Random Worst Movie Reboots Of s Decad (20 items)

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  (#20) Man of Steel

  • Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Antje Traue, Ayelet Zurer, Christopher Meloni, Russell Crowe

  Man of Steel is an example of why a reboot can be just as tricky to pull off successfully as an original property. Sure, Man of Steel has the advantage of relying on a beloved character with a rich backstory and classic villains. But for many fans, the Christopher Reeve Superman films of the '70s and '80s set the bar so high that any subsequent Superman film is at a disadvantage. 

  Another factor was director Zack Snyder. Although Snyder tried his best to respect the source material, for many fans and critics, the director's distinct style (shaky camera, quick zooms, desaturated colors), was too distracting. Man of Steel wasn't a total flop - it pulled in $113 million in its first weekend, after all - and it had many enjoyable parts; but overall, fans wanted more. 

  Rotten Tomatoes Score: 56%
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  (#13) RoboCop

  • Samuel L. Jackson, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Abbie Cornish, Jay Baruchel, Jackie Earle Haley, Michael K. Williams, Joel Kinnaman, Aimee Garcia, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Jennifer Ehle, K. C. Collins, Daniel Kash, Zach Grenier, Philip Akin, Tattiawna Jones, Paul Sun Hyung Lee, Kirby Morrow, Tommy Chang, Douglas Urbanski, Marjan Neshat, Dwayne McLean, Melanie Scrofano, Aurora Browne, Jessica Booker, Wayne Downer, Dean Redman, John Paul Ruttan, Sean Francis, WBBrown II, Ishan Morris, Joe Vercillo, Patrick Garrow, Markus Parilo, Dalias Blake, Kevin Hare, Mark Baldesarra, Stewart Arnott, Steve Cumyn, Barry Nerling, Steve Wright, Kelvin Wheeler, Mark McKay, Adrian Griffin, Joshua William James, Diezel Ramos, Thomas Mitchell, Jordan Johnson-Hinds, Hooman Esmailzadeh, Rory O'Shea, Ian Butcher, Ricardo Betancourt, Azra Valani, Carlyn Burchell, Meysam Motazedi, Maura Grierson, Matt Cooke, Darcy Hinds, David Harcourt, Kanu Giddings, Raiden Eastman, Demord Dann, Robert Thomas, Prince Massey, Noorin Gulamgaus, Rocky Anderson, Khaliya Hosein, Matthew Sauve, Raven Cinello, Tazito Garcia, Aaliyah Cinello, Evan Stern, Raffi Altounian, Jeana Lowes, Paul Haywood, Brian Cranstone, Shondra Kayd, Savana Hosein, Stacey Unsworth, Ian Peters, Rick Hughes, Rebecca Rodley, Jason Bigio, Jimmy Chimarios, Alex Mallari Jr., Peter Yan, Tamara Almeida, Joe Merritt, Shane Invervary, Jon Rhys, Ambrose Wong, Meghan Hoople

  The 2014 Robocop reboot wasn't quite an abject failure like other movies on this list - it still took in over $242 million worldwide - but it definitely didn't do as well as Sony had hoped. 

  A movie like Robocop is tricky to reboot not just because it's iconic, but also because it's so specific to the time and place in which it was made. The 1987 Robocop is a social satire dressed up like an action movie. It memorably skewers everything from corporate culture to '80s consumerism to America's appetite for blood. Rebooting a movie like that requires maintaining the spirit of the original while also updating the satirical targets to reflect modern times. According to Paul Verhoeven, who directed the original, the remake left out this crucial ingredient and took itself way too seriously. Additionally, director José Padilha complained that too much studio interference thwarted his creative vision. 

  Rotten Tomatoes score: 49%
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  (#5) The Mummy

  • Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella, Annabelle Wallis, Jake Johnson, Courtney B. Vance, Russell Crowe

  Universal had high expectations for its 2017 Mummy reboot. It was based on an established property and it starred one of Hollywood's most reliable leading men in Tom Cruise. Universal had hoped that The Mummy would kick off a new Dark Universe series of films based on its classic horror properties, like Frankenstein and the Invisible Man. It did end up being Tom Cruise's biggest global opening ever, but still lost an estimated $95 million. 

