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Best Reboot Movies

Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of reboot cinema — measured across 1,488 indexed frames from 21 films, against a 404,689-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.

Reboot films over-index on mask, teeth and backpack — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.

  1. 1

    Spider Man: Homecoming (2017)

    Jon WattsDP Salvatore TotinoIMDb 7.4TMDB 7.3See in full on FrameThrower →

    A young Peter Parker/Spider-Man begins to navigate his newfound identity as web-slinging superhero Spider-Man. Thrilled by his experience with the Avengers, Peter returns home, where he lives with his Aunt May, under the watchful eye of his new mentor Tony Stark. Peter tries to fall back into his normal daily routine--distracted by thoughts of proving himself to be more than just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man--but when the Vulture emerges as a new villain, everything that Peter holds most important will be threatened.

  2. 2

    The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

    Marc WebbDP John SchwartzmanIMDb 6.9TMDB 6.7See in full on FrameThrower →

    Peter Parker (Garfield) is an outcast high schooler who was abandoned by his parents as a boy, leaving him to be raised by his Uncle Ben (Sheen) and Aunt May (Field). Like most teenagers, Peter is trying to figure out who he is and how he got to be the person he is today. Peter is also finding his way with his first high school crush, Gwen Stacy (Stone), and together, they struggle with love, commitment, and secrets. As Peter discovers a mysterious briefcase that belonged to his father, he begins a quest to understand his parents' disappearance - leading him directly to Oscorp and the lab of Dr. Curt Connors (Ifans), his father's former partner. As Spider-Man is set on a collision course with Connors' alter-ego, The Lizard, Peter will make life-altering choices to use his powers and shape his destiny to become a hero.

  3. 3

    Evil Dead Rise (2023)

    Lee CroninDP Dave GarbettIMDb 6.5TMDB 6.9See in full on FrameThrower →

    A twisted tale of two estranged sisters whose reunion is cut short by the rise of flesh-possessing demons, thrusting them into a primal battle for survival as they face the most nightmarish version of family imaginable.

  4. 4

    Halloween (2007)

    Rob ZombieDP Phil ParmetIMDb 6.1TMDB 6.2See in full on FrameThrower →

    The residents of Haddonfield don't know it yet... but death is coming to their small sleepy town. Sixteen years ago, a ten year old boy called Michael Myers brutally kills his step father, his elder sister and her boyfriend. Sixteen years later, he escapes from the mental institution and makes his way back to his hometown intent on a murderous rampage pursued by Dr Sam Loomis who is Michael's doctor and the only one who knows Michael's true evil. Elsewhere a shy teenager by the name of Laurie Strode is babysitting on the night Michael comes home... is it pure coincidence that she and her friends are being stalked by him?

  5. 5

    Ghostbusters (2016)

    Paul FeigDP Robert D. YeomanIMDb 6.8TMDB 5.3See in full on FrameThrower →

    Paranormal researcher Abby Yates and physicist Erin Gilbert are trying to prove that ghosts exist in modern society. When strange apparitions appear in Manhattan, Gilbert and Yates turn to engineer Jillian Holtzmann for help. Also joining the team is Patty Tolan, a lifelong New Yorker who knows the city inside and out. Armed with proton packs and plenty of attitude, the four women prepare for an epic battle as more than 1,000 mischievous ghouls descend on Times Square.

  6. 6

    Godzilla Minus One (2023)

    Takashi YamazakiDP Kōzō ShibazakiIMDb 7.7TMDB 7.6See in full on FrameThrower →

    In postwar Japan, Godzilla brings new devastation to an already scorched landscape. With no military intervention or government help in sight, the survivors must join together in the face of despair and fight back against an unrelenting horror.

