Actors Who Criticized Their Own Reboots

The 2019 reboot of Hellboy didn't do so hot and had some issues going into its production. For one, it was originally supposed to be a sequel to Hellboy II: The Golden Army, the critically acclaimed film from Guillermo del Toro. Sadly, del Toro wasn't signed on to direct; star Ron Perlman also left the project since he only wanted to work for del Toro. 

The film was finally made into a full-blown reboot starring David Harbour as the title character, hot off his success in Stranger Things. Harbour admitted in an interview with Digital Spy that the film had major problems:

The problem that I have with comic book movies nowadays is that I think, and it's a result of the power of Marvel stuff, it's like chocolate, it's a flavor. So everybody goes chocolate is delicious and these guys make the best chocolate. So as you judge the movies, it's like, 'Well it's not as chocolatey as this, this does not taste like chocolate at all.'

And I sort of want a world where there's more flavors than just comparisons to chocolate. So in that way when Hellboy is viewed on the chocolate spectrum, it does very poorly. That being said, it also has major problems.

The Mummy trilogy from the '90s and early 2000s (which were also technically remakes) worked brilliantly as a mix of spine-tingling horror, campy comedy, and swashbuckling action; the trilogy earned over $1.2 billion worldwide. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about Universal's attempt with rebooting The Mummy as part of their “Dark Universe” featuring other monsters. The film was poorly received and did not kickstart the new cinematic universe that Universal was so desperately hoping for.

Brenden Fraser, the star of the previous trilogy spoke to Variety about what was missing from the 2017 reboot: 

The ingredient that we had going for our Mummy, which I didn’t see in that film, was fun. That was what was lacking in that incarnation. It was too much of a straight-ahead horror movie. The Mummy should be a thrill ride, but not terrifying and scary.

Jude Law starred in 2004's Alfie, a remake of the 1966 film starring Michael Caine, a role which gave Caine his first Oscar nomination. The remake received mixed reviews, with the general consensus being that the remake was unnecessary.

Caine was asked about the remake by the Irish Independent. Caine felt that Jude Law was “absolutely miscast” in the role, claiming that the actor seemed “knowing looking," giving a more sinister tone than the innocent one of the original:

At the end of the movie, Alfie says, 'What's it all about?' But the minute Jude walks on, you see a young man who knows exactly what everything is all about. Alfie was a sort of innocent blunder, shagging birds here and there for a nice apple crumble, at the end he's puzzled why everyone's pissed off at him.

2014's Godzilla, directed by Gareth Edwards, featured Bryan Cranston heavily in the trailers and promotional materials - which was to be expected, as Cranston was on top of the world at the time with Breaking Bad. Cranston gives an excellent performance in the film. The problem? His character is killed off in the first act. 

In an interview with The Nerdist Podcast, Cranston expressed his disappointment with how his arc was handled: 

That character dying at that time was a mistake. It was. It was a mistake. I knew it when I read it. When I read it, I said, ‘Oh, page 50, this character - who is the emotional core, the center that was guiding the story up to that point - he dies? What a waste.’

One of the worst offenders of the horror remake/reboot craze of the early 2000s was A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010), starring Jackie Earle Haley as the titular Freddy Krueger. Despite a decent box office, the film was panned by critics and fans, with controversial changes to the Krueger mythos and an unnecessary amount of CGI. 

Robert Englund (the original Freddy) was also critical of the 2010 reboot. At the 2016 Belfast Comic Con, Englund spoke about the lack of development for the teen characters, stating that you never get to see them as normal teens before they're hunted by Freddy, leaving little for the viewer to invest in:

You don’t ever see any of the people happy-go-lucky, they’re never untainted. You need to see before and after so you can invest emotionally with the children. They’re practically zombies from the get-go because they’re haunted by Freddy, and I think that was a miscalculation.

It doesn't get more divisive for a franchise than Rian Johnson's Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017). Some call it a masterpiece, while others think it's the worst thing to happen to Star Wars since Jar Jar Binks. There's no in-between.

One of the most controversial elements is how Luke Skywalker is portrayed in the film and the questionable decisions he makes. Mark Hamill shared his opinions on the character arc, saying that Luke would have never given up as easily as he does in the film. Hamill essentially views this portrayal as “not his Luke Skywalker":

But I had to do what Rian wanted me to do because it serves the story well. Listen, I still haven’t accepted it completely, but, it’s only a movie. I hope people like it. I hope they don’t get upset. I came to really believe that Rian was the exact man they needed for this job.