"I'll be back!" That famous line Arnold Schwarzenegger first uttered more than 30 years ago, in that indelible manly monotone, initially belonged to The Terminator, of course (before he got into the habit of including it in all of his films). But it might as well be the official slogan of the summer movie season.
It’s the time of year when Hollywood’s older, reliable brands, with the tenacity of Schwarzenegger’s lethal cyborg, claw their way back onto the big screen in a popcorn parade of big-budget sequels, reboots and re-dos. That’s nothing new – except the heights to which the extent of the sequel-spinning can climb.
The sequel expansion – as relentless as Tom Cruise in the Mission: Impossible movies – runs in all directions. It stretches to prequels, second-try reboots, spin-offs and franchises that are less linear, roman-numeral progressions than – as in the brimming Marvel world that has now expanded to television in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Daredevil – whole universes of overlapping characters that are fantasy realms to visit, not just stories to follow.
To fuel the proliferation, Hollywood is dipping ever deeper into its vaults: 10 of this summer's most anticipated blockbusters have origins dating back more than three decades, including Fantastic Four, another Marvel franchise, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Mad Max: Fury Road and, of course, Terminator: Genisys, the fifth film in the series created by James Cameron in 1984. Schwarzenegger is back to say that he's back.
Nostalgia and familiarity mingle with updated special effects and new cast members in these films to render something that hopefully feels fresh to moviegoers. As the Fast and Furious series (more profitable than ever in its seventh instalment, which was partly filmed in Abu Dhabi) has proven, the lifespan of sequels no longer adheres to the old rules of inevitable and rapid decay – at least for now.
The ever-increasing lifespan of franchises can make for some strange off-screen realities – and not only for 67-year-old Terminators.
Mad Max: Fury Road (out in the United States on May 15), is returning 30 years after the last outing, Beyond Thunderdome, with its original creator, Australian director George Miller, in charge – although its original star Mel Gibson has been replaced by Tom Hardy.
"One of the most jolting experiences of my life was to go to SXSW and watch Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior in a newly minted print for the first time in 32 years and then showing scenes from Fury Road all these years later," says Miller. "It was a kind of time travel. It was a strange but powerful experience." Blunt mathematics lie behind the proliferating franchises. The top six summer films at the box office in 2013 were sequels. Last summer, all of the top 10 movies were sequels, reboots or part of well-known franchises.
This summer, the box office seems certain to be led by Avengers: Age of Ultron (out here on Thursday), the sequel to the 2012 superhero team-up original, which holds the record as the highest grossing summer movie.
With US$1 billion-plus (Dh3.67bn) in box-office takings assured, the financial imperative is, of course, enormous – but not at any cost. The Age of Ultron writer-director Joss Whedon says "making more money would be swell", but a creative purpose is still necessary.
“I wanted to do better,” says Whedon. “I wanted to spend more time with these guys. I just introduced them and the movie ended. I wanted to spend time with them as a team, as comrades, with them in conflict and the fun and the humour and the pain that comes with that. I wanted to go deeper.”
While Marvel's Avengers marches forward (a third chapter, split into two films, is due out in 2018 and 2019, with the usual variety of Avengers-related films spread out in between, starting with Ant-Man in July), other franchises have progressed less predictably.
There are a handful of sequels to fairly recent films: the teen musical Pitch Perfect 2 on May 15; the Despicable Me spin-off Minions on July 10; Seth MacFarlane's comedy Ted 2 on June 26. But the bulk of the summer season will depend on much older franchises and properties.
Some of them are counting on moviegoer amnesia. Jurassic World (June 12), which was stuck in development for a decade, is the fourth instalment in a franchise that has been dormant (but not extinct) since 2001's poorly received Jurassic Park III. The new film's star, Chris Pratt, led last summer's runaway hit, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy.
Fantastic Four (August 7), starring Miles Teller and Michael B Jordan, is an attempt to reboot another Marvel property after the little-loved Fantastic Four gave it a go just 10 years ago, followed by an equally unloved 2007 sequel.
The futuristic Tomorrowland (May 22), directed by Brad Bird (Ratatouille, The Incredibles) and co-starring George Clooney, comes from the producers of Pirates of the Caribbean and hopes to repeat that series' trick of turning a Disney theme-park attraction into a massive franchise.
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (July 31), the fifth entry in the Tom Cruise action series, isn't the only film trading off the reputation of a fondly remembered television show.
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (August 14) is Guy Ritchie's take on the 1960s spy series. HBO's Entourage (June 5) will also get a big-screen swan song, about four years after its TV finale.
With so many name-brand films clustered together during the summer, box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Rentrak, predicts this season will lead Hollywood to a record year. That would be welcome news for the industry, following a limp summer last year.
If this year is to reverse last summer's downturn, it will need a few original films to pop, too. In that respect, one thing this year has over last is a Pixar movie. After a year off, the studio will release Inside Out, about the voices inside the mind of a young girl given form and living in her head, on June 19.
The comedy options, too, may be better this year. Spy (June 5) stars Melissa McCarthy in a spoof thriller, and Trainwreck (July 17), from director Judd Apatow, stars Amy Schumer as a monogamy-averse career woman.
artslife@thenational.ae