  The biggest problem was most likely audience confusion. When fans heard "Mummy reboot," they were expecting to revisit the beloved Brendan Fraser trilogy of the late '90s. Instead, the Tom Cruise version was based entirely on the 1932 Boris Karloff version. And unlike both the Fraser and Karloff versions, which were set in the 1920s, the Cruise version was set in present day.

  There were numerous other issues, from the dwindling influence of star power to having to compete with the smash-hit Wonder Woman. But in the end, The Mummy just didn't have a lot in common with any of its predecessors. 

  Rotten Tomatoes score: 16%
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  (#7) Child's Play

  • Gabriel Bateman, Aubrey Plaza, Brian Tyree Henry

  Whenever a studio remakes a movie, it has to decide how closely it will stick to the original. 2019's Child's Play was almost entirely different from the 1988 original. Instead of a murderous doll being possessed by the spirit of a serial slayer, this version of Chucky is a regular doll with incredibly sophisticated AI that only goes rogue when a disgruntled factory worker disables its safety features.

  Taking risks is sometimes necessary, but in this case, the audience didn't connect with what was basically an entirely new character. While it did receive generally positive reviews, it only took in $14 million on its opening weekend. It didn't help that Child's Play had to compete with another evil doll movie, Annabelle Comes Home, that same weekend. 

  But if you were bummed by the 2019 Chucky movie, here's something to look forward to: SyFy is developing a Chucky TV series with creator Don Mancini, and it'll follow the continuity of the original movies. 

  Rotten Tomatoes score: 63%
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  (#17) The Amazing Spider-Man

  • Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Campbell Scott, Irrfan Khan, Martin Sheen, Sally Field

  The Sam Raimi-Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movie series of the 2000s started off strong, but the third film wasn't able to replicate that success. The same thing happened in the 2010s with the Andrew Garfield-Marc Webb versions. In 2012, The Amazing Spider-Man took in a worldwide gross of $757.9 million, but the sequel, 2014's The Amazing Spider-Man 2, only earned $708 million. Those numbers sound big, but given that Sony was hoping to crack the $1 billion mark, and that the sequel cost a hefty $252 million to make, the films weren't profitable enough. 

  As for why they didn't win audiences over, Garfield later admitted that he felt he'd been miscast in the role. Critics pointed to the films' inclusion of too many villain characters at the expense of character development.

  Luckily for Sony, 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming starring Tom Holland reversed the franchise's fortunes and netted a whopping $880 million worldwide. 

  Rotten Tomatoes score: 72%
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  (#6) Hellboy

  • David Harbour, Ian McShane, Milla Jovovich, Sasha Lane, Penelope Mitchell, Daniel Dae Kim

  If you didn't see the 2019 Hellboy reboot, you're not alone. Few people did. The movie only netted $40 million at the box office on a budget of $50 million (not including marketing.) 

  For starters, Hellboy faced the same problem common to many reboots in that it couldn't secure the original talent that made the original such a hit. Nothing against director Neil Marshall, who helmed the acclaimed 2005 horror movie The Descent, but the original Hellboy movies had Academy Award-winner Guillermo del Toro. Similarly, reboot star David Harbour has proved to be a capable actor on Stranger Things, but Ron Perlman's original take on Hellboy is iconic. 

  The 2019 Hellboy was also plagued with problems from the start. The film was accused of whitewashing when it cast a white actor, Ed Skrein, to play Ben Daimio. (Skrein would later be replaced with Daniel Dae Kim.) Marshall and the directors apparently fought behind-the-scenes, leading to the cinematographer being fired. And Harbour was apparently difficult to work with on set.  

  Rotten Tomatoes score: 17%

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