The days of Hollywood attempting a new original IP for its summer blockbusters are long gone, preferring instead to bask in the excitement, buzz and general clamor for sequels, franchises and spin-offs. That doesn’t always bode well in terms of quality, so here are five franchises that have overstayed their welcome life…
The Matrix
Let me start by saying that the first of the four main films was a groundbreaking sci-fi film, with its influence on the genre still felt today, each making their own take on bullet time, fast-paced, frenetic action. martial arts and more. However, that’s where it stops, the second and third were parodies of their predecessor, simply trying to do too much at once, and trying to increase the scope of the story to a ridiculous extent.
Related: The Matrix Trilogy: Brilliant Details You Only Realize On A Rewatch
The most recent entry The Matrix Resurrections seemed as much a warning letter to Hollywood with its meta-commentary about being forced to make an unnecessary sequel, as it seemed intent on burning the principles of the world in the previous films.
Pirates of the Caribbean
Certainly an obvious entry in this list of five franchises that have overstayed their welcome, and with a recently announced spin-off focusing on a new character played by Hollywood’s go-to woman in Margot Robbie, we’ll delve into the Pirates franchise a times Continued. Hopefully, this latest entry will be considerably better than the last two we’ve seen, and unless it’s absolutely spectacular, I doubt it’ll come close to the first in any way.
Related: New Pirates Of The Caribbean Movie For Star Margot Robbie
The Hangover
A regular theme at this point, the first of the three films was a genuinely funny romp surrounding four men on a stag weekend, and the aftermath of a night of intense drunkenness where they manage to lose the groom. The next two, however, might as well have shouted “we don’t have a new story, we just want your money, because neither of them brought anything new to the table”. Luckily, this franchise stopped at three, unlike the others listed here.
Jaws
Credited with creating the shark-hating frenzy of the past fifty years, the original Jaws was a masterpiece at building tension while only showing glimpses of the villain, something more recent creature features have overlooked. However, when you compare the former to the later Jaws movie, it’s abundantly clear that the fourth was a cash grab, made by people who didn’t understand or perhaps even care about the principles of the former. Michael Caine came out and said he hadn’t seen the movie and wouldn’t, but was happy to see his paycheck. When the stars say something like that, you know the franchise-ending movie is seriously mediocre.
Transformers
Every movie in the franchise other than the first should never have graced theaters, and some wouldn’t even deserve the straight-to-DVD treatment. The first movie is a good mix of gigantic talking robots from an alien planet fighting other gigantic talking robots, human story with heart and humor, and really good story beats. The others seem to focus on nothing but explosions, guns, gritty robots saying threatening things and other outbursts. The former won no Oscars, but at least it’s a somewhat understandable piece of cinema that ticks the right boxes…the rest…well, that’s why this franchise is included in a list of five franchises that have surpassed their welcome…
I’m sure we could add twenty more entries to this list before we even started battling for entries on these five franchises that have passed their shelf life, so what else would you have added?
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