If there's one thing that Hollywood is good at, it's repeating the same mistakes over and over again. Yes, La La Land has a tiresome knack for reliving its biggest disasters on an endless cycle - be that due to outright negligence or an ill-judged attempt to "do it differently," there are countless examples scattered throughout cinematic history. In terms of getting certain characters right, then, the studios will often react to a failed interpretation with a period of silence. If Hollywood screws up your favourite character, chances are that you'll be waiting a few years for them to reinterpret said character all over again. Sometimes this goes swimmingly, and you make the leap from George Clooney's Batman to Christian Bale's (a rare case of Hollywood actually learning from its mistake). But movie-goers don't always wind up getting that lucky; one awful attempt to render a character on the big screen can sometimes find itself followed by another awful attempt, to the point where you're left shaking your head, wondering: "Why can't they get this right?" It's enough to make you wish they'd just leave the darn thing alone forever, isn't it?
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
