In Defense of Remake Culture
I am starting to come around to the idea that there aren't 'too many' remakes of anything, but that there just aren't enough of them.
In terms of historical accuracy, there are likely less remakes per popular item than perhaps ever before in the professional realm of storytelling with stage plays you have a 'remake' every time it's performed, or when a new (or old!) crew takes over they tend to change the sets, the music, the dialogue, just about every time its presented. Overall remakes may be a net positive for inspiring creativity and individuality within the confines of a source material, allowing different presenters offer different views and expand the overall experience.
Sure, a remake can be absolutely distasteful, unoriginal, uncanny, or just absolutely revolting --- but the art and possibility of a remake being possible never really demean the one you prefer, in fact it can make one believe in its power just a bit more for how truly great that one experience was.
How many stories have been told through the ages that would be considered a remake of a remake until it inevitably becomes an original, how many stories could be expanded with a clean beginning and a new world to discover? A new perspective with the change of the guard, if you will, or a new perspective given to the next generation of dreamers.
How does one create a community around a one piece medium, when there isn't any new content to explore? With remakes you offer that chance for finding and developing communities around preferences, the rights and wrongs of the program, and the characters and producers who helped change the story or environment. This doesn't just talk of movies, this should be expanded to music, to writings, to everything. Remaking has been the test of time for excellence since the dawn of storytelling, remakes precede capitalistic intent, and will exist long after its inevitable demise, perhaps (and most assuredly) even better once that happens.
Remakes are a powerhouse of idea generation, creative explosions, explorations, and excavations into the mind. Remakes are for the public by the public. They are a love letter, a distasteful review, and a form of homage rolled into one for their source. They are a public commons, a recipe that could be made sweet, or bitter.
They are the original creative commons of media.