10 movie reboots that we needed (and 10 we didn't)

Batman in film started off with a bang. We speak, of course, of Adam West running around with a bomb in the ‘60s. We’re kidding, though that movie is really good. From Michael Keaton and Tim Burton we got a couple of ridiculous, and even worse bad, films featuring Val Kilmer and George Clooney as the Caped Crusader. It killed the character in film for a while, but then Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale showed up and turned Batman serious again.

There have been so many Godzilla movies, and his story has been rebooted over and over. The worst of the bunch, pretty clearly, was the attempt to Americanize the Japanese kaiju legend. Godzilla looked a little goofy, and the human characters, led by Matthew Broderick, are kind of a snooze.

After the Tobey Maguire “Spider-Man” movies reached their end, a reboot was tried with Andrew Garfield. Those were OK, but they felt unnecessary. So why did this second reboot work? Because this time, they were bringing our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Peter Parker has been a great addition to that world, justifying any reboot. Plus, the movies are just good.

The first two “Fantastic Four” movies aren’t exactly classics to begin with, though they did smartly cast a relatively unknown actor named Chris Evans. As such, a reboot honestly made some sense. The problem is that this film, starring the likes of Miles Teller, Kate Mara and Michael B. Jordan, was a flop. People didn’t like it, and once again it ended the Fantastic Four’s film future in its tracks.

Mummy movies have been made since the ‘30s. He’s one of the quintessential Universal monsters. Decades later, creators decided to ditch the whole “slow guy wrapped in linens” thing. Brendan Fraser is a charming lead, and “The Mummy” turned out to be a fun, rollicking action-adventure film.

Given how popular “The Mummy” from the ‘90s was — and it did spawn a couple of middling sequels — why not try it again? And hey, why not cast Tom Cruise? Yet, somehow, the movie flopped. All people remember is that creepy poster where the mummy lady has four irises. They wanted to start a new cinematic universe involving the Universal monsters. “The Mummy” may have killed that.

This movie is both a sequel and a reboot. It had been over 20 years since the original “Jumanji,” and there was never any sign of a sequel coming. Then, even though Robin Williams had died, it was decided to go forward with one, this time updating the whole board game thing for a video game motif. There was reason for skepticism. Instead, it turned out to be a surprisingly really good movie and a major box office smash. It’s now getting a sequel of its own, and they didn’t wait 20 years this time.

Peter Sellers was a comedy genius. So is Steve Martin. Maybe you could see them rebooting the character of Inspector Clouseau with Martin and justifying it. The problem was that it was simply a bad movie, and the sequel was even worse. Granted, the original “Pink Panther” series had gotten bad by the end of it. This damaged the legacy further.

“Ghostbusters,” the original from 1984, is a stone-cold classic. However, the concept is not unimpeachable. Plus, the reboot replaced the quartet of men from the original with four ladies, which gave it a fresh spin. That alone would justify a reboot, but the movie turned out to be funny as well. Unfortunately, it got caught in the crossfire of internet rhetoric, which may have hurt it at the box office.

Tim Burton saw the Batman franchise he had begun building get tarnished by a couple of films. This time, it’s Burton who did the tarnishing. The original “Planet of the Apes” series got a bit crazy by the end, but Burton’s reboot was still not up to those standards. It fell with a thud and prevented the making of any more “Planet of the Apes” movies for over a decade. This time, neither Burton nor Mark Wahlberg was involved.

Like “Ghostbusters,” there is a lot of negative talk about “The Force Awakens.” This time, though, the “Star Wars” machine was unstoppable. People were worried, given where we had left the franchise. This time around, George Lucas wasn’t really involved. We got new characters, old friends and a really good film that kicked off another wildly successful trilogy.

You know we had to go there. The first “Star Wars” trilogy, which we thought would be the only films we got, is truly beloved and has been for decades. Everybody was super psyched for the prequels. We’d learn about a young Obi-Wan! There was a dude with a double-sided lightsaber. It made a lot of money, sure, because it’s “Star Wars.” That doesn’t mean “The Phantom Menace” was anything but a disaster on the screen.

George Miller had left the “Mad Max” series in the past. It wasn’t like he could exactly bring back the toxic Mel Gibson either. So instead he turned to Tom Hardy as Max and also brought in Charlize Theron as the new character: the instantly iconic Imperator Furiosa. The movie is an adrenaline ride from start to finish, it made a ton of money, and it also got a ton of Oscar love.

Look, we’ll keep it simple. We didn’t need another “Friday the 13th” movie. There were so many, and they are just slasher films. Jason kills a bunch of teens. They are gory, empty movies. The dude fought Freddy Krueger! When you look up “unnecessary reboot” in the dictionary, and you have a weird dictionary if you do, you’ll see this “Friday the 13th” movie.

There had been so many “Star Trek” films, and TV shows, before it was decided to reboot it again. This time, though, we were bringing back characters like Kirk and Spock played by new actors. (Although, they did also bring back Leonard Nimoy as Spock Prime.) It’s complicated. However, it was also successful and spawned two sequels.

We’re not saying Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Conan the Barbarian” is some untouchable classic. It’s not good. We’re just saying this version doesn’t do anything different. It’s the same old stuff. This time, though, we didn’t even get to watch Arnold as Conan. Instead, it’s Aquaman himself, Jason Momoa. We can acknowledge his star power, and his muscles, but this was not the movie for him, or anybody.

The James Bond franchise has been rebooted so many times. However, the most significant reboot was when Daniel Craig was brought in to portray 007. This was the most the franchise changed. “Casino Royale” is like a prequel to every other James Bond film. It’s also darker and more serious. It was a James Bond for a new era, and it worked.

Ah yes, the forgotten Superman. Christopher Reeve played the Man of Steel four times, with diminishing returns. He’s such an iconic character, of course they were going to try and reboot Superman. So a movie was made with Brandon Routh. It came and went with a shrug. There were no sequels, and he was rebooted again, this time as Henry Cavill. People didn’t necessarily love “Man of Steel” or the films that followed, but at least this time there was more than one Superman movie.

The original X-Men trilogy gave us Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Patrick Stewart as Professor X and Ian McKellen as Magneto…and that’s about it. Without these movies, we wouldn’t have gotten “Logan." The reboot did a couple of smart things. One, it went back in time, period piece style, to give us younger versions of these characters. Two, they clearly had an eye for talent. “First Class” includes names like James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence in the cast.

The first “Robocop” is insane. It’s a Paul Verhoeven movie, so of course it is. There’s something almost campy about it. Like it or not, and a lot of people liked it, there’s a TON going on in it. This feels like one of those times where the creators thought, “Hey we have better special effects, so let’s use them for a reboot!” What you also need, though, is good acting, a good story and all that stuff. The “Robocop” reboot’s biggest crime? Being boring.