Three different types of reboot

Movie directors approach “rebooting” a film franchise in different ways.

There is the prequel, which often lays out the history of a beloved property prior to the point where the saga began many years before. Regretfully, those usually only score big for the original movie homers (see “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace” and try to forget all things Jar-Jar).

Conversely, there is also the sequel for those times when director or a studio thinks it would be a good idea to start the adventure again in “real time.” That’s what happened with “Superman Returns,” which ended up being everyone’s kryponite.

The most popular approach, however, may be the scratch model, or “starting over from scratch.” Take another angle, learn from the previous defects, and become a fan of the story first. Look at Christopher Nolan and “Batman,” J.J. Abrams and “Star Trek,” the latest iteration of Spider-Man, or even the Daniel Craig versions of 007.

People love these inventive takes on a story they all know because they are judging it along with the original the entire time they are gawking at the big screen. The latest scratch model is “Mad Max: Fury Road.”