Did the world really need another film version of Frankenstein? The box office figures for I, Frankenstein (whose best review, from Time magazine, described it as "definitely watchable a few months from now on your iPad") would suggest not. In its opening weekend in the US, it took a feeble
Endless parade of remakes enough to make you squeal
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Filmgoers are staying away from I, Frankenstein in droves. Photo / AP
The interval between Bryan Singer's awful Superman Returns and Zack Snyder's dismal Man of Steel was only five years. And you could practically see a baton pass between Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, as one Spiderman morphed into the next.
Obviously, there is a lower financial risk in remaking a known product book, TV show, film than striking out for something new. No one was likely to lose money adapting books with an enormous fan base, like The Hunger Games or Harry Potter, for a film audience.
But it is becoming increasingly hard to summon up any enthusiasm for the cinema once the annual parade of Oscar-worthies have passed through.
While film-makers continue to remake remakes of 20th-century pop culture, we are being deprived of a contemporary, nuanced vision of our lives.
- Independent