Prequels and Sequels and Remakes, Oh My!

PREQUELS AND SEQUELS AND REMAKES, OH MY!….This is shaping up to be a scary summer at the movies. I am, however, using “scary” in a very particular sense.

To begin with, there’s Star Wars Episode 3. Will it suck? The first two episodes did, so it seems likely this one will too. This is a scary prospect for Star Wars lovers like me.

Then there’s Batman Begins. Same deal: I love Batman, but the movie franchise has gone downhill ever farther and faster than Star Wars. I can hardly bear to watch.

But the scariest movie of the summer is surely The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. In this case, we have a beloved classic that hasn’t deteriorated over the years, so there’s every reason to hope the movie will be great. Needless to say, though, that merely sets us up for even greater disappointment if it turns out to be a great, plodding, overdone mashup of a movie. Do I dare go see it?

POSTSCRIPT: In other news of cult classics, Harry Brighouse informs us that the BBC is resurrecting Dr. Who. I’m not a Dr. Who fan, so this doesn’t affect my blood pressure one way or the other, but I thought I’d point it out anyway since it fits the general theme of this post.