[Obi Wan Kenobi] I've got a bad feeling about this. [/OBK]I really don't know about this. I'd like to see a new version of the film, I just don't know if there's anyone out there who could do the film right. One of the things that makes the film so stunning are the special effects (most of them still hold up today), and very few directors out there (and no Peter Jackson is not one of them, IMHO) understand how to use CGI effectively.

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We want our children to go to the planets. Burt Rutan 6/21/04 K.I.L.L. S.M.U.R.F.S.
Tuckers! Automotive Oddities! Building my hot rod with the help of the intarwebs Those who would delay scientific progress for a little temporary prosperity shall have neither. MachineCast Save the planet, by leaving it! "To be second in space is to be second in everything," LBJ.

Granted, I've got a bee in my bonnet about remakes, but the question I would always like to ask is, "Why are you remaking X?"

I will be happy if the answer is something along the lines of, "I don't feel the earlier version(s) of X was true to the source material," [e.g. The Thing] or "The earlier X was flawed or compromised in ways that were obvious even at the time, whereas now we have the technology to do a much better realisation," [e.g. Lord of the Rings] or, "The original was great, but the story is so rich with potential that a complete retelling would be welcome," [e.g. Dawn of the Dead].

I will be unhappy if the reply is, "The original is perfect, and any remake will inevitably be regarded as a travesty, but we're going to do it anyway," [e.g. Casablanca, The Wicker Man], or "The original was rubbish, and we'll aim to lower the bar still further," [e.g. Lost in Space], or "We simply lack the imagination to do anything new," [e.g. most films].

Metropolis is clearly a product of its time. By all means produce something visionary and futuristic, but why not strive to emulate the creative process that produced Metropolis rather than copy the film itself?

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Nothing beautiful was ever made from gravel.

Well, you know what they say about imitation and flattery...

<<Metropolis is clearly a product of its time. By all means produce something visionary and futuristic, but why not strive to emulate the creative process that produced Metropolis rather than copy the film itself?>>

The post of the season!

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"Call me old-fashioned, but I think fire is magic. And it scares me a lot."

--The State

Thank you, Romanus!

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Nothing beautiful was ever made from gravel.

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Once we have granted that any physical theory is essentially only a model for the world of experience, we must renounce all hope of finding anything like the correct theory... simply because the totality of experience is never accessible to us.
Hugh Everett

The truest acts of scientific brilliance come from those who push the envelope of conventional wisdom

I only saw Metropolis in its most complete form a few months ago. It was a magnificent yet flawed and preachy film, and even with over half an hour missing, was too long. I wasn't sure about its message about ending class warfare through religion. I have absolutely no idea how its 1920s vision of the working man could be translated in this age when most working stiffs sit behind computer screens. Plus the whole good girl/bad girl thing would seem a bit silly in our cynical age when nobody's perfect.

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There is a growing tendancy to think of Man as a rational, thinking being, which is absurd.- Marvin the Martian.

It's gotten to the point where careful investigation is needed just to tell parody from reality. I think that means reality is broken.- Noclevername.

I agree - the story is basically dated. I can't see anyone wanting to re-do Metropolis except to cash in on the name recognition of the original.

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"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky

You know what, who cares? Let them remake it. I ain't watchin' it. I know why they remake films: the notoriety of the old title always draws in some suckers to the theatres.

I've never watched Metropolis, but I'm sure it's better than any modern Hollywood remake could ever be.

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"A witty saying proves nothing" Voltaire.
"All your bias are belong to us" Ara Pacis.

The easy answer is, "To make a buck."

The complete answer is, "To make a buck on an out-of-date, out-of-context work because we're out of original ideas. Oh, and come see it because it's socially relevant to today's civilization regardless of its context since the story is absolutely timeless (i.e., we need you to help us pay for it)."

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"Any technology, no matter how primitive, is magic to those who don't understand it." - Florence Ambrose

I wonder who it will star - Will Smith or Tom Hanks. Yet another pointless remake.

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I offer a complete and utter retraction. The imputation was totally without basis in fact, was in no way fair comment and was motivated purely by malice. I deeply regret any distress that my comments may have caused you or your family, and I hereby undertake not to repeat any such slander at any time in the future.

They're going to do it as a musical.
Can't wait for the big number "How do you solve a problem like Maria?"

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If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.

My understanding is that the remake was prompted by the writers' strike. The studio figgered they could just take the existing script of a proven work and reshoot it without having to worry about writers.

Of course, there is a slight flaw to their logic...

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Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by ignorance or stupidity.
Isaac Asimov

Who was it that said:
"Don't remake good movies- remake bad ones!"

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I want to go back to the moon.
I don't care which rocket you use, whichever one you pick, I'll like it, I swear.
"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek

I'm sure they'll turn Maria the robot into a Terminator-like, bike-riding, indestructible killer cyborg that roars like a lion (while showing a great deal of cleavage).

But a fearless marine armed to his teeth comes along, shoots the robot down (three times), frees the girl and marries her.

Anyone wanna hire me while the writers are on strike?

(P.S. I've only just noticed how much C3PO looks like Maria.)

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"A witty saying proves nothing" Voltaire.
"All your bias are belong to us" Ara Pacis.

That's robot Maria before she is transformed into a look-alike. C-3PO doesn't look much like the real Maria.

"Don't remake good movies - remake bad ones". So say we all.
There was no bigger waste of celluloid than the remake of Psycho.

There is already an anime "remake" called Metropolis, but it's not much like the original.

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"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky

That was intentional, something Lucas told the painter of the concept paintings to do.

