Best And Worst Movie Reboots“Reboot” has become something of a dirty word among movie fans. Hollywood’s obsession with mining old properties for new box office success has reached its peak in recent years. It’s not uncommon to see a franchise spend less than a year or two in dormancy before a studio attempts to resuscitate it with a slightly new angle.

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These kind of retreads are often greeted with a certain level of cynicism, but reboots are not always a bad thing. There have been several that were not only creatively viable, but ended up improving on what became before.

We live in an era where nostalgia has become a potent weapon in Hollywood’s arsenal, and it’s unrealistic to think they’re not going to use it when so many box office successes thrive off warm childhood memories of prior interpretations. Still, let’s be honest. For every triumphant cinematic reimagining, there’s an appallingly empty misfire. With the latter, we can at least take a sort of dark solace in the fact that almost no franchise stays dead anymore, and there’s always hope that the next iteration will be the one that gets it right. These are 8 Movie Reboots That Actually Worked (And 7 That Were Terrible).

WORKED: X- Men: First Class. After the massively successful one- two punch of X- Men and X2: X- Men United, the venerable mutant franchise began to crumble. X- Men: The Last Stand was financially successful, but a massive disappointment to both fans and critics. After the unmitigated disaster of X- Men Origins: Wolverine, the franchise was in need of a retool. That came in the guise of Matthew Vaughn’s sublime X- Men: First Class. A pseudo- prequel to the other X- Men movies, it featured younger version of Charles Xavier and Magneto as they began to form their respective ideologies.

Set in the 1. 96. It reinvigorated the franchise, and follow- up movies would borrow its trick of using era- specific nostalgia as an effective framing device. TERRIBLE: Power Rangers. A near constant presence on television and toy shelves since the early ’9. Power Rangers had made a few ventures into the cinema during the height of its popularity two decades ago, to modest success. The 2. 01. 7 big screen version was a different beast entirely. Sharing few connections to the long- running TV series, this was a complete overhaul of the franchise, a big budget spectacle to pull in both new fans and adults with abundant nostalgia for the show.

The end product was a half- baked slog that pleased very few. A grab bag of tropes pulled from Marvel movies, Michael Bay’s Transformers, and, strangest of all, John Hughes teen dramedies, Power Rangers had no real identity of its own. It’s more of an anonymous, hollow attempt to cash in on nostalgia and franchise hysteria. WORKED: Godzilla. Legendary Entertainment’s 2.

Godzilla is technically the second Hollywood reboot of the classic Japanese monster movies, but the notorious 1. Pacific that its infamy loomed over this remake as well. But Gareth Edwards approached the source material with a reverence that matches the grandeur of its larger- than- life stars, who appeared in only a fraction of the movie but still steal the scene every time. What was most surprising was how this reboot embraces the series’ history fully; Godzilla is not the destroyer at our doorstep, but the only thing standing between us and worse monsters. With sequels planned, giving fans big- budget rematches against old foes like Mothra, Rodan, Ghidrah, and King Kong, it seems the King of the Monsters is back on top. TERRIBLE: The Amazing Spider- Man. Sam Raimi’s Spider- Man films were a cornerstone of the early ’0.

Well, the first two were, anyway: Raimi’s Spider- Man 3 was a severe enough misstep that Sony abandoned plans for a fourth film in the franchise and decided to reboot the web slinger. The resulting film was Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider- Man, a movie so anodyne and personality- free it’s unlikely the average viewer remembers anything about it. Andrew Garfield was woefully miscast as Peter Parker, mutating Parker’s usual outsider sorrow into leading man angst. The collective shrug earned it enough box office to merit a sequel, though that film solidified Webb’s Spidey as the disappointing middle sibling it was clearly destined to be. Luckily, better days were just around the corner for Spider- Man…1. WORKED: Spider- Man: Homecoming. After The Amazing Spider- Man 2 was met with lukewarm reviews and underwhelming box office, Sony realized they had a serious problem.

Rather than continuing their death march toward a Spider- Man Cinematic Universe nobody really wanted, Sony made the bold move of teaming with Marvel to introduce a brand new version of the character into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Tom Holland’s Spider- Man stole the show in Captain America: Civil War, and anticipation for his solo debut reached a fever pitch. Spider- Man: Homecoming largely delivered on that goodwill. Beyond the perfunctory action and spectacle, it’s the first time a cinematic Peter Parker has genuinely felt like a high schooler. One- time Batman Michael Keaton steals the show as the villain Vulture, and a scene featuring both Holland and Keaton late in the movie features the best acting in any Spider- Man film by a mile. Currently racking up strong box office numbers, Spider- Man: Homecoming has put one of the most iconic superheroes back on track. TERRIBLE: The Mummy.

