Little C: I'm Going to Need Ear Plugs and Whiskey...

Readers, it's happened again. They've made another superhero movie (This time it was Fantastic Four) and they've screwed it up so badly that not even the nerds can love it. It's so bad that the director took to twitter to try to explain where the process went awry, but at the end of the day it doesn't matter. The damage is done and the normal people have left the nerds to cry over the ruins. 

Which brings me to our topic of the day for the blog. What do you do when your favorite character or story gets abused by an adaptation that doesn't understand them, or worse kills them off? 

Or worse still, makes you wish they had killed them off

Look nerds, it's bound to happen. With the vast proliferation of books and comic books being made into film and television, someone is going to slip through the cracks. Years later it's easy to say "You must be mistaken! They never made a Jonah Hex movie..." and then start humming Metallica songs loudly until the conversation is over. In the moment though, there's no way around it. 

The best way to cope when say, a beloved childhood classic has been replaced with a former SNL star (Looking at you Cat in the Hat) is going to seem counter intuitive. Because I'm from the camp that says you shouldn't avoid it. The best thing for your psyche is to see it as soon as you can do it for free/on the cheap. You won't enjoy it, but there's some healing to be found in seeing how and why the movie or show sucks. 

I'll give you an example. It's possible that they had the best intentions at heart when they tried to make another Hulk movie. I refused to see it at first because the Eric Bana one had hurt my feelings. Eventually though I caved and borrowed the DVD from a friend, and here's what I learned: the movie wasn't poorly written, the acting was Ed Norton-y but otherwise fine. They just failed to understand that you can't make a straight-forward superhero movie out of character whose power erases his control over his actions. And while having a destructive anti-hero monster as your main character works in the less linear world of the comics, it doesn't translate to movies. And thus my anger was dissipated. 

This version's problem was that it was made by monkeys

This doesn't always work. There are times when there's not even a small ray of light to hold on to...

Never forgive. Never forget. 

At times like this I still recommend you watch them. But if 20 minutes in there is no hope for it to be salvaged, turn off the sound. I'm dead serious. You mute your TV and sit back and make up your own dialogue. It's fun for the whole family and it will make you feel like you're in on the hilarious joke that the filmmakers/showrunners were pulling on everyone else. Pity the poor fools who actually sat through that drivel at full volume! You've outsmarted them! Yours is the last laugh! Also if you are of the age and persuasion, it helps if you're a little tipsy while viewing with no sound. Everything gets funnier. 

And after you watch the disgraceful display, give yourself a week. And then go back to when they got it right. And hope that the next person does better. 

Good luck out there,

Little C