Avoiding the Inevitable: Stop Being Cliche'!

There is something I've noticed recently with the majority of literature out there. Something that can't be helped, really, but that authors refuse to prevent. NOTHING IS ORIGINAL. All the good ideas seem to be taken, there is no room to create a new genre, and everyone wants to retell stories. Modern novels seem to have a Rocky complex: same story, different names and/or places. What most authors don't realize, though, is that the inevitable cliche' does indeed have a loophole.
Examples:
Two of my favourite retold stories in movie form were Beastly and Snow White and the Huntsman. Why? They did not simply put the story into modern day and keep it word for word or just make slight adaptations. They made it their OWN. Red Riding Hood could even be praised for this, though the casting was a bit off.
First, let's take Beastly. (I've yet to read the book. I reeeeeally want to, though! So, for that reason I'm speaking about the movie.) One of my favourite parts was when two of the characters were watching a Korean TV show and "translated" what they were saying. My friends and I would SO do that same thing! It's something I can relate to and it's something that makes the movie more realistic! But that's a topic for another day. What really individualized the movie was the director's (and probably the author's) interpretation of beast. Instead of the fluffy cutey we got with Disney (which I have no problem with. That has been my favourite movie since before I could walk) we got a human with strange transforming tattoos, a disfigured face and eyebrows that were replaced with the words "Embrace the Suck," which is karma at it's best! Now while I don't see this as a beast (and most viewers don't) I applaud them for their extreme adaptation. Also, I just have to plug in here that having Mary-Kate Olsen as the witch was surprisingly a stroke of pure GENIUS. What I'm trying to get out here is that they truly made it a modern-day version. Not just pasting the traditional storyline into a modern setting, but individualizing it through witty scenarios and an amazing script and cast. I have never liked a blonde guy (Alex Pettyfer), Vanessa Ann Hudgens, or Mary-Kate Olsen more. Future authors, take some pointers from this movie. It inspired me A BUNCH!
Second, Snow White and the Huntsman. First off, Charlize Theron as a serial killer was KICK-BUTT. It's never something I ever imagined and the only reason I went to go see the movie. But once I saw it, I was AMAZED. After Twilight, I thought Kristen Stewart would do a just-as-poor job in future movies, but once again I was proved wrong! Her speech near the end had me riveted just as much as Keira Knightley's in Pride and Prejudice and At World's End. Bottom line is, this movie completely raised the bar for adaptations! They took a completely different turn with the mirror speaking to the Wicked Queen and really elaborated on her past, which I LOVE. The villains need to earn at least a little sympathy. I actually cried when she was killed. I really did. This movie moved me so much and I stayed up writing afterward trying to reach the same caliber. Even more than the main plot-line was the underlying symbolism in each setting and every character. It blew my mind really. I cannot get over this movie. It's individualism is thrilling.
I could go on about Red Riding Hood and maybe even a few others, but I really think that you get the point already and this journal is getting long enough. So I'll just end by showing you how I am attempting to avoid cliche' and see what you think and if it sparks any ideas of your own.
In my novel Reprogrammed, we're met with a ruined world and a plot-line about Survivors overcoming a wicked tyrant. Okay, right now it's starting to sound like Hunger Games or a streamline post-apocalyptic drama. And there you may be true. How I am setting it apart, though, is by turning the focus from what is the "evident" plot-line to the symbolism that makes up the true plot-line. Each character has a past that is unique and realistic. Some come from cushy scenarios that are over dramatized by themselves or others, but some come from truly traumatizing and heart-breaking livelihoods. Each past is symbolic of overcoming an obstacle, whether it be a mental problem or health problem or dealing with impossible odds. They represent a lot of things I've gone through (exaggerated to fit their scenario, of course) and each character holds a piece of me. But my novel is unique in the fact that it is more of a self-help book disguised as fiction. I am truly hoping that my readers acknowledge not only the surface story but the true story that lies beneath.
If any of you have read this far, I APPLAUD you! You've survived my long-winded rambles! I thank you for your diligence in reading and hope that you apply whatever you may have learned from this journal to your own writing or drawing or photography or whatever path you choose. If you have read this far, please comment and tell me what you think. You're free to offer up pointers on my novel or your own theories of how to set things apart in an unoriginal world, too.