A restaurant that removed your favorite item from the menu, a bad cover of a great song… Write a post about something that should’ve been left untouched, but wasn’t. Why was the original better?

Quite a lot of things. Ok, let’s run down some of them. This is not a complete list by any means but these are the ones that I can think of at this moment.

Reboots / remakes in general; while I agree that some of them are necessary and worthwhile and at time far superior than the original, a lot of the reboots & remakes are redundant and shameful. The 2012 remake of Total Recall for example; whatever the fuck was that done for? More recently I watched the reboot Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – was not half as good as the original. Horror movie franchises have this habit of being rebooted after a few movies down the road – Halloween, The Hills Have Eyes, Friday The 13th & Nightmare On Elm Street are examples. The last two did not go down well with fans at all and there is a 50-50 divide on Halloween. In some ways I see why the producers think it is necessary but unless you are going to do a good job, it’s better left alone.

Tv shows, especially Science Fiction have had similar routes. Battlestar Galactica (you can read my views on that in the BSG section of this blog), V & Star Trek have had some tinkering in the form. BSG was a huge success when they deviated from the more kid friendly and lighter tone of the late 70s original to come up with a more dire, gritty and relevant to our times version. And although V had good intentions and in some ways were superior, in the end it faltered but I still see where they were going. Star Trek – well most of us Trekkies would argue that it is neither a remake or a reboot but it is a different timeline in the same universe – started well in the 2009 movie but the second movie was a bit of a rehash really. And we have a new BSG movie, which is said to go back to the 70s original story as well as reboots of Stargate coming up.

I’m all for reboots or remakes if done in the right spirit with a respect and a nod to the original and yet having your own ideas, nay your own good ideas. Songs are good examples; most of them are done because the artists loves the original song and is a fan of the artist who originally wrote & sang it. Unlike say when most pop, rnb & rap artists covers a rock song just to make a hit and make more money. And you can tell who is sincerely paying tribute and who isn’t.  In the latter cases just let it be!

Prompt from the Daily Post at WordPress.com.