One of Universal’s classic monster properties, The Mummy has enjoyed several successful film versions – most notably the Brendan Frasier- starring trilogy that began in 1. That iteration even featured a spinoff, The Scorpion King, which helped launch the film career of some guy named Dwayne Johnson. Looking to cash in on the shared universe craze, Universal positioned their 2. The Mummy as the first chapter in an overarching world starring all of their monster properties, and even managed to get an A- list movie star in Tom Cruise to headline the affair.

The resulting movie was a murky disaster. First time director Alex Kurtzman was clearly in over his head, as he not only had to direct a complicated big budget action movie, but also set up a world for the other monster properties. He failed on all fronts, and the future of the Universal’s shared universe is looking somewhat dim. WORKED: Ocean’s Eleven. Megashare Spartacus Season 1 Episode 9 more. Ocean’s 1. 1 was a 1.

Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, and other members of the legendary Rat Pack. A serviceable film and a modest box office success, it was, like most of their other movies, largely an excuse for Sinatra and friends to hang out and have fun. Steven Soderbergh’s 2. A complex, stylish heist film starring a murderer’s row of A- list stars, Ocean’s Eleven was an instant classic. It cemented George Clooney’s status as one of the biggest movie stars of his generation, his Danny Ocean becoming an iconic film grifter.

It’s arguably the best example of Soderbergh’s ability to effortlessly leap between genres from scene to scene. Two well regarded sequels followed, and while the franchise was eventually put to rest, a female- led spinoff called Ocean’s Eight is right around the corner. TERRIBLE: Terminator Genisys. This should have been a home run. Following in the wake of the joyless, Schwarzenegger- free Terminator: Salvation, Terminator Genisys was sold as invoking the spirit of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the most audience friendly version of the time traveling science fiction extravaganza.

Schwarzenegger was back, along with Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke as the new Sarah Connor, and Doctor Who star Matt Smith as a mysterious villain. The confusing, boneheaded Genisys burned all that goodwill almost immediately. A nonsensical mess of a story, the film cratered at the American box office (though it did surprisingly well overseas). The Terminator franchise is once again in limbo. And while someone will surely attempt another reboot soon, it might be best for all involved to simply retire this once great franchise.

WORKED: Star Trek.

Recent Scifi Films That Didn't Need Big Budgets To Be Amazing. Low- budget scifi movies may have had their heyday during Roger Corman’s rise to B- movie greatness in the 1. Here are our favorites from the past few decades. Another Earth (2. Director Mike Cahill (I Origins) and star Brit Marling (The Sound of My Voice, Netflix’s The OA) co- wrote this tale of guilt, grief, and cosmic second chances. Marling plays a brilliant woman named Rhoda who makes a terrible, tragic mistake: causing a car accident that kills a woman and her unborn child, leaving the woman’s husband, John (William Mapother), physically and mentally devastated.

Rhoda makes another terrible mistake when she first tries to set things right, seeking out John but failing to tell him who she really is. But possible redemption comes from an unlikely place: the “mirror Earth” that looms above—represented by a very simple but effective visual effect—where the people and places are identical to those on our planet, with the key difference being that certain crappy life decisions may never have transpired. John Dies at the End (2. This cult horror- scifi comedy from Don Coscarelli (Bubba Ho- Tep, Phantasm) features quite a few outrageous special effects, as well as a cameo from Paul Giamatti, but it was still made for less than a million bucks.

Based on David Wong’s novel, it’s about a pair of buddies who experience increasingly bizarre hallucinations and circumstances (alternate dimensions, aliens, etc.) when they encounter a new street drug that’s nicknamed “Soy Sauce.” Eventually, the fate of the world hangs in the balance—and along the way, there’s also an evil supercomputer, a heroic dog, and a monster that cobbles itself together from a freezer full of meat. Computer Chess (2. Filmed in black- and- white using period- appropriate video cameras, writer- director Andrew Bujalski’s offbeat and intricate study of a computer chess tournament is set in 1. It was actually made in 2. Authentic nerds (not Hollywood nerds) converge on a bland hotel to determine whose program will achieve chess supremacy, though the backstage dramas and micro- dramas outside the competition provide most of the real interest.

