On top of both being enjoyed by fans and critics alike, the two films were created using incredibly similar recipes. Where the gritty reboot is concerned, the trend saw its pinnacle in 20 with Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins and Martin Campbell’s Casino Royale. These films created a high-water mark for the trend and brought a Hollywood shorthand into the mainstream consciousness.
In the mid 2000s, two of cinema’s biggest franchises reinvented themselves at the same time-Batman and Bond. Even something that’s become a tired cliché had, in its past, a window of actually invigorating creativity. But like every trend worth its salt, the “gritty reboot” had to be a good idea at least a few times.
For a while it was something we came to expect, from Superman to Snow White.