  7. 7

    Tomb Raider (2018)

    Roar UthaugDP George RichmondIMDb 6.3TMDB 6.4See in full on FrameThrower →

    Lara Croft (Alicia Vikander) is the fiercely independent daughter of eccentric adventurer Lord Richard Croft (Dominic West), who vanished when she was scarcely a teen. Now a young woman of twenty-one without any real focus or purpose, Lara navigates the chaotic streets of trendy East London as a bike courier, barely making the rent, and takes college courses, rarely making it to class. Determined to forge her own path, she refuses to take the reins of her father's global empire just as staunchly as she rejects the idea that he's truly gone. Advised to face the facts and move forward after seven years without him, even Lara can't understand what drives her to finally solve the puzzle of his mysterious death. Going explicitly against his final wishes, she leaves everything she knows behind in search of her dad's last-known destination: a fabled tomb on a mythical island that might be somewhere off the coast of Japan. But her mission will not be an easy one; just reaching the island will be extremely treacherous. Suddenly, the stakes couldn't be higher for Lara, who, against the odds and armed with only her sharp mind, blind faith, and inherently stubborn spirit, must learn to push herself beyond her limits as she journeys into the unknown. If she survives this perilous adventure, it could be the making of her, earning her the name "tomb raider".

  8. 8

    Man Of Steel (2013)

    Zack SnyderDP Amir MokriIMDb 7.1TMDB 6.6See in full on FrameThrower →

    A young boy learns that he has extraordinary powers and is not of this Earth. As a young man, he journeys to discover where he came from and what he was sent here to do. But the hero in him must now emerge if he is to save the world from annihilation and become the symbol of hope for all mankind.

  9. 9

    Mortal Kombat (2021)

    Simon McQuoidDP Germain McMickingIMDb 6.1TMDB 7.0See in full on FrameThrower →

    MMA fighter Cole Young (Lewis Tan), accustomed to taking a beating for money, is unaware of his heritage-or why Outworld's Emperor Shang Tsung (Chin Han) has sent his best warrior, Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim), an otherworldly Cryomancer, to hunt Cole down. Fearing for his family's safety, Cole goes in search of Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) at the direction of Jax (Mehcad Brooks), a Special Forces Major who bears the same strange dragon marking Cole was born with. Soon, he finds himself at the temple of Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano), an Elder God and the protector of Earthrealm, who grants sanctuary to those who bear the mark. Here, Cole trains with experienced warriors Liu Kang (Ludi Lin), Kung Lao (Max Huang) and rogue mercenary Kano (Josh Lawson), as he prepares to stand with Earth's greatest champions against the enemies of Outworld in a high stakes battle for the universe. But will Cole be pushed hard enough to unlock his arcana-the immense power from within his soul-in time to save not only his family but to stop Outworld once and for all?

  10. 10

    Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017)

    Kelly AsburyIMDb 6.0TMDB 6.4See in full on FrameThrower →

    In this fully animated, all-new take on the Smurfs, a mysterious map sets Smurfette and her best friends Brainy, Clumsy, and Hefty on an exciting and thrilling race, through the Forbidden Forest, filled with magical creatures to find a mysterious lost village before the evil wizard Gargamel does. Embarking on a roller-coaster journey full of action and danger, the Smurfs are on a course that leads to the discovery of the biggest secret in Smurf history!

What reboot films are made of

How much more often each element appears in a reboot frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — mask is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.

  • mask6.3×
  • teeth2.9×
  • backpack2.7×
  • debris2.7×
  • smoke2.3×
  • concrete wall1.9×
  • blood1.9×
  • person1.8×

How reboot films are shot

Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate reboot from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.

  • 13%low anglevs 5% baseline
  • 25%widevs 20% baseline
  • 49%low keyvs 39% baseline

What breaks the pattern

The Naked Gun (2025) is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.

Method

Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 1,488 frames from 21 films carrying the reboot label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (404,689 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.

Machine-readable: /api/list/reboot

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These are real movie frames, shown at reduced resolution. All rights remain with their respective owners; they appear here for study, commentary and education under fair-use principles. How these are meant to be used