6 Beloved Movie Franchises That Have Mostly Sucked

Studios love a strong franchise that can make them billions of dollars. For fans, it means they get more movies with characters they are devoted towards or a universe they are invested in to watch develop further. Plenty of these series churn out quality film after quality film, but many get new entries despite being terrible. These movies should have called it quits or go back to what made them special in the first place if the executives want to save it for the sake of the fans, even though we know they don’t care about us.

#6: Friday the 13th

Horror gets more sequels than any other genre due to its power of making tons of money on low budgets. While it may seem like a great idea to see your favorite monster or killer again, many times it ends up going too ridiculous or redundant with its ideas.

The Friday the 13th series is one of the biggest culprits by losing any creativity after a couple of films. The first two were groundbreaking for the time, but soon became an overly absurd franchise full of the same ideas with some new scenarios and ways for Jason to kill horny teens. Once you are sending your psychopathic, undead killer into space, hell, and fighting another antagonist from a different franchise, it is time to call it quits.

#5: Alien

The cosmic horror franchise has gone downhill after two movies. The original being a horrific standoff between a crew and an unknown alien entity while its sequel blends the genre with an action twist. Like many before and after the Alien movies, it loses sight to what made the originals special.

Losing its social commentary definitely hurt the films, but mostly its self-destruction of the lore that fans fell in love with in the very beginning. Prometheus and Alien: Covenant tore apart the universe that was built that tarnishes the legacy of their predecessors.

#4: X-Men

Finding a more convoluted franchise than X-Men would be a challenging task. Full of inconsistent powers from iconic heroes and villains along with stories that don’t tie together well. Things got so bad, they needed a film to redo the damage with Days of Future Past, which was well received by fans and critics. Then after those repairs, one of the most beloved stories from the comics was butchered with Apocalypse.

Plenty of positives can be found here with X-Men. The brilliant casting with Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Michael Fassbender, and plenty more stars help brighten up even the darkest of times these heroes had to face with poorly made films. A few entries were excellent, especially the non-canon Logan.

Thankfully, we could see a streak of excellence from everyone’s favorite mutants once the Fox and Disney acquisition goes through. The day the Avengers and X-Men meet will be a glorious one for the superhero fandom.

#3: Jurassic Park

Fans tend to have mixed feelings about the later films, but the 1993 original reigns as the king. After one movie, everything started to decline. The main downfall is the repetition of its storyline. Dinosaurs breakout that ties together usually with some corporate agenda that leads to all of the chaos. After the disastrous response to Fallen Kingdom, things could turn even more grim for Chris Pratt and his raptor friends.

#2: Terminator 

Another franchise that holds two excellent, but different movies while crumbling under its own premise and messy world building. The first two Terminator movies dominate with the second usually gets held as even greater than the original. Sadly, the narrative came crashing down as time travel stories can succumb to if the focus gets lost. Since Genisys, it looks like robot Schwarzenegger might be doomed.

James Cameron now has his power over the franchise which could result in a revival that could satisfy fans. Cameron does have his hands full with the many Avatar sequels he is planning, so hopefully, all goes well to restore Terminator to its former glory that it held decades ago.

#1: Pirates of the Caribbean 

Based on a ride at Disneyland, these pirate adventures slowly declined in quality with each release. I do enjoy the first three even considering their blatant issues, but the last two were brutal to sit through, especially the 2017 entry. The stories get more absurd and utterly stupid. All that needs to be said is Jack Sparrow’s (Johnny Depp) origin on how he got his name from Dead Men Tell No Tales proves how bad this franchise has gotten.

What movies do you think have gone downhill as more sequel got thrown out into the world? How do you feel about my list? Discuss what you are thinking in the comments below.

Image via Warner Bros. Pictures/Columbia Pictures