Something that has become the vogue in Hollywood in recent years has been the "franchise reboot." What that seems to mean is that: 1.)They're out of new ideas; 2.)The old ideas were better; 3.)All they can do is tinker with the old ones!
Actually, the reboot works like this: a new writer takes an old idea, like Star Trek, uses the same characters and same general inspiration, and writes a whole different story line for it. This is what you've seen with Batman, Star Trek, Spiderman, The A-Team, Godzilla, and Robin Hood. The better reboots, like Batman, Star Trek, and Robin Hood, keep a level of truth to the original tales and universe of the first. The Star Trek movie, for example, even explains how both stories actually happen at the same time. Robin Hood keeps the characters and the important parts: bad King John, good Robin, Lady Marian as his love, and so forth.
This has somewhat driven me to this point: I think I'd like a life reboot. In fact, most of us could use one. Batman got rebooted because the years of growth in the franchise had added a bunch of superfluous nonsense to the series (like Ah-nold), and they wanted to get it back to its roots. Robin Hood had been saddled with Kevin Costner ('nuff said).
Our lives get saddled with nonsense and weird actors too. The truths we'd like to keep in remain the same. I'd keep: my wife, my kids, and my faith. I'd even keep my current home, job, and hometown. Yet there's so much else that would be great if it would go away (like the house in Mississippi!).
The joy is this: 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us that God makes us new creations. It's the life reboot we need, that works from the inside out. No longer do we have to hold onto the things of the past or even the extras that we don't want. We do have to stay true to certain parts of the story: our family is our family, we are where we are, though it may change in time.
Of course the difficulty is this: just like William Shatner will always be Captain Kirk for me, I do like the newer version. I can't help but compare Russell Crowe to Kevin Costner (though one easily wins). So, I can't help but compare my life as it was and as I hope it continues to be, with questions about choices and changes.
Yet, in the end, I like the reboot. Some of the processes that are still happening will be less than fun, but the end result will be better. Just like having a Starship Enterprise that doesn't sound like it's shifting when it engages the warp drive….or a Robin Hood with a non-American accent (or, for that matter, one that actually acknowledges that King Richard never returned).
What parts of life would you like rebooted?
What movie reboots have you enjoyed?
Doug
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