Generally a bad idea... most of the time, all that's added are spiffy special effects, the likes of which were not available the first time round.
And then there's the remake of Sci-Fi classic The Day The Earth Stood Still... which even fails to add spiffy special effects, and detracts from the tight, simple story of the original by introducing a dysfunctional fractured family unit.
Naturally, they couldn't have the young boy showing the alien around New York City, as he did in the original, because today's squeamish audiences would be seeing hints of potential paedophilia (ah, for the innocent times portrayed in the original, when all we had to fear was Communism!).
Also, the anti-militaristic slant of the original has shifted to a more 'global eco-rescue' angle for the remake... where Klaatu (they kept than name, but never had him adopt the name 'Carpenter') is here "To save the Earth... From us..."
Gort remains, but he's now massive, and made out of nanobots (oops, sorry, SPOILER!.. although I believe that's given away in the trailer), and the name is an acronym applied by the US military scientists studying him. I was reminded of the Cylons in the new Battlestar Galactica TV series, but G.O.R.T. is even more bland.
It was all rather unimaginative... and Klaatu, as played by Keanu Reeves, might as well have been sleepwalking, or a zombie.
On the subject of the Undead, I was loaned a DVD box set of Resident Evil: Apocalypse, RE: Extinction and - bizarrely - Doom this weekend. Watched the two RE films on Friday night, and was roundly disappointed. I'd seen the second one in the cinema and not been too impressed. It's even worse the second time around. The third one I didn't bother with, since it looked daft in the trailers - Zombies in a Mad Max-style post-apocalyptic desert landscape? - and the full story flies headlong into the ridiculous. These films were supposed to be based on the videogames? Why give Alice anime-style 'Psionic Powers'? And why, of you're going to introduce the Tyrant from the first game into the third film, make him the easiest 'End of Level Boss' in the franchise?
And they're making a fourth film? With an army of Clone-Alices going up against the global Umbrella Corporation? OK, even more Milla Jovovich on screen is nothing to complain about... but couldn't the films have run a closer parallel to the games?
The less said about Doom, the better. It was terrible the first time I saw it, and even worse the second. Not even the amusing idea of Dexter Fletcher becoming a mutated pig-beast makes it worth watching.
So... Other stuff.
The fact that I'm still not in the flat just goes to show how slow I'm being in sorting things out. The kitchen is done, except inasmuch as the hob still isn't working (in theory, having spent three weeks now trying to get it fixed, the manufacturers will give me a replacement). The flooring is mostly done, and everything else is livable for the time being. I'd like to report that I'll be in there before New Year... but I suspect I won't be.
Our cat died recently... At home, lying underneath the dining room table. He just seemed to have 'shut down' - his eyes were open, so he wasn't even asleep when it happened. There are no signs of pain, so hopefully it was peaceful. If not, at least he was with his adopted family (it's never an adoptive family with cats, after all), rather than at the vet.
Big news - due to get bigger over the next few months - is that my sister is pregnant. Serious shellshock all round (though our mother is ecstatic at the idea of being a Grandmother).
Work is fairly chaotic. The Christmas do, about a week ago, was typical of everything I hate about the company and its staff. People are leaving or threatening to leave left, right and centre, and there's a hiring freeze. There's a proposed new structure already, but that's potentially going to cause the company legal problems.
Personally, I'm unmotivated and demoralised, and - as can be seen by the lack of posting to this here blog - not doing a whole lot of writing. Well, I've done some, but not in the catagory I'd prefer to be working in, and it's been going rather to waste for the time being.
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