Footloose: The Old and the New

This weekend my campus did a screening of the original Footloose and the new one and I watched both of them in a row. I've seen the original before but this was my first time seeing the new version.

SPOILER WARNING: There are spoilers for both movies. Though I'm not sure why you wouldn't have seen them yet.

I expected the new version to be terrible, to say the least. The original was one of my favorite movies of all time and I didn't expect the remake to be able to hold a candle to it.

I was surprised. The new version is actually really good. Though in most cases I prefer the original songs better, I'm glad that they just remade most of the songs instead of making entirely new music.

I actually preferred some of the new scenes to the originals. For example, the fight scene before the dance. Ariel was awesome in that scene. I also love the part with the car from the original movie. That scene was great.

On the other hand, I didn't like some of the changes. I didn't like that Wren plays football in the new version. Is there some kind of law that says a guy has to dress up in tight pants and jump on other guys to be hot? I preferred Wren on the gymnast team. I also didn't like the new scene in the warehouse. The dancing part was good but I didn't like how destructive he was. Wren wouldn't go running around smashing windows and knocking stuff over because he was upset. He danced to get the anger out.

The biggest problem I had with the new movie was the removal of the censorship/book burning element because that still happens. To me, one of the best character-building parts for Wren is the scene in the original where they're talking about removing Slaughterhouse-Five from the school library and Wren says that he's read it and it's a classic. I'm also not sure how I feel about Wren's mom dying of leukemia. I loved Wren's mom.

Also, one of my favorite scenes in the original was where the preacher stops the book burning and says "The devil isn't in these books. It's in here. It's in our hearts."

That being said, I love both movies and I can't stop listening to the songs from both movies. I really need to buy the soundtracks. I've had "Footloose" stuck in my head for two days now.

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