jeffkjoe

Now with INDIANA JONES IV on the market, we can stop and analyze the recent trend of restarting franchises featuring old beloved movie icons.


Which franchise had the most SATISFYING revival in the past years?
Which was the most DISAPPOINTING?

Casino Royale
Rocky Balboa
Rambo
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Live Free or Die Hard
Superman Returns
Batman Begins
Land of the Dead
Alien Vs. Predator
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Any others you can think of? What gets your vote?

I vote for Rocky and James Bond's most recent efforts as the most satisfying.
I think Superman Returns was the most disappointing, after the number of years in development and the super-hype.



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MartinBlank

I've seen every flick on the list except for Indy....part of me just doesn't care, which sucks. I'm just 98% positive that I'll be disappointed.

I'll vote for Batman Begins and Casino Royale for the best revivals. Superman Returns for the most disappointing.

gmanca

Have yet to see Indy, but I'd say Batman Begins is the best revival. I'm a fan of the older Bond films, after License to Kill, not much there IMO.

RichC2

Satisfying: Batman Begins and Casino Royale
Disappointing: None, of the ones I've seen, I've been pretty happy with them.

Rockmjd23

Batman Begins and Casino Royale are most satisfying.
Rambo is the best film of its series.
Superman Returns was very disappointing to me.

mrflix

I'll vote for Batman Begins and Rambo as the most successful revivals. With that being said, I think Rambo should be done. It went out on a very high note for me and feels complete. However as long as Bale and Nolan are on board for Batman I have no problem with a couple more.

Most disappointing for me was Indy. Could be my expectations were a bit high, but still Shia LaBeouf swinging from vine to vine with a bunch of monkeys?!?!?!

Doughboy

Casino Royale was the best revival in the sense that it completely rejuvenated what was a tired, lazy, bloated franchise.

Batman Begins is the best film from the ones you listed, and a great revival for the series. But let's be frank. The bar was set pretty low by its predecessor(Crapman & Robin) and, truth be told, the previous 4 Batflicks were mediocre at best. At least Casino Royale had the legacy of From Russia With Love and Goldfinger to live up to.

Rocky Balboa was a good movie and a solid bookend to the series. It helped make up for the disaster that was Rocky V.

Haven't seen Rambo yet.

Indiana Jones 4 was garbage. Some decent moments, but it was a bad movie overall. Does it tarnish the series like the Star Wars prequels? No. Each Indy movie is a self-contained story, so it can be ignored. But it was unnecessary and ultimately a major disappointment.

Live Free or Die Hard was lousy. But Die Hard With a Vengeance wasn't very good either(at least not after the first hour), so I'm less hesitant to criticize it from a series revival standpoint. Honestly, its biggest drawback was the studio-mandated PG-13 rating. That and a weak script and horrible villain(Indy 4 suffered from similar issues).

Superman Returns was pretty bad. Lame story decisions like Superman having a kid, Superman leaving for 5 years, Lex once again trying to pull off a landowning scheme, Superman stalking Lois, etc., coupled with horrible casting of most of the leads and this franchise is DOA. If WB does do another one, it'll be an Incredible Hulk-type reboot. So as a revival, it was a complete disaster.

My Other Self

Batman Begins and Casino Royale for sure. They went in the right direction and lifted the franchises right off the ground.

I don't think Indy 4, Rocky, Die Hard, and Rambo belong up there.. I mean they're just sequels years after the last film hit theaters. Batman Begings, Casino Royale, and Superman Returns are new series alone.

hardercore

Casino Royale, then Batman. Their next instalments this year both look to be fantastic as well.

story

Poll.

Goat3001

I have seen all those except Indy (was never a huge fan but I'll catch it on DVD) or Rambo (never a fan).

To me all that I have seen have been satisfying:

Rocky Balboa -- not a great movie but it was cool to see a new Rocky movie.

Live Free or Die Hard -- Exactly what I expected and a lot of fun

Casino Royale -- I was never into James Bond movies. I've seen a few of the Pierce Bronson ones and I wasn't a big fan. I never go into the older ones. So to me, Casino Royale, was a relatively new experience and while it was a revival of a franchinse (but not really since they never stopped making Bond films) it was still new to me.

Superman Returns -- I've always been a huge Superman fan. I was too young to experience the originals in theatres so this was my first taste of a new Superman movie and I was not disappointed. And I can't wait for "The Man of Steel".

Batman Begins -- Don't have much to say about it other than it is one of the best franchise revivals ever. The Dark Knight is my most anticipated movie of the summer.

Matthew Chmiel

1) Batman Begins
A refreshing take that should've been done years ago.

2) Superman Returns
A near flawless follow-up to the first two Richard Donner (ahem) films.

3) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
A pulp comic that came to life. Better than Last Crusade, but not legendary as the first two.

4) Rambo
Almost on par with the first film, but could've actually used a second act longer than five minutes.

5) Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Not mentioned earlier, but I feel it should be mentioned. Without credits, it was a 90-minute balls-to-the-fucking-wall action film with impressive visual effects and more impressive stunts. Completely underrated sequel.

6) Casino Royale
Entertaining and the best Bond film since Goldeneye, but doesn't hold a candle to the early days of Bond.

7) Live Free or Die Hard
Entertaining, but missed out on the rawness of what makes a Die Hard film.

8) Rocky Balboa
Meh.

naitram

Agree with this. I also thought the newest Rocky was the best one since the first.

Worst revival - Alien vs. Predator. Freddy vs. Jason was stupid too. In fact let's just nix the whole "vs." thing already.

notkevinbacon

The first one that came to mind for me was Casino Royale. I have seen most of the "classics" and a few of the recent Brosnan ones (yeah I know most people don't like these, I didn't either and I am even a moderate Brosnan fan) and for some reason the 007 series does nothing for me... I couldn't avoid CR anymore and I just watched it about a month ago. Damn good flick. I went from not caring about Bond to lining up to see the new one.

Batman Begins is pretty good, but I agree it doesn't have much to beat in terms of the last 2 Batman flicks... a flawed movie, but a good direction for Bats to go. I am excited to see the new flick... but again, just can't get as hyped as everyone else here is.

I'd like to suggest the recent Romero "...of the Dead" movies. No, they aren't as scary as Night or as brilliant as Dawn... but Land was solid and certainly on level with Day (which I like plenty... it's charming). I have Diary at home and haven't had a chance to see it yet... I am just glad that Romero is making these films again. He's proven himself out of the realm of Zombie cinema... but, just as I want to see another Scorsese gangster flick in the future, I am always happy with a Romero Zombie movie.

Disappointments...

Live Free or Die Hard - I think it's pretty obvious. Just too tame, but also bad plot, bad script, bad villian.

Gdrlv

I'd rank Batman Begins and Casino Royale as the most satisfying revivals. In fact, Batman Begins is by far the best Batman film, and Casino Royale ranks among my favorite Bond films.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Live Free or Die Hard were very fun and worthy entries in their respective series.

Superman Returns, while not a trainwreck, did not nearly reach the heights of the first two. Disappointing to me that Singer abandoned X-Men 3 (leaving it in the less-than-capable hands of Brett Ratner) for this.

I have not seen Rambo or Rocky Balboa.

Matthew Chmiel

Land of the Dead was a solid follow-up to the previous effort, however, it's not on the same plane of existence that Night and Dawn are on.

The less said about the trainwreck known as Diary of the Dead, the better.

Shannon Nutt

Rocky Balboa was the most satisfying, although I'm not sure it can be called a "revival", since it was only made to give a decent closure to the series - not an effort to restart the franchise.

I'd put a lot of the others in a different category...Batman, Superman and Bond aren't really "revivials" as much as they are re-boots with different actors and directors. More "starting over from scratch" than a continuation - although Superman does a good job of being loyal to the previous entries.

I believe that the best revivial is coming July 25th.

Well, let's just say I want to believe.

bloopbleep

my order
Casino Royale the best modern Bond since Connery

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull kicked ass.

Rambo now modern. good stuff about Burma.

Live Free or Die Hard ok but could live without.

Batman Begins most overated. hopefully the Joker will save the franchise.


Superman Returns thee worse. they had to give Superpoof a baby because they didn`t want you to think Superpoof was gay.

didn`t see the new Rocky so I can`t comment on it.

islandclaws

Satisying:

Casino Royale (I loved it. In my top 5 007 films.)
Batman Begins (The standard for superhero filsm, IMO)
Rambo (Totally kicked serious ass)
Rocky Balboa (Honestly, anything would have been better than Rocky 5)
Land of the Dead (So shoot me, I love it)

Good, but not necessarily needed:

Indiana Jones 4 (It was fun, but for an Indy film it didn't hit the mark)
Live Free or Die Hard (Good movie, but I'm just not sure we needed it)

Disappointing:

Superman Returns (Pretty boring film. Superman stalks Lois like a rapist. No real villain.).
Alien vs. Predator (Both of them suck.)

hitman tommy

Haven't seen Indy yet but so far I'd say that too that Batman Begins has been the most satisfying revival. Most dissapointing I guess my vote would go to Superman Returns then again don't go by what I say because I hate Superman to begin with.

PopcornTreeCt

mdc3000

I think with the recent announcement of 'Point Break 2' this thread is moot.

Numanoid

I knew I'd be going against the grain when I saw the thread title.

Saw Casino Royale once, liked it. Saw Batman Begins three or four times, very good. But I've watched Superman Returns at least twelve times so far, and can't get tired of it. Great movie and completely re-energized the franchise, for me at least.

Brain Stew

I have a hard time calling Batman Begins a revival to a franchise since it is really just a completely different animal (for the better).

It really stands as its own franchise separate from the other movies.

Supermallet

Batman Begins, Casino Royale, and Rambo were, for me, the most satisfying. I also quite enjoyed Superman Returns, Live Free or Die Hard, Terminator 3, Indy, and Rocky.

AvP was the most disappointing by far.