Remakes

So I recently read an article about a famous Spanish painting of Christ that was restored, but the restoration was done by an inexperienced woman who was a member of the church, and she ruined the painting. Here is a before and after of the paintings:

Some things should be left alone. They shouldn't be improved, or altered, or updated.

Along the same lines as this art restoration is the subject of movie remakes. I don't know if I've ever seen a movie remake that I have liked. Over the years Hollywood has remade some of the greatest movies and absolutely destroyed them.

My favorite example of a bad remake is the new "Karate Kid". The old one is a great movie that was a classic. I loved it and I was even okay with the less than amazing sequels. The new Karate Kid, however, was on its own a terrible movie, but it was an even worse remake. What they did with the movie was a travesty. They changed the setting, the name of the characters, even the style of Martial arts. There is no reason to have changed those things. There wasn't even reason to remake the movie.

The movie "The Wolfman" was a reasonable remake because they had the opportunity to improve the graphics. I didn't like "The Wolfman", but I did at least understand the reason for making it though. Karate Kid was not like that. They didn't improve on it. They changed it and claimed "artistic license".

My problem with remakes is that there is no originality or creativity in it. I feel like they are only done to make money off of something that was once successful. It is a poor excuse for filmmaking.

Once in a rare while you get a good remake. I believe King Kong is the only remake that I have ever enjoyed. It was well made, and it was not touted as a remake of the original, but a new movie about the same character.

For the most part I think that remakes are a bad idea and should be avoided. You should let a good thing be, even if it is outdated or irrelevant. Once in a while you get a good movie like King Kong, but usually you end up with a ruined painting of Jesus.