Though Computer Chess is mostly an awkward comedy, it ventures into scifi when it begins to suggest that one team’s artificial intelligence software is way, way more self- aware than most anyone realizes or is willing to admit. The American Astronaut (2. Another black- and- white entry, The American Astronaut manages to meld the genres of scifi, Western, and musical. Writer- director Cory Mc. Abee, who once described his work as “Buck Rogers meets Roy Rogers,” also plays the title character—an intergalactic cowboy/rare- goods dealer who becomes entangled in a scheme to deliver a man to the all- female planet of Venus (but it gets way more complicated than that)—and his band, the Billy Nayer Show, provided the tunes. Unsurprisingly, the end result is something completely unique, enhanced by the film’s use of hand- painted, lo- fi special effects in most cases. Monsters (2. 01. 0)Before Gareth Edwards did Godzilla—and then achieved his lifelong dream of making a Star Wars movie with Rogue One—he worked as a digital effects artist and applied those skills to his first feature, Monsters.

As the title suggests, it’s a monster movie, but it’s uniquely set in a world where humans and aliens have been co- existing on Earth for a number of years, and while the tension and fear may not have deflated, the novelty has. Strangers (real- life couple Scoot Mc. Nairy and Whitney Able) team up to re- enter the US from Mexico, but the trip is complicated by a border that has become exponentially more hostile. Edwards, who also wrote the film, did the cinematography, and did the production design, makes the most of a budget that’s just a tiny fraction of what he’d get for his future blockbusters. Robot & Frank (2. Lonely, technology- averse, and intermittently forgetful retiree Frank acquires a companion robot from his well- meaning son, and soon realizes his new sidekick would be the perfect partner in crime, literally.

Robot & Frank is a poignant study of aging, but it also does an incredible job making a robot character (and it is a real, developed character) believably blend into its otherwise fairly typical indie- film landscape. A winning cast (most prominently Frank Langella as Frank and Peter Sarsgaard as the voice of the robot, though a different actor actually wears the suit) further elevates this inspired effort from first- time director Jake Schreier and first- time screenwriter Christopher D. Ford. 8. Sleep Dealer (2. In Alex Rivera’s thriller, it’s a future in which illegal immigration between Mexico and the US has been completely outlawed (thanks to a border wall..). However, since the US economy would collapse without a steady stream of people willing to work for nothing, would- be prospective citizens toil in grim factories where they’re physically plugged into virtual reality machines that control robots doing labor stateside. Within this uneasy mix, we meet a man who dreams of hacking into a massive corporation to restore water to his region; a woman who peddles uploaded memories; and a drone pilot who has a crisis of conscience.

Sleep Dealer is obviously a politically- minded tale that’s really about globalization, but it also manages to be completely thrilling at the same time. Moon (2. 00. 9)At the very end of a three- year solo stint on the Moon, the man overseeing an automated mining facility (Sam Rockwell)—who has only his AI (voiced by Kevin Spacey) for companionship—realizes he’s not as alone as he once thought. He also starts to suspect that his corporate employers are not as benevolent as he once believed. Director Duncan Jones (Source Code, Warcraft) is working on another film set in the same universe as Moon, called Mute, which will also have scifi elements though it’ll be set on Earth this time; eventually, he hopes to do a third and make it a trilogy. The Signal (2. 01.

College kids on a road trip take a detour to track down their nemesis, a mysterious hacker who lures them to an alien encounter, after which they’re whisked to an apparent government facility that’s experimenting with alien technology. On humans. Including them. Aside from its imaginative plot, which keeps you guessing until the end (and even then leaves you with a great “Huh?” image), it’s production design that evokes 2.

A Space Odyssey and supporting turns by Laurence Fishburne and Lin Shaye that make The Signal especially memorable. Safety Not Guaranteed (2. Following in the footsteps of Gareth Edwards, director Colin Trevorrow made his feature debut with this budgeted- under- a- million indie before taking on Jurassic World and Star Wars: Episode IX. An intriguing magazine ad seeking a time travel companion (“this is not a joke”) piques the interest of a trio of Seattle journalists (Aubrey Plaza, Jake Johnson, and Karan Soni), who track down the man (Mark Duplass) to see if he’s a nutcase or the real deal—or, as it turns out, kinda both. The script (by Derek Connolly) was inspired by a real (but fake) ad that once ran in Backwoods Home Magazine, a fact which helps ground the film’s quirkiness—as do its performances (Plaza is perfect) and its portrayal of time travel as something ordinary people might explore for their own deeply personal reasons.

And yes, there are Star Wars jokes. The One I Love (2.

Yep, another one with Mark Duplass. Charlie Mc. Dowell’s debut feature—filmed mostly at co- star Ted Danson’s house—is about Ethan and Sophie (Duplass and Elisabeth Moss), a married couple who try to salvage their relationship by going on a weekend getaway. Things soon get very, very surreal when it becomes apparent that everything is not what it seems, especially not Ethan and Sophie, who become entangled in their very unconventional therapy session.