by Sherry Lipp

The past couple of weeks have brought us trailers for new Star Wars, Jurassic Park, and Terminator

films. So what do you think of going back to the well? Is it a good thing? Our philosophy is that if a movie’s good, it’s good. But does that mean we can endlessly reboot and remarket the same old franchises over and over? Time will tell.

To quote Dr. Ian Malcolm from the original Jurassic Park, “You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you even knew what you had, you patented it, and packaged it, and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox… Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

But that doesn’t stop us from being cautiously optimistic about the potential of these new movies.
The cool and not so cool:

Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Scheduled release date – December 18, 2015

How long since the last one: 10 years

The Cool:

This actually looks like Star Wars – My first thoughts when I saw The Phantom Menace back in 1999 were: This film does not feel like Star Wars. The bright and shiny look did not fit with the grittier feel of the original series (not to mention the overabundance of CG imagery).

No more prequelsThe Force Awakens follows the events of Return of the Jedi. Lucas pretty much ruined the mythology that he created with the original trilogy. Midichlorians? Cutesy kid versions of classic villains? Those elements were weakly conceived compared to what the original films left to the imagination.

The adventure is back – So planetary embargoes and trade route taxation didn’t do anything for you either? The opening crawl to The Phantom Menace left a lot to be desired. Granted, we don’t yet know what The Force Awakens will include, but the opening shot of a terrified storm trooper (or is he?) running through the desert suggests that this film is more about adventure than politics.

The Millennium Falcon – Do we need to say much more?

The “trisaber” – Looks cool!

The not so cool:

The “trisaber” – Okay, so it looks cool, but it kinda looks like you would have a good chance of cutting your own head off (or at least singeing yourself).

You can’t always go home again – It’s going to be hard to recreate the magic, but we’re betting J.J. Abrams does a better job than Lucas himself did with the prequels.

Jurassic World – Scheduled release date – June 12, 2015

How long since the last one: 14 years

The cool:

The park appears to actually be open to the public – Hammond never got to realize his vision of opening his dinosaur park to the public. Now we seem to have a fully operational park full of people and it looks pretty cool. We’ve got a monorail, some kind of bubble vehicles, and a Sea World-like exhibit with a giant shark-eating water monster (which according to Nerdist is a Mosasaur and not really a dinosaur).

Chris Pratt – The Star Lord is set to save the park. Wouldn’t it have been even more cool if he had Groot or Rocket with him? (Kidding… or are we?) Still, we have high hopes that Pratt will bring both comic relief and his new action skills to this one.

The dinosaurs – Kinda goes without saying, but the dinos are likely to be the best thing about this movie.

The not so cool:

Looks like a remake – Dinos run amok, kids are lost, brave soul has to rescue everyone. A lot of this trailer looks like a copy of the original.

Kids look a little too precocious – We’re not ones to bash on kids just for the sake of it. However, judging by the trailer, these tykes look like they could push the too-smart-for-their-age factor. Hopefully we’re wrong.

Do we remember Michael Crichton? – The original visionary behind Jurassic Park passed away in 2008. His cautionary tale about man’s attempted dominance over the laws of nature resonated with millions. His John Hammond was a money-hungry developer who cared little about the science of what he was doing. The novel of Jurassic Park was more of a high-tech take on Frankenstein than Spielberg’s action-adventure take on the story. Still, Spielberg did capture the essence of Crichton’s book, as exemplified by of Ian Malcolm (as quoted above). Hopefully Crichton’s spirit hasn’t been forgotten here.

Terminator: Genisys – Scheduled release date – July 1, 2015

How long since the last one: 5 years (but 12 since we last saw Schwarzenegger)

The cool:

“I’ll be back” – Arnold’s back and so is his famous line. It’s just not Terminator without it.

Emilia Clarke as a young Sarah Connor – We can’t complain about Game of Thrones’ Daenerys Targaryen getting to kick ass (only wearing modern clothes this time).

Arnolds of all ages – Digital technology can be pretty cool, especially when it can give us Arnold from the first Terminator and T2, along with an older (aka: current Arnold) T-1000.

Cool premise – The past has been changed, which means the writers can reboot the story and pretty much do anything they want, while still tying things together with the original. It’s kind of a reboot/sequel. This could be interesting.

The not so cool:

Here we go again – Future John Connor sends Kyle Reese back in to save Sarah Connor – just like in the original Terminator and they decide to try to stop Judgement Day – just like in T2.

“Come with me if you want to live” –  Having the new Sarah Connor deliver this catch phrase feels forced and kind of cheesy.

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Sherry Lipp
Sherry is a writer/blogger specializing in entertainment and food writing. You can find her gluten and grain-free food articles at scdforlife.com.

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