H20 is Better than this lame retcon

Agreed.......The first 3 movies aside....I'm struggling to see how this series has lasted so long (it doesn't even have the 'knowing-humour' of the F13 series)
It's the same old, same old.....Michael tracks down people and kills them. The deaths aren't even particularly inventive.....yet, everyone seems to get 'hyped' for each new movie (as if it's going to be any different from the last)
The 2018 movie was a turgid mess (as were those dreadful 'Rob Zombie' reboots)

Disagree. I like elements of H20 okay, but it hasn't aged well, IMO. As much as it claims to be "Halloween", it really wants to be "Scream" way more. From the cast, to the setting, to the music, etc., it just can't escape that late '90s Scream feel, and I think that's on purpose. I can almost guarantee that there were some producer(s) there, watching dailies, and being like: "No, Make it more like Scream!" The most Halloween thing about it is that JLC is in it. However, the direction they chose to go with the character doesn't really fit, IMO. She's now the head mistress of a posh private school in California who drinks wine and sleeps with Adam Arkin? That's Laurie Strode? hmm... I think "Halloween" (2018) is a way more compelling representation of who she would be after that night in 1978. I also think that JLC kills it in H(2018), such a good performance. Then there's the LL Cool J thing. I like the character okay, but it still has that trend of the producer insisting that there be a famous rap or R&B star in the movie, which would also carry over into Resurrection and then later with Freddy vs Jason (Kelly Rowland). H20 may also have the worst Halloween atmosphere of any of the Halloween films. The opening does a good job with setting the tone, but after that, it just dies. Next, we can talk about how, starting with Halloween 4, H20 is in line with the rest of the films where the powers that be don't give a fuck about how the mask looks. It's not as bad as the popped edges one from part 5, but it still looks like garbage. Unlike Halloween (2018), where the masks looks phenomenal. The final aspect where Halloween (2018) just blows H20 out of the water is the music. John Carpenter and his son murder it! Just the fact that they got him to come back says a lot.

I'm sorry, but when you watch both of these films and compare them, you can clearly see that David Gordon Green, and his writing partners, are fans. I don't think you can say the same for Steve Miner and H20.

I agree with you.

I would go even as far to say that I like Resurrection over this reboot. I like Laurie's end in Resurrection better. I like the opening monologue in Resurrection. She's too cocky and sure of herself in this one. She's more sad and authentic in Resurrection.

I agree H2O is better. It was made before third wave feminism infected the movies and they had to turn every female protagonist into a super-bad asskicking machine. I think H2O just did a much better job overall portraying how Laurie Strode coped with the events of Halloween. She tried to move on and live a normal life, as anyone would, put the events of that night behind her, as anyone would, but still had PTSD and drank a little too much to cope with it, but was otherwise pretty normal -- and when Michael reappeared, she dug down and found that same toughness and determination that enabled her to survive her first encounter with him. In 2018, by contrast, she's blown up every relationship in her life to become a super-prepper obsessed with Michael and the idea that he'll be back -- and of course she's proven right, and she lures Michael into a trap that she's cleverly prepared because she's just so badass.

That said... I don't think either film stands well beside the original. Halloween was a movie that really never should have had a sequel. They never intended one, but the first film made so much money it was inevitable they'd do it. It's a pity, because John Carpenter's original concept was to make the Halloween films an anthology series where each film would tell a completely different, standalone horror story. He tried to return to that concept with Halloween III, but after I and II it was too late to make the concept work, and people wouldn't accept a Halloween movie without Michael Myers.

Rob Zombie's Halloween is vastly superior to this. This movie is just feminist nonsense.

The 2018 movie seems like one of those films where just because it is supposedly made for a new generation it feels it deserves a pass.

I agree, and I don’t even particularly rate H20. I haven’t seen it since the theatrical release but I remember it being a solid little horror but overall meh.

This travesty showed how H20 was at least competently written and directed, this thing was some kind of committee-confected abortion. Nothing cohered or came together, and the ‘filmmakers’ were too busy trying to crowbar as much woke programming in possible that they forgot to make a coherent story with remotely likeable characters.

The worst thing was how they promised a return to the style of the very first movie and it becomes clear early in this one it's just another slash fest in which characters we barely know (or don't even know in the case of the person killed in the window) are killed. Even the heavy girl in F13 pt. 4 got a little screen time before she was murdered.