10 Movie Franchises That Started Off Great But Didn’t End Great

10 Movie Franchises That Started Off Great But Didn’t End Great

There’s been some fantastic movie franchises for years now. Some franchises are great with multiple fantastic entries, and others might only have one great entry. But there’s also some that started off great but by the time we got the latest film, it lost so much of the charm of the original. So here’s 10 movie franchises that I believe started off strong but ended not so strong. 

• Jaws: The original 1975 blockbuster, Jaws directed by Steven Spielberg is one of the greatest movies ever made. It defined what a blockbuster was and helped pave the way for the modern era of cinema. It printed money for the studio, I believe at the time of release was the highest grossing movie of all time. Naturally, when a movie makes a ton of money, the studio wants more. The inherent nature of it is a standalone adventure with a shark attacking people during the 4th of July weekend. It’s not immediately obvious what a sequel to Jaws is. Jaws 2 is a perfectly fine followup to the original. It doesn’t embarrass itself or feel like a disgrace to Spielberg’s classic. But it also functions as a soft-remake of the original and doing everything that the original did, but to much less success and without the magic of the original. Jaws 3-D is like the “guilty pleasure” movie of the franchise. It takes place at Sea World so it has a little bit of a Jurassic Park vibe to it, very different movies and not nearly as good. It’s stupid, but there is some fun to be had with that movie. You do have some solid actors in there Dennis Quaid, Louis Gossett Jr, and Lea Thompson so it’s a memorable cast. Jaws: The Revenge is truly one of the worst sequels and movies ever made. It’s a film that has a ludicrous plot and 100% feels like it was made purely to make money. What’s strange about it is they got Michael Caine to be in this movie. He’s giving a very typical Michael Caine performance, like he doesn’t know that he’s acting in a bad movie. It’s a perfect example of a franchise that literally got worse with every single entry.  

• Indiana Jones: This month, Raiders of the Lost Ark turns 45 years old and I might be able to see that movie on the big screen later this month. I love Raiders of the Lost Ark, that is one of my favorite movies of all time. It solidified Harrison Ford as a movie star, it’s probably his best movie. Temple of Doom is a tad polarizing as some people love and think it’s the best Indiana Jones movie, or they don’t like it. For me, Temple of Doom is the best Indiana Jones sequel we’ve gotten. That trilogy ended with The Last Crusade, which is a fantastic sequel that wonderfully brings in Sean Connery to play Indiana Jones’ father, it’s great casting and adds a great dynamic to this movie. From there, the later two Indiana Jones movies have struggled to capture the magic of the original films. Why is that? Well, I think both Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Dial of Destiny picked the wrong direction to take the franchise and the character. There’s supernatural and sci-fi elements in the Indiana Jones films, but the original trilogy still felt grounded in a certain sense. With the later two films, they went too far and went over the top with introducing aliens and time travel, which is such a weird idea. Beyond that, Dial of Destiny was a big misstep as nobody wants to see Indiana Jones as a grumpy old man, it loses the adventurer of the character that made him iconic in the first place. Also, James Mangold directed that film, not Spielberg. Mangold isn’t a bad director, but he’s not Spielberg and I think you could see that with this movie. Overall, I don’t think four and five are terrible movies, but they lose so much of the charm and appeal of what made Indiana Jones great and iconic in that original trilogy. 

• Die Hard: Die Hard is surprisingly a fairly consistent movie franchise. Of course, the 1988 original is a fantastic movie. It’s a fantastic action movie that’s rightfully deemed as a classic. It propelled both Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman to the A-list, and these are two of their most iconic characters. Like Jaws, it’s a self-contained story where it’s not immediately obvious what a sequel to that film would be. Like Jaws 2, Die Hard 2 follows the format and formula of the original, except Die Hard 2 is a much better film. I think it does strain some credibility with how the plot mechanics of it work, but overall a solid film. Die Hard With a Vengeance is widely regarded as the best Die Hard sequel with some even claiming that it’s better than the original. I know that Live Free and Die Hard has its critics with many saying they went too far, and has a Fast and Furious vibe. Maybe so, but I’ve always dug that movie and think it’s a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the franchise ended on a bad note with A Good Day to Die Hard. I don’t think the film is as bad as some people make it out to be. I think there’s still some fun to be had with that film, but it’s easily the weakest of the Die Hard franchise. One of the biggest dropoffs from a franchise’s first film to the last film of all time. Introducing Jai Courtney as John McClane’s son, I think was just a bad idea because his son is so unlikable and talkies down to McClane when no Die Hard fans want that. Overall, 80% of the franchise I’d give a positive review too. 20% I would be negative on, that being the last film that’s far from great. 

• Home Alone: One of the few Christmas franchises out there, and a franchise that people don’t realize went on after Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. That’s just how big of a downfall there was from Home Alone 2: Lost in New York onward. The first two Home Alone movies directed by Chris Columbus and starring Macaulay Culkin are classic and iconic Christmas movies that families have loved watching for 36 years now. After that, the franchise gets a bit rough and lacks so much of the magic of the first two films. Home Alone 3, isn’t terrible. Of the non-Columbus directed films, that's easily the best. Does it have its flaws? Absolutely, but the kid is charming enough and the franchise doesn’t feel like it jumped the shark. What’s fun about that movie is you have Scarlett Johansson playing the older sister. There’s a fun novelty in seeing a 12 year old Scarlett Johansson in the movie. Yikes, the fourth through sixth films are pretty dreadful to get through. Four and five are some of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. They took the franchise in all of the wrong directions and came up with plots that are so bad it’s shocking to me that nobody from the studio stopped them from making those movies. They did a Disney+ original film in 2021, that’s more redeemable but still has all of the issues of the previous two films. You get to great Christmas classics released in 1990 and 1992, and then from there it’s just mediocre to terrible movies. 

• The Matrix: This franchise and the next one I’m going to talk about are examples of franchises that it’s shocking just how disappointing the sequels were. What I mean by that is, the 1999 film established this world of the Matrix with this war, conflict, and mythology that easily can be elaborated on in the sequels. And unfortunately, the Wachowskis didn’t know a good way to continue the sequels. So they created multiple sequels that are big disappointments and none of them were the movies the fans wanted. I seem to like The Matrix Resurrections more than most people, I still don’t think it’s great and it has its issues. I think it’s easily the best Matrix film since the original. It has some interesting ideas and actors that I like seeing in a Matrix movie. The Matrix Reloaded and Revelations are not good sequels that totally deconstruct the mythology and have plots that make absolutely no sense and are so confusing when it doesn’t have to be. The original film is famous for being so groundbreaking with the CGI and technology and either the second or third one has some terrible CGI, in particular with a Neo vs Agent Smith fight. Apparently, Drew Goddard is rebooting the Matrix or doing a fifth film, I think a new creative voice is exactly what this franchise needs. 

• Pirates of the Caribbean: Both this franchise and The Matrix, are some of the best examples of the utter confusion I have as to why we haven’t gotten a great sequel. Because this is a world filled with pirates and adventure and it seems like we should have multiple great sequels. Unfortunately, none of the sequels to this film have been able to live up to the original film. I find The Curse of the Black Pearl to be one of the greatest blockbusters of all time. It’s so much fun with so many great sequences, quotes, and characters that made people fall in love with this franchise. Jack Sparrow is an icon of the 21st century of cinema, where Johnny Depp is beloved in this role. From there, the other sequels have failed to capture the magic of the original. I will say that, Gore Verbinski’s sequels, Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End have some of the magic. The CGI in those movies have aged very well and are some of the most celebrated CGI of all time. But those films I think went too ambitious where they brought back characters that didn’t make any sense. After Verbinski, Orlando Bloom, and Kiera Knightley left the franchise, that’s when most people I think totally lost faith in the franchise. On Stranger Tides and Dead Men Tell No Tales just completely went in all of the wrong directions with the franchise. They promoted Jack Sparrow to the lead when it made no sense and lost so much of the charm, because you don’t want Jack Sparrow to grow and change. The Rotten Tomato scores for every film since the original has gone down. So the latest one has like a 29%, which is a bad score. This is easily one of the best examples to put on this franchise. 

• Taken: The ultimate Liam Neeson action franchise that changed the trajectory of his career. Ever since Taken came out in 2008, he has just been cranking these films out and I haven’t seen any of them. But, it all started with Taken which is just a great action movie. It’s a very stupid but also a very relatable concept of, this dad’s daughter gets taken so he has to step into action in order to save her. Personally, I’m not a dad so I don’t have the relatability to this franchise. But there’s that thinking of if somebody we love gets taken, can we step into action to save them? The first one is by no means one of the greatest action movies of all time. But if you want 90 minutes of Liam Neeson beating evil people up, this movie delivers that. The two sequels however, are a great example of sequels that didn’t need to happen because it’s not obvious what a sequel is. You can’t just do the sequel this time Liam Neeson’s niece gets captured, you can’t do that. So they switch the formula where now the daughter has to save Liam Neeson. That movie is fine, it’s an inoffensive sequel that has fun moments, but overall isn’t great. Taken 3 is a mix of a bad idea, a predictable twist, and terrible action that’s so overly edited that it's so hard to see what’s going on. The original 2008 film is a fun movie, nothing else in the franchise is great. 

• The Conjuring: This applies to both the mainline Conjuring films as well as the Conjuring franchise as a whole. Either way you want to look at it, the original Conjuring as well as Conjuring 2, are great horror films, some of the best horror films of the 2010s. I think Annabelle Comes Home, the third Annabelle film, is easily the best film of the trilogy. I like The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, a good bit and I don’t get the hate it gets. Everything else besides that ranges from good enough to outright bad movies. Both of The Nun movies are so bland and boring, there’s nothing interesting about them in terms of the scares, characters, or plot to keep you engaged. The fact that we’re likely never going to get a third Nun film is totally fine with me, because I don’t care about it at all. Last year, we got The Conjuring: Last Rites that was designed to close out Ed and Lorraine Warren’s story, and I thought it was fine. It didn’t really do anything that offended me, but it also didn’t do anything that wowed me. As I said at the beginning, I think The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2 are great horror movies from James Wan, a great horror director. Everything else in the franchise is pretty uneven. 

• Ant-Man: The only MCU representation on this list. This is one where everything that made the 2015 film great, with being a small scale MCU adventure that’s a heist movie in the MCU was completely lost by Quantumania. The 2015 film has such a distinct vibe compared to the rest of the MCU, it’s not trying to be the biggest or the best comic book movie of all time and that’s what’s fun about it. You’re enjoying this adventure with great characters played by fun actors like Paul Rudd. I actually even like Ant-Man and the Wasp. I know a lot of people don’t like that movie because it feels inconsequential to the MCU, but that’s kind of what I like about it. You get to Quantumania, and that film feels like MCU, the movie that feels like a B-grade Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Instead of that film feeling like its own thing set in the MCU, it feels like something else we already have in the MCU except not as good. That film fell victim to being the corporate machine that is Disney, so there were multiple reworkings and reshoots that took place with that film, that made it this generic slop that nobody was particularly happy with. It’s frustrating because I think had the third Ant-Man film been more in line with the original two movies, of being a smaller scale adventure then the Ant-Man trilogy could’ve been one of the best MCU trilogies because it’s consistent in terms of quality and fun. But Quantumania I think really drags the trilogy down for me a good bit. 

• Star Wars Sequel Trilogy: Given how polarizing the Star Wars franchise is, there’s going to be people that agree with me on this statement and others that disagree with me on this. I rewatched all of the sequels in preparation for The Mandalorian & Grogu, so I now have fresh thoughts on this franchise. I still stand that The Force Awakens is a great Star Wars movie. I’ve always really dug that movie and despite the trilogy ending rather poorly with The Rise of Skywalker, that is a great movie that’s fun and I like JJ Abrams as a director. When his movies hit, I think he makes fun roller coaster rides that constantly entertain the audience. I like The Last Jedi, I don’t think it’s great but I would go positive on it. But it’s also a film that makes some really stupid decisions that I think led to the ultimate downfall of the trilogy. With so many years removed from this trilogy, you can see all of the issues that prove that Disney had no plan for this trilogy. They didn’t map out anything and you can tell by the time you get to The Rise of Skywalker that they were just making things up as they went along. It’s crazy that this trilogy started off with a film that reunited the Star Wars fanbase and made $2 billion and ended with a film that really broke the Star Wars fanbase and it hasn’t recovered since then.