it in with the game. It wasn’t canonical at all, and 8-year-old JasonDJ was quick to realize it.

      I’m more optimistic of video game movies now, now that the Gen X and Millenials that were molded by video games are in the directors chairs, and these are now major franchises with significant investment.

      • Super Mario Brothers would’ve been a fun movie if they didn’t try to tie it in with the game.

        That is very likely, although I still think it would have had big problems. John Leguizamo isn't exactly a terrific actor. Funny guy, not a great actor.

        But the worldbuilding they put into it was pretty damn impressive and they had some great ideas. The whole parallel world where dinosaurs didn't die out but evolved into what look like humans but aren't quite idea was pretty cool. Or at least I thought so.

  • They just make the same mistakes again or do something even worse, as proven by the Resident Evil 3 remake.

  • I think the main thing here is that the original was such a flop that they don't want to repeat the error.

    It's a hard sell to take an unsuccessful film (with admittedly a good underlying story/concept), and then convince the suits that this time will be different because reasons.

    When they can remake an old hit, even if it's done poorly, most people will want to see it for themselves, if for no other reason than to join in on the chorus of hate. Those ticket sales are still sales. So whether people like it or not, they stand a good chance to turn a reasonable profit.

    Meanwhile, films that did poorly, whether due to script issues, or poor execution of the underlying material or whatever, people will be more willing to let it pass them by unless they have it on his authority that it's good. Of course, not everyone will think this way, but it's the basis for judgement for most.

    Additionally, by remaking a movie they can renew their copyright on the film, which is why, I believe that many of the older films are getting unnecessary remakes and sequels. Even if it's bad, it locks them in on copyrights for a while longer; so if they want to continue to profit from the property, whether through licensing, promos, merchandise, whatever, they can. The base point being: does anyone want to license this property? If not, the suits wouldn't care as much if the copyright expires.

    Think about something like star wars. It had a pretty strong following at the first three films, even decades after the release, it was very likely that there were ongoing licensing deals. So to renew the copy rights, they remastered and rereleased it to theatres. Even if it flopped, it would have ensured they can continue their licensing deals for years to come. Since it didn't, they decided instead to expand the franchise and see if they can get more money from it, and they did. Which is how we ended up with the sequels and several spin off shows.

    Simply put, it's just too risky to invest more money into properties to renew copyright when there's no interest in licensing the content in the first place. Many of the production companies are happy to let a property rot while they're collecting paycheques on licensing. It's all about the numbers.

  • His Dark Materials was like this. The Golden Compass was poorly reviewed, and I'm glad that the TV series were made.

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