Buffy The Vampire Slayer's Success Makes A 57% "Rotten" Disappointment Look Even Worse

Summary Buffy the Vampire Slayer was influenced by Marvel's Kitty Pryde, creating a successful lead character template.

X-Men: The Last Stand botched Kitty Pryde's character, receiving poor reviews compared to Buffy's success.

Both Buffy and Kitty are young women with supernatural powers, but Buffy explored empowering themes better.

Joss Whedon has confirmed that the biggest influence on Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a beloved comic book character who got botched in her official movie adaptation in 2006. Described as a cross between My So-Called Life and The X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer combines the relatable adolescent foibles of a teen drama with the spooky terror of a monster-infested supernatural horror series. It arrived as a totally unique gem in the television landscape, but it took a disparate range of inspirations to bring the show together.

Whedon has named many influences on his creation of Buffy Summers, from the Alien franchise’s Ellen Ripley to the Terminator franchise’s Sarah Connor to Night of the Comet’s Sam Belmont. But there’s one character that influenced the creation of Buffy more than any other – a character that Whedon described as both “a huge proto-Buffy” and “the mother of Buffy” (via /Film). The character in question is Kitty Pryde from Marvel’s X-Men comics, and Buffy’s version of the character was more successful than Kitty’s authorized live-action adaptation in 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand.

Buffy's Version Of Kitty Pryde Was More Successful Than The Actual Live-Action Kitty Pryde

X-Men: The Last Stand botched everything – including Kitty Pryde

Kitty was featured in all three original X-Men movies, but she only made cameo appearances in the first two. In 2000’s X-Men, she was played by Sumela Kay, and in 2003’s X2, she was played by Katie Stuart. The character didn’t get a major role until the threequel, X-Men: The Last Stand, in which Kitty was recast with Elliot Page. The Last Stand botched just about everything, from Charles Xavier’s death to Jean Grey’s Dark Phoenix arc, and that includes the handling of Kitty’s character.

X-Men: The Last Stand was poorly received by critics, earning a “rotten” approval rating of 56% on Rotten Tomatoes, and it was deemed vastly inferior to its predecessors. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, on the other hand, was a hit show that was adored by critics and audiences alike. It’s interesting that Buffy was a huge success using Kitty as the template for its lead character, but X-Men: The Last Stand – using the actual character herself – didn’t enjoy the same success.

How Buffy Adapts Marvel's Kitty Pryde Character

They're both young women with supernatural powers

Both Buffy and Kitty are young women who gain supernatural abilities and struggle to control them, but the similarities between the two characters go deeper than that. Buffy and Kitty both use their powers to reclaim some agency in a world (and a genre) where young women are typically denied any agency. Buffy the Vampire Slayer did a much better job of exploring that empowering theme than X-Men: The Last Stand.

Source: /Film