So…attempts to modernize the Universal Monsters.
We live in a vastly different world now. There are, functionally, no monster kids. In their attempt to force another cinematic universe (which no one has managed save Marvel, which itself has basically been burned to the ground by Disney), they did what DC did, and which Disney has now done to Marvel; Ask, “How do we make these characters relevant?” Marvel got off the ground by instead asking “What’s the core of these classic characters,” and sure enough, as soon as Disney went the “relevant” route, the whole thing started collapsing.
We’ve seen a “relevant” Dracula and Wolf Man. Horribly, it’s Twilight. The other route, which again Universal tried to force, is to make the monsters basically superheroes and supervillains. Gone are the small, intimate stories that people like us fell in love with to our cores.
Go to YouTube. Check out the Fortnite promo “Universal Monsters We Will Be Monsters.” Suffice it to say that the Bride is a kickass black woman now. Check out the updated monsters in Van Helsing. Check out the NBC miniseries House of Frankenstein, also on YouTube now. All are just terrible in a way that’s nearly unwatchable. Well, OK, I haven’t checked out the miniseries, that might be amusingly bad. These other things, though? Yikes.
With the studios having functionally destroyed every major film franchise, the best result is that Universal might simply shrug and return the monsters to their coffins to rest in peace.
