I have often felt this way. I absolutely HATED the idea of Starbuck being a female on the new Battlestar Galactica. I didn't watch it.
I have since watched the entire series on Netflix. Boy was I wrong to stay away. That series was awesome.
Sure I still wish that Starbuck would have been a dude and the guy-buddy theme would have been prominent, but it is still undoubtedy a great series.
Guess what. You don't have to pick. You can enjoy the original Robocop AND the reboot! Why force yourself to like only one? The original isn't being erased!
That's not quite the point.
Obviously, the reboot doesn't erase the original. The issue is that while Hollywood is busy making yet another one of those, quess what they AREN'T making? Something interesting and new.
Then there's this aspect:
If your movie is good enough to stand on its own, if it has an interesting enough concept behind it, a good enough story, and good actors, a solid script, etc....
....then why do you need to make it a remake at all? Wouldn't your movie be good enough without all the pre-existing intellectual property?
And if your movie is NOT good enough to stand on its own...then why the hell are you making it in the first place?
This is why people say the studios are lazy. Because they ARE lazy. Most of the time, they'd rather take a "meh" story, slap on a veneer of an existing property, and call it a day, rather than come up with a better idea.
Whenever you look at a remake or a licensed property film, ask yourself this: if you stripped out the bits and pieces that are distinctive to the intellectual property in question...would people still go see the movie? I'd bet 9 out of 10 times, the answer is "NO WAY."
You think if you changed the character's names, costumes, and references to Cobra, and the title was changed from "G.I. Joe" to "American Commandos," that film would've done well?
Au contrere. It would have tanked at the box office.
Meanwhile, how often does an inventive and cool film like, say, Inception come out anymore? I'm not even saying some earth-shattering, mind-blowing, this-will-change-cinema-forever film. Just something we haven't freakin' seen before that doesn't rely on a 1980s brand name to sell tickets.