Men in Black

Short Answer: Go to the dogs

WC Fields famously hated to share the screen with kids and animals, because the always command attention even a veteran vaudevillian could not compete with. Bill Waterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes, noticed this too, and so refused let Hobbes the tiger appear without Calvin, although Calvin could appear without Hobbes; he did not want Hobbes, he said, to take over the way Snoopy had taken over from Charlie Brown. 

That said, the MIB franchise is in trouble, both in general after the relatively poor performance of the "International" spinoff (also, PLEASE let me work in an industry in which $200 million-plus returns is a disappointment) and the... shenanigans of its star. 

Still, the MIB movies have a secret weapon: Frank the Pug. 

But, wait-- won't an animal take over the screen? 

Let him. If we know that people watch animals being silly, let them see it on the big screen.

In the now-upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy movie, we learn that [SPOILERS] Cosmo the astronaut dog is psychic and we also learn Rocket the Raccoon's origin. From Baby Groot to Grogu (formerly "Baby Yoda") franchises are increasingly willing to tick off the WC Fieldses of today and let the cute run wild.

So let's see a whole movie about Frank the Pug, with the story centered around him and his kind, his origin, etc. Put him in danger and let him help Agent J save him. 

The franchise has already done the international shtick, with a woman agent, and the time-travel schtick. Now it's time to visit Planet Pug. 

They have a talking alien dog. Futurama's Nibbler went from being comic relief to one of the main drivers of the plot. Same with Olaf in Frozen. If you have a cute character that the public likes, let them like it more.

Shaft

Short Answer: Jane Shaft

Look, the Shaft series got going in the 1970s. One man played him three times. Then another man tried to reboot the franchise in 2000 (as Shaft II)... and when nothing came of that, they tried again almost a decade later, with the same actor playing the third generation of Shaft men. 

And here we are in 2023 with no new Shaft movie since 2019. Yes, there has been a pandemic, but it's also the case that we have not heard about another appearance of Shaft III.

So it seems that this method-- resulting in two reboots that did not reignite the franchise-- is not working. 

Maybe try... something different? We saw the very positive reaction when Tarantino brought Pam Grier back for Foxy Brown. So maybe something more along those lines.

We have seen Black woman kicking butt in the Black Panther movies (which did very well). So we have no shortage of butt-kicking black women who could play the part.

But we also know that the public is tiring of the eye-frying CGI-fests of the superhero movies.

Shaft is the perfect antidote. It has the same gritty, real-world setting as classics like Lethal Weapon and Die Hard.

So trying the Shaft character again is a good idea. Trying it the same way again? After two reboots? 

Another thing to pay attention to is the music. Shaft is not just a guy, it's a song-- one that Isaac Hayes purred into immortality. This new Shaft can have an all-woman soundtrack, why not.

The lyrics to the original theme song contain the line "They say this cat Shaft is one bad mother..." but before Hayes gets to finish that expletive, his backup singers censor him: "Shut your mouth!"

But, if we had Jane Shaft, and she's a an actual mom? Then we already have the tagline for the poster;

"JANE SHAFT. One bad mother."

RoboCop

Short Answer: RoboVigilante

For most of the RoboCop franchise's run, the only people capable of turning a cop into a "robocop" would be a conglomerate with a name like OmniCorp (or LexCorp, or Oscorp...).

Today, though, such technology is readily at hand. Between the Internet, 3D printing, and other resources, it would not take $6 million to make a "Six Million Dollar Man"-esque cyborg.

In fact, look up the term "bio-hacking." People are already implanting chips into them hands and otherwise Borg-ifiing themselves. 

So what about this: A group of nerds tries going into a tough-guy bar, but are being bullied when our hero intervenes. He saves the nerds, at the near cost of his own life. 

The nerds run into the alley, pick him up but-- instead of taking his to a hospital-- they take him to their university lab.

His spine is broken and he'll never walk again, says one, a medical student. If we take him to a hospital, all they will give him is a wheelchair-- but we can do better.

At the lab, they pool their nerd skills, from medicine to robotics, to rebuild him. No, they don't ask his permission, but they figure, "Who wouldn't want to be upgraded like this?"

He wakes up and after raging at the nerds-- "What did you do to me?!?"-- he starts to learn to use, and even enjoy, his enhancements. 

They agree that the first place they need to clean up is their campus. There are bullies and drug dealers and so on. Our hero makes quick work of them and they flee.

But they soon return, with guns. Cyborg that he is, he is still mostly human and not bulletproof. The nerds procure a bullet-proof vest that he can wear under a light jacket. 

He also realizes that his abilities and bravery are not enough, and that he still needs to learn how to fight, and also control his super-strength so that he wins... but not by too much.

By now, the police are well aware of the situation and resolve to bring him in. They are waiting at the next brawl and as soon as he sees them, he freezes and cooperates. 

Brought in, the authorities agree to drop their charges if he joins them and undergoes actual police training. He says OK but he needs to bring his team with him-- if anything happens to him, they are the only ones who can fix him. The police agree. 

And a robo-vigilante becomes a robo-cop.

Either that, or an existing RoboCop gets hacked and controlled by someone evil and he had to use his human half to defeat his robot half.