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Sequels, remakes and Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman

has been doing some press lately for Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, but she’s been talking about more than Mr. Magorium.

In an interview with MTV, she made it clear that she’s done with the Star Wars franchise. No more Padme for her.

Ignoring for the moment the unlikelihood of her being approached for a sequel due to her character’s death in Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, I applaud this declaration heartily. I don’t hold her responsible for her execrable performance in the Star Wars prequels, because everyone except Ewan McGregor was horrible in these affronts to fans of the original Star Wars franchise. Still, when watching her affect-less performance in that dreck (you’re wondering how I really feel, aren’t you?), I had to remind myself that I like Natalie Portman as a performer. (I first saw her on Broadway as Anne Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank.)

I wish her abdication were a statement about the general suckiness of the prequels. But it’s not. She told MTV, “I’m so honored to have been a part of [the ‘Star Wars’ prequels]. I got to basically latch on to this thing that was a huge success before I was ever involved.”

It seems she has a general anti-sequels principle. “When something works, you don’t touch it. You try to create something new that’s positive.” This means she also will not reprise her critically acclaimed role of Matilda in a possible sequel to The Professional.

The MTV Movies Blog then notes that Portman’s “don’t mess with perfection” stance is a little inconsistent, given that she’s about to film a remake of a 2004 Danish movie, Brødre (The Brothers). One might argue that remakes are more disrespectful of original movies than are sequels.

All of which got me thinking about sequels and remakes and whether I like any. I definitely like some sequels. To go back to the original source, The Empire Strikes Back is an amazing sequel to Star Wars. Superman 2 was excellent. I loved the lesbian-sounding song “When She Loved Me” in Toy Story 2. And, of course, there’s Aliens.

And Grease 2 holds a special place in my heart.

When it comes to remakes, I gagged at the thought of Psycho, The Bad News Bears and

The Manchurian Candidate. Although I’m sure there are others, the only remake I can think of that I liked was Freaky Friday.

Lindsay Lohan had so much promise. Sigh.

What do you think? Are sequels more or less respectful than remakes? What sequels and remakes do you love or hate?

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