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I want to go back to the moon.
I don't care which rocket you use, whichever one you pick, I'll like it, I swear.
"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek

Metropolis: The Tribal Rock Video Musical

1. Overture, Underture, and Rotwang.

Act I

2. Abraham, Martin, and Joh.
3. If I Were a Freder Rich Man.
4. The Bonnie Banks of Moloch Lomon'.
5. How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?
6. It's a Grot Day of Spying for Shills.
7. Bend Me, Shape Me, I Am Still Your Robot.

Act II

8. Sheik Yerbotty.
9. That Ol' Metro River.
10. Bot Scratch Fever
11. Se Ya Later, Mediator!

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Once we have granted that any physical theory is essentially only a model for the world of experience, we must renounce all hope of finding anything like the correct theory... simply because the totality of experience is never accessible to us.
Hugh Everett

The truest acts of scientific brilliance come from those who push the envelope of conventional wisdom

Oddly enough, I just watched the Japanese anime "Metropolis" yesterday, and while it admits it was only inspired by Fritz Lang's movie, I bet it's a lot more faithful to the original then this remake. It is a great version, actually.

Parallaxicallity- I'm afraid i have to disagree with the original being to long... The fact that 30 minutes is missing is one of the great tragedies of movie history. The hack job basically changed the whole story to 'Frankenstein' and the 30 minutes missing change the whole movie.

Tuckerfan- As for Peter Jackson NOT being able to direct cgi, i also have to disagree. He's one of the few that uses cgi as just part of the scenery or another actor and unlike Speilberg or Lucas doesn't go "oooo, lookie what I can do". If Fritz Lang could do it without cgi (although he is probably the best director in history) I can't see how Jackson would have problems with cgi.

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"Ignorance has caused more calamity than malignity" H.G. Wells

"Getting lost is part of exploring." Uniqua in "Backyardigans-Heart of the Jungle"

"Trying to wrap my head around creationist astronomy is like trying to ride a unicycle around a Moebius strip: it’s off-balance, physically impossible, full of one-sided arguments, and in the end you don’t go anywhere." Phil Plait

Yeah I have grave doubts - The charm of Metropolis is it is a film of its time - To be relevant for todays audience, it will need so much updating as to be totally irrelivant to its pedigree.

As someone said - Let Metropolis be an inspiration and grandious stepping stone for new challenging ideas in Science Fiction - Dont simply rebuild a 90 year old film.

Anyone out there think Brigette Helm was a total babe

I always have.

80 year old film BTW.

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I can. The film would 16 hours long with every danged square inch crammed with CGI, even when it would be cheaper to use physical props. Jackson should have quit filmmaking after Dangerous Creatures, IMHO.

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We want our children to go to the planets. Burt Rutan 6/21/04 K.I.L.L. S.M.U.R.F.S.
Tuckers! Automotive Oddities! Building my hot rod with the help of the intarwebs Those who would delay scientific progress for a little temporary prosperity shall have neither. MachineCast Save the planet, by leaving it! "To be second in space is to be second in everything," LBJ.

You mean "Heavenly Creatures"?

And LOTR used plenty of physical props. Thousands, in fact. Often in two sizes. And scale miniatures big enough for people to walk through. In fact I'm not sure why you said that.

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There is a growing tendancy to think of Man as a rational, thinking being, which is absurd.- Marvin the Martian.

It's gotten to the point where careful investigation is needed just to tell parody from reality. I think that means reality is broken.- Noclevername.

Yeah.

And King Kong was almost completely CGI. Even the cars on the streets were CGI, heck, they didn't even bother to vary the model of car in many of the scenes, just the colors.

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We want our children to go to the planets. Burt Rutan 6/21/04 K.I.L.L. S.M.U.R.F.S.
Tuckers! Automotive Oddities! Building my hot rod with the help of the intarwebs Those who would delay scientific progress for a little temporary prosperity shall have neither. MachineCast Save the planet, by leaving it! "To be second in space is to be second in everything," LBJ.

Hear, hear! No need to redo what they already got right the first time!

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
"The Mayan symbol for "book" looks a lot like a triple hamburger, but I've never seen them claiming it as proof the Mayans had Big Macs." - KaiYeves
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

Oh, but this time we'll do it righter! Trust us!

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We want our children to go to the planets. Burt Rutan 6/21/04 K.I.L.L. S.M.U.R.F.S.
Tuckers! Automotive Oddities! Building my hot rod with the help of the intarwebs Those who would delay scientific progress for a little temporary prosperity shall have neither. MachineCast Save the planet, by leaving it! "To be second in space is to be second in everything," LBJ.

Very seldom is a remake of a bad movie actually worth watching, either.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

True, but at least there's a chance it'll be better. When you try to top a classic, it's almost always worse than the original, sometimes by quite a lot. If they can't come up with something original, which is most of the time, at least they should try to improve on something that could be better.

(Actually, now that I think about it, today's Hollywoodites may actually think that adding more explosions, car chases and gunfights and less character development and psychology is an "improvement". Certainly they add them to everything else.)

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
"The Mayan symbol for "book" looks a lot like a triple hamburger, but I've never seen them claiming it as proof the Mayans had Big Macs." - KaiYeves
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

Yeah. Imagine "Casablanca" with no cigarettes but with a creeping artillery barrage, Ingrid Bergman manhandled by the Nazis and Bogie clinging to the tail of the plane as it roars off into the fog.

Or they could add a mysterious character who turns out to be a chess mastrer and call it "Capablanca".

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If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.

Or they could have the Paul Henreid character killed by the Nazis, who then returns as an angel who guides and protects Rick and Ilsa through perilous adventures on their way to America, where they marry and settle down, Rick becoming a bank president who sees that poor people are given mortgages to buy their homes, sowing the seeds of the sub-prime crisis.

Yup, it's Caprablanca.

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