We live in the age of the franchise. Movies aren’t just a one-off anymore, if they make money, they need to make a sequel, or a prequel, or a soft reboot. Some franchises just drag on and on and should have given up long ago.
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Here are some examples. I am dealing mostly with the movies, I know there have been TV series of some of the following, but I haven’t really mentioned them. This is also part one, since there will be another in this series.
ALIEN
The original Alien was a huge hit and still stands up today as one of the best horror/sci-fi movies ever made. Then James Cameron gave us Aliens, again, one of the best sequels of all time and again, still stands the test of time.
Someone thought it was a good idea to make Alien 3, however, it was not a good idea. The third one was a mess, producers took over and played around with the movie so much, David Fincher didn’t like it on his CV for a while.
Then came Alien Resurrection, then Prometheus and Covenant. All of which should never have existed.
Alien should have finished at Aliens
TERMINATOR
James Cameron again gave us The Terminator, where a robot is sent back in time to kill the future leader of the human resistance. It had a great story, Arnie and state-of-the-art special effects. Then came Terminator 2: Judgement Day, again, great story, new special effects technology with the T-1000 and a great overall movie.
Then we had Terminator 3, which had a female terminator, a new John Connor and Claire Danes. A very forgettable movie. This wasn’t the last one, however, since we then had Terminator Salvation, the one with Christain Bale having a hissy fit on set. Then Terminator Genisys and Dark Fate, which was terrible and messed with the entire timeline.
Terminator should have finished at Terminator 2
THE MCU
From Ironman to Endgame, you had an incredible achievement. A set of 23 movies, with different casts, directors and stories, all tie up nicely in the last two movies. Infinity Wars left us on the edge of our seats and Endgame, was again, a perfect end to the series.
Phase 4 of Marvel has been forgettable, lacklustre and just boring. Did anyone watch The Eternals twice?
The MCU ended with Endgame
FAST AND FURIOUS
This is an odd one since the franchise should have stopped long ago, but the movies are still stupid fun. I can’t help it, but I’m a sucker for them. The first one was about a gang stealing CD and VHS players, but then we had cars taking on a submarine and even a car in space. It’s hard to say where this franchise should have stopped though.
F&F: Toyko Drift maybe, since this one went way off track and had nothing to do with Dom and the rest of the fambly. Although, F&F5 was a good one, where they stole the safes in Brazil. 6 had the giant plane at the end. 7 was a nice send-off for Paul “I needed a stunt driver” Walker. 8 had the submarine and 9 was in space, I think. Goodness knows how they will top it in 10, time travel?
Fast & Furious should have stopped someone around F&F5
INDIANA JONES
Even though the order of the Indiana Jones movie is wrong, since Temple of Doom happened before Raiders of the Lost Ark, the trilogy had a perfect ending. You had Indy and dad save the day, all was good and they literally rode off in the sunset. Perfect.
Then came Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It had a bad story, worse special effects and just wasn’t needed as a movie. We’re all on tenterhooks to find out what 5 will be like.
Indiana Jones ended at The Last Crusade
STAR WARS
The original trilogy ended it all perfectly on Endor. Vader had redeemed himself, Luke had saved his father and destroyed the Emporer and ghost force SEBASTIAN SHAW joined up with Obi-Wan and Yoda.
However, then came the prequels, which was still the story of Anakin Skywalker. The movies are mildly entertaining, but they were not good movies. The writing was bad, the dialogue was awful and it deconstructed the Force. It should have ended on Endor.
Then Disney took over and no, just no to all of the movies. The Sequel Trilogy was a travesty, replacing a wimpy Luke with a much better wayman, Mary Poppins Leia and “somehow” Palpatine came back. In fact, the entire Skywalker saga was wiped out since Rey is a Palpatine, who just identifies as a Skywalker.
Star Wars ended with Return of the Jedi, with the prequels not really needed
SCREAM
The original Scream was a clever story, it went meta and had fun kills to enjoy. The second one carried it on, but then from 3 onwards have been just dragging on.
The new Scream 5 & 6 are soft reboots, which now means, you don’t need to be about Syndey, it’s just about who killed who and who blames who. They will never stop.
Scream should have finished after the first one, maybe the second one
HALLOWEEN
The first of the Halloween movies was a classic, simple but effective. The second one carried on the story but was pretty forgettable. The third one took a completely different turn and, if you took the name Halloween off it, is a solid horror movie.
Then it started to drag out, with 5. 6 and up to 13 now I think. You had a couple of spin-offs by Rob Zombie. Then the last one actually saw Michael die, but we all know he’ll be back.
Halloween should have finished with the first one
This is the first part talking about franchises, so I know there are lots I haven’t mentioned yet, they will be discussed at a later point.
Am I right in the above though? You’ll notice some say ‘should have finished’ others stated ‘it ended with…’. Should some of them carried on?
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