Recently I attended the midnight opening of the X-Men 3, The Last Stand. Expecting a few late-night stragglers, I was shocked and amazed that the AMC Van Ness was packed. I shouldn’t have been. I had been a fan of the original X-Men as a lad in the late ’60s and early ’70s, and on the strength of the two previous X-men films, I had high hopes. One by one however, my favorite characters were killed off, first Cyclops, then Professor X, (played by Patrick Stewart), and lastly Jean Grey. Horrible scripting to say the least.

The success of these films are as astonishing as the failures. "Batman Begins", "Spiderman" and the earlier X-Men films succeeded in part because Hollywood stayed very faithful to the originals. "The Hulk", "The Fantastic Four", and "Daredevil", all sacrificed plot for marketing, kids meals and "star power", forgetting what made these comic heroes and heroines great: the human drama and personal conflict one can relate too.

The original X-Men, began with Professor X and the 5 original members, Cyclops, Jean Grey, aka Marvel Girl, Iceman, the Angel, (who makes his first appearance in the 3rd film), and the Beast, wonderfully played by Kelsey Grammer. In the 1980’s the original team disbanded, and were reborn with the extremely popular Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, Colossus, and Night Crawler. It is these characters Hollywood has focused on, partly because of their current popularity, and more likely than not, these are the characters they grew up with. If they had only built the story lines from their true origin, it would have made the characters not only more empathetic, but with more depth.

"Smallville", the updated adventures of Superboy has been extremely successful, modern music, and an eerie score by the X Files’ Mark Snow. It’s previous incarnation, a live action Saturday morning affair never took off. Poor casting, writing and changing the lead twice didn’t help. Time will tell whether or not the new Superman film, with a pregnant Lois Lane will succeed.

"Batman Begins" is clearly the best of the entire Batman series. The others all had star actors and actresses, Jack Nicholson, Uma Thurman, Jim Carrey, Arnold Schwartzegger, Danny DeVito, Tommy Lee Jones, and Christopher Walken were OK, but changing the lead with Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, Clooney and Christian Bale, can’t be good.

"Hellboy", the Dark Horse Comics entry, "V for Vendetta" and "Blade" were very good, and faithful to the originals. It remains to be seen if the new Blade series will work out. "RoboCop", and it’s various incarnations on both TV and in film have been abysmal.

Women have not fared much better than the men. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s", Sara Michelle Gellar is slated to return as "Wonder Woman", and fortunately she has proven she is up to the task. Lynda Carter’s campy version clearly needs a new coat of paint. "Elektra", a Daredevil spin-off with the star of Alias, Jennifer Garner, went to DVD so quick, I didn’t know it was in the theaters. "Catwoman" with Halle Berry, and the updated "Batgirl" series should serve notice that sometimes these things should never be tried.

Hopefully Hollywood will understand this dynamic, and stop making TV remakes of Starsky and Hutch, The Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched, The Wild Wild West, and others, and get back to making films with new material and heroes we can care about again. You wouldn’t like the public when they’re angry.