The best film reboots of all time

In the complicated terminology of Hollywood, a reboot is a film that sets aside some or all of a series' or franchise's previous timelines, ideas or characters while still preserving the core narrative. That excludes pure remakes and leaves the reboot distinct from sequels that begin where a previous entry left off. The very best reboots, like the ones below, remind audiences of what they love about a story, without sacrificing originality.

'Batman Begins' (2005)

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The "Batman" superhero franchise had fallen on hard times before it was handed over to auteur director Christopher Nolan in 2005. Starring Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman, many critics "presumed it to be a kind of prequel to the 1989 'Batman' rather than its own separate thing," but Nolan's movie launched a new storyline, said Forbes. And while some assailed it as "humorless, cold and hyperrealistic," the film succeeded because it gave audiences a "good story that was well-told and well-performed." Bale starred as Batman in two more films, "The Dark Knight" (2008) and "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012).

'Dune: Part One' (2021)

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David Lynch's 1984 film version of Frank Herbert's celebrated science fiction novels about rival "houses" of an intergalactic empire was "widely panned" at the time, although his "great shame remains a great undertaking worth watching," said Vulture. Perceptions of the books as unadaptable forced audiences to wait nearly four decades for someone to take another crack. Director Denis Villeneuve "wisely decided that the only way to properly tell this story was to split it into multiple movies," and the first effort was a "dazzling space odyssey" characterized by "total sensory grandeur," said Esquire. Part Two was released in 2023 and Part Three is scheduled for 2026, while a TV spinoff was released in 2024.

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'Evil Dead' (2013)

Director Fede Alvarez's reboot of the frequently ripped-off 1980s-era horror-comedy series follows a group of twentysomethings who rent a cabin in the wilderness and inadvertently summon a demonic force that eliminates them one by one. Featuring "extraordinarily strong stuff, from gratuitous and repeated eye damage to the bifurcation of tongues," the film "sweeps along on its own crazy momentum," said Den of Geek, to a conclusion whose "last half an hour is a joyously nasty exercise in gruesome horror." The reboot spawned a 2023 sequel, "Evil Dead Rise," and a planned third installment, "Evil Dead Burn."

'Star Trek' (2009)

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After four feature films starring the cast of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," the franchise was in need of fresh thinking when Paramount handed it over to "Lost" co-creator J.J. Abrams. Abrams resurrected the characters from the original "Star Trek" but used a time-travel gimmick known as "the Kelvin Timeline" to send them on brand-new adventures — discarding the franchise's existing narrative. More than "just a pleasurable rethink of your geek uncle’s favorite science-fiction series," the film offered an "origin story directed with a sure touch and perfect tone," said The New York Times. The film led to two sequels, "Star Trek Into Darkness" (2013) and "Star Trek Beyond" (2016), with a fourth reportedly in development.

'Casino Royale' (2006)

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The James Bond espionage franchise is clearly no stranger to reinvention given how many men have played the globe-trotting British spy. After four decades, relative newcomer Daniel Craig was cast as a glowering Bond in a darker, no-nonsense franchise reboot. The filmmakers also cleverly seized on the early aughts Texas Hold 'Em craze by setting the movie's most significant action around a game of high-stakes poker. The result was a "smaller, less ambitious Bond that somehow felt grander and more audacious," said The Guardian. Craig would play Bond in four more movies, concluding with "No Time to Die" (2021).