BETTER: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990). A box office smash based on the comic, and later animated series, the Ninja Turtles was a film of its generation for the kids growing up in that era, and is remembered fondly by Gen-Xers to this day.

BETTER: Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan (1982). The pinnacle of big screen Star Trek for many fans, Wrath of Khan is one of the best stories ever told based on Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek TV series. An absolute classic.

BETTER: Serenity (2005). Considering that fact that Joss Whedon’s space cowboy series Firefly was only on TV for a matter of months before being canned in 2002, it’s a minor miracle that he actually managed to get a feature film made to finish the story. Even more amazing? The film is every bit as good, and better, than the series.

BETTER: The X-Files: Fight The Future (1998). Released while the series was still in production, Fight The Future was a gutsy move to bring the X-Files story to the big screen in a big way, answering some questions, while leaving a few more open for the series to wrap up. It was admittedly a little uneven, but it mostly worked, and still holds up well with the legacy of the series.

BETTER: Mission Impossible (1996). The reboot of the old 1960-70s Mission Impossible series was a risky move in 1996, but Brian De Palma and Tom Cruise were up to the challenge, and created a twisty, turvy action conspiracy classic based on the concept of the original series.

BETTER: Masters of the Universe (1987). It may have been a cheese-tastic romp, but the live action take on the animated He-Man series was a heck of a lot of fun. Silly, and cheesy, but fun. Heck, the original cartoon was pretty cheesy, anyhow, so it’s only fitting that the film brought that camp to the big screen.

BETTER: Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993). Based on Batman: The Animated Series, the feature length animated Mask of the Phantasm was doing Batman right long before Christopher Nolan popped in and gave us the reboot we always wanted. This movie is dark, deep and amazing.

BETTER: The Addams Family (1991). Don’t get us wrong, the original 1960s series was great fun, and Barry Sonnenfeld’s big screen reboot kept that spirit alive and brought the creepy, cooky family comfortably into the ‘90s.

BETTER: The Adventures of Tintin (2011). Based on both the comic, and early 1990s animated series, the recent big screen CG run at Tintin is more than worthy of standing alongside the beloved series.

BETTER: The Green Hornet (2011): Seth Rogen’s take on the classic hero the Green Hornet was a bit unorthodox, but the film was still a heck of a lot of fun, and a more than fitting tribute to the 1960s original.

WORSE: Lost In Space (1998) Based on the classic 1960s tale of a family lost in space, the big screen attempt to reboot the concept was just plain awful. I mean, it starred Joey from the sitcom Friends, for goodness sake.

WORSE: The Last Airbender (2010). Panned universally by critics, this big screen attempt to adapt the popular anime series Avatar: The Last Airbender was a big ole’ flop. Watching the two efforts side-by-side, the anime original is clearly tops, making this bland live action film utterly unnecessary.

WORSE: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989). Following Capt. Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise on a search for a renegade Vulcan searching for God at the center of the galaxy. Trek creator Gene Roddenberry didn’t like it, but star William Shatner pushed it through, and it just didn’t work. At all. The film received generally poor reviews, and many fans consider it the worst in the Trek canon.

WORSE: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009). A live-action attempt to revive one of the most beloved animated action franchises ever failed to capture the wild fun of the original series, despite its best efforts to be a fun action romp. If its ever a choice, give us the original 1980-90s cartoon, anytime.

WORSE: Aeon Flux (2005). A live-action take on the awesome MTV sci-fi series absolutely paled in comparison to the original series.

WORSE: Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). Based on the cult 1950-60s sci-fi anthology series, a big screen reboot seemed like a sure thing. Throw in star power like Steven Spielberg, and it should have worked. The filmmakers took a shot at remaking some of the classic stories from the series run, but all it did was remind viewers of how great the original show was.

WORSE: The Avengers (1998). No, not the team up of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, the remake of the 1960s action adventure series of the same name, rebooted in a shallow, awful attempt in 1998. Not even the star power of Uma Thurman and Sean Connery could salvage this turd.

WORSE: The X-Files: I Want To Believe (2008). Fans begged and begged for a film sequel to this cult hit Fox series. about F.B.I. agents investigating everything from alien conspiracies to bigfoot claims. The only problem? The writers chose to make a standalone film based on a weak story, and not follow-up on the massive alien conspiracy that was the crux of the series run.

WORSE: Wild Wild West (1999). This dreadful steampunk mess, starring Will Smith, is considered by many to be an abomination; based on the fun, campy 1960s series of the same name.

WORSE: Scooby Doo (2002), based on the classic cartoon. The live action attempt at reviving the beloved franchise didn’t scare up much in the way of quality, despite the casting of the lovely Sarah Michelle Gellar.

WORSE: Transformers (2007): Michael Bay’s rebooted vision of the beloved 1980-90s comic and cartoon, was big, flashy and generally terrible, putting boring human characters in the forefront of the epic mech battles we really want.