The Top 5 Movie Reboots Ever

Read Time:10 Minute, 10 Second

4. Casino Royale (2006)

It was the reboot we never knew we needed. But then the general lack of continuity between 1995’s Goldeneye returned the Bond franchise to a prominence that it had lost in the Timothy Dalton years. Nonetheless, the handful of subsequent films of the Brosnan era strayed a little too far into campy excess, despite the consistently solid performances of their lead.

The lie of the land was changing for spy films. 2002’s The Bourne Identity had reinvented the spy genre with a mixture of international intrigue, too-real for comfort politics and frenetic, visceral action scenes.

Plainly speaking, the gauntlet had been thrown down.

Yet, few could have imagined the dramatic changes which would be wrought in the franchise in this new, grittier era of spy action drama. Rather than steer the franchise into a more Bourne-esque direction, 2006’s Casino Royale rebooted the franchise completely.

Gone (or at least thoroughly re-imagined) was the opening gag with Bond in the gun sights. Gone was the insistence on a shaken vodka martini. Even the iconic theme tune was relegated to the end of the film.

Though Martin Campbell’s Bond film contains many a respectful nod to the franchise’s history and tropes, it also lent a much-needed sense of vitality to the franchise. The innovative action scenes, memorable performances and subtle shift towards longer-form storytelling marked a bold new departure for one of Hollywood’s most longstanding franchises.

Also: We think it’s a cool bit of trivia that Campbell is the only director in the 007 franchise to essentially reboot the series twice! First, he introduced to the Pierce Brosnan Bond in Goldeneye in ’95, then he gave us the Daniel Craig Bond 11 years later with Casino Royale.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5

About Post Author

D L Keatis

By day D L Keatis (Dan to his friends) is a mild mannered copywriter and content strategist specializing in white label content for businesses. But when night falls and the forces of evil rise to cast a shadow on the heart of his native Manchester, he dons his tights, cape and domino mask and... Writes some more for CBR. You can find him on Twitter @DLKeatis. Like many developmentally challenged man-children born in the 1980s, he has an abiding love for Star Wars, comics, video games, action figures and all things animated. You can usually find him at his local comic book shop, coffee emporium or movie theater, or lovingly arranging his collection of Hot Toys (which he keeps in lieu of a proper pension plan). While he is able to write confidently on a range of subjects from business and SEO strategy to fitness and nutrition, he is at his happiest when writing about the comic book, movie and pop culture icons that inspired him as a child and continue to inspire him as a child approaching the age of 40.

dan@nerdifi.com