Over the last few years, Hollywood has indulged in the reboot, an attempt to revitalize a waning franchise in order to reinvigorate the fanbase and potentially reach greater financial prosperity.

Defining a reboot is rather tricky in the modern landscape. One could point to films that completely move away from predecessors, essentially establishing their own storylines as canon. On the other hand, prequels have become a part of the reboot mentality with the "Star Wars" movies followed by "X-Men" movies and even "Prometheus." Both categories of films seek to create their own origins for characters, thus establishing their own autonomy within the brand name.

While there are certainly examples of successes in both examples (Christopher Nolan's Batman movies and the X-Men films), these kinds of films often struggle with audiences and critics alike.

The latest "Fantastic Four" film seems to be the latest example of a poorly received reboot. Early reviews for the film are claiming that it is little more than a "teaser" that never gets going because it spends too much time recounting the characters' origins.

Therein lies the main issue. The first set of Fantastic Four movies already gave characters an origin story, the latest in a long line of previous such narratives in the franchise. To throw another one into the mix, one that matches the formula and structure of other such versions of the same story, presents audiences with little of interest in the grand scale. It does not help that the new film's origin story cannot even disassociate itself from the general genre cliché -- an experiment gone wrong.

Whereas early origin stories created a sense of splendor at the idea of superheroes being Frankenstein monsters that come to terms with their power, newer iterations have tired out the theme, offering little in developing the idea. Most of the time, the monsters never turn into monsters, their power being only used for good. In the wake of more complex explorations of heroism and greater power (Nolan's Batman films and even "Spider-Man 2" or "Iron Man"), this black and white approach to reboots simply does not help.

The issue here is the studios. When Sony created "Spider-Man 3," it took control over the narrative away from director Sam Raimi, cramming the film with more characters than it could handle. The result? Poor critical reception and the lowest gross in the franchise.

The studio opted for moving in its own direction, rebooting the franchise with a new cast. The first big mistake was to tell the story yet again from square one, recounting the same beats that the first "Spider-Man" film had told while ultimately telling a story in broader strokes than the more complex direction Raimi had hinted at in the second film of his trilogy.

When that film had a modest box office intake, the studio opted for a bigger Spider-Man that nonetheless followed in the footsteps of "Spider-Man 3," including three villains yet again. The result? Poor reviews and another sub-par box office. From there it was a total annihilation of its reboot series, giving Disney the reigns of the character. It seems that Disney has opted for forgoing the origin story, knowing full well that it is already legend and thus unnecessary to tell.

Twentieth Century Fox did not learn Sony's lesson first hand and has opted for making the same mistake with a reboot of "Fantastic Four." Instead of challenging the status quo, the company has opted for a film featuring similar beats to previous iterations, stripping the product of its originality and surprise. Neither of the original "Fantastic Four" movies made over $200 million at the box office (the "Spider-Man" reboot topped $200 million) and the 2007 sequel "Rise of the Silver Surfer" grossed less money than the 2005 franchise initiator. The poor reception for the new film might just indicate that the franchise, which has failed to adapt or change its strategy eight years later, could be headed down the path of ignominy after just one reboot.