Characters and Reboots

I watched the newest Predator movie, and it was just okay. It was much more humorous than previous offerings, and the action was fun enough. I wouldn’t particularly recommend to watch it in theaters, but it would make a good rental. Like most movies that I’ve seen lately, they make an ending that opens up the possibility for a sequel, yet some of these movies are just okay-at-best and not really worthy of a sequel.

Many of the previews showed a good amount of reboots and remakes, and I have mixed feelings about that. For one thing, it seems as if there aren’t any original ideas coming about these days. The other problem is the focus of style over substance, so while these reboots and remakes look better than the original, they lack certain things like characterization, a good plot, a particularly interesting script, etc. I would imagine that audiences are starved for original content and are going to television, streaming, and other media to get it.

Personally, I write in a way with characters in mind. I tend to remembers characters as I was growing up rather than plots. I try not to reinvent the wheel, so my plots are actually quite simple. For example, the Mustard Prince fights monsters and bandits to save the Condiment Kingdom. There is more to it than that, but that’s the simple version as it’s something akin to a good versus evil story. I’ll use ideas from other media, but for the most part, the characters, the actions they make and the world that they live in comes from my